Penny Hardaway Goes Sneaker Shopping With Complex

foreigner What's wrong everyone? I'm Joe from the

complex

. We're in Memphis at a bad time with University of Memphis basketball coach and NBA legend Penny Hardaway. Welcome to Memphis. Thank you so much. Man, I'll be doing some

sneaker

shopping

today to see what feels and what doesn't. and then, hopefully, he'll buy some

sneaker

s. I think I'll go, Penny. I want to remember when you started playing in the NBA. Some previous models you had the Air Flight One and the Air Go LWP, but this was like when. Were you preparing to sign with Nike or as if you had just signed.

What happens with those models before these signings? Those models laid the foundation. Yeah, you know, I love those sneakers. In fact, I need to get them again. Yes, but they said they laid the foundation for the business. the rest of the sneaker series and then did you hear the rumors? I think I'm going to get a signature, what it was like at the time, because my place started to pick up, that it was going to be an exclusive shoe and then When we went to Portland, Oregon, to meet, yeah, I saw it come into play and I thought: "Wow, I'm actually going to buy my own sneakers when I go out to Portland." I could not believe it.

I kept thanking God for the opportunity, yes my dreams were coming true because you would actually meet the sneaker guys, the designer sneaker just for you with my logo on it, so I was super geeky and then another thing I I love it's like before you were getting These PES you had some classics, do you absolutely remember these Jordan Nine PES in colors like the magic ones, that's how it was before the signature shoe where you're like, hey, I want like Jordan Nines, they just channeled them to you or what? , Yeah? they were just funneling them to me because you know obviously MJ wasn't in the league at the time and uh he hadn't done his match yet so I was there representing him too yeah and then a shoe that ended up PE ended up like in a consignment store in New York you saved it yeah you saved any of these I didn't save any of those No man that's a mistake on my part okay I didn't save any of those those were those though They were sweet. and then you know I want to get to the ones and twos, what was it like when you were holding your first shoe, you went to Portland, you took the design and now, like the shoe was actually created, what was that like, yeah, just Remember, man this is an amazing shoe because all I wanted was to have a shoe that you could wear on and off the court.

Yeah, you know, I thought that was really important and when I saw that one, yeah. I love the wing on the side and it was sleek, so to me I was like, man, this is the cool sneaker, yeah, and then the two go on, you know, some people are like, oh, sophomore, that drop, those two models and everything is difficult, but people love them both. Likewise, yeah, two, I mean, honestly, they made it even better because you know, the second sneaker let me know that I did something right on the first one so they wanted to do two and I didn't.

It didn't disappoint me. everything was a different style, obviously, because it didn't have the brim, yes, but it was clean, yes, and that's all it needed was for it to be clean decades later, years later, you see the social status, James Whitner, you see estucy, these brands collaborate on these styles, what's it like to see the staying power of your signature shoes? It's unreal because being able to have collaborations with social status and students, yes, come on, that's history. I am part of foreign history. The story suits you. You're with Eric Avar, the designer, he has a bag and you look inside the bag and you see the Foamposite that was supposed to be made for Scottie Pippen, but he wears it and what happened.

I don't know if even many kids like it. I know that story, yeah, well you know they brought a lot of different sneakers, you know they usually have these makeups and I saw the sneaker there and I thought, what is this? and I thought: this is a phone break, oh, this is cool, I would do it. rock this they like it are you serious? I said yes and then the rest of this you said this is the shoe I want this is my next shoe it was so futuristic it wasn't a 90's shoe to me it was more in the future type of shot that hadn't been seen before, so I thought, "I'll shake them off." I know they were finding you because there wasn't enough black when you took the Sharpie, whose idea was that and something cool came out. for a DIY type of design, yeah, it was our equipment manager because he was saying, hey man, we don't have any, they put black electrical tape, they tried to put it on the seams at first, it didn't stick, oh okay, then we did the Sharpie . and then I think we started doing a Sharpie and the tape so just to let you know you couldn't find me with that shoe because the shoe was blue originally and then years later the Penny Pack with the Sharpie Nike made the Really Like Sharpie , which was like a nice coming full circle moment, another release we need to talk about.

You know, I've gotten a lot of shoes throughout my career and, you know, you post on Instagram like, oh, I just got these. a shoe I've been threatened for, like for not leaving the

complex

office with those Galaxy phones, oh man, the only shoe I've been threatened for for talking about those that are still a Grail and when those hit the crazy one, just i remembered the malls and the sneaker stores the boutiques that sold those shoes man the lines were ridiculous and people were actually fighting yeah a guy died over the shoes rest in peace seriously this is that one shoe that wreaked so much havoc, yes, for the Galaxy, and I only remember how.

It was crazy and then to a lesser extent Supreme made one and they couldn't release it in stores because it got too crazy. What was it like watching you collaborate over the phone? No, I love them. They both pair up and you know they're, you just know that design on them, uh, it was amazing, man, to be able to do all these collaborations with these great companies, absolutely, we're in Memphis, you know, we've been here for like a day and obviously in the city you see all the Marant jerseys and he is a guard who just received his exclusive shoe here.

What's it like to have so much Memphis Roots? You're still in town, obviously, the head coach of the University of Memphis. It's like watching John get his shoe and what he's going to do for Nike, meeting him personally and learning his story to see where he came from, as far as you know, we were identical paths, being from a less fortunate area and then being able to have your own sneaker. exclusive, I'm proud of it man, because not everyone has the opportunity to do that and, uh, the shoe is stylish and pretty, yeah, and you can wear them on and off the court, so they did a great job. work, one thing I love, like your sneaker catalog, it's like you put them pound for pound, like four, like five by five, six by six, you're like above, they compare to all the signature lines of the '90s and 2000, where are they? you like to put yours on you have such a good group of shoes that lasted the test of time yeah it's almost a man like a versus yeah you know what I mean and I feel like my sneaker line is as good as anyone's.

I respect Mike, that's my guy. Yes, but I will compare my shoes to anyone else's. I love it, like a pair of eights versus yeah, you're taking on anyone. Yes, let's do it. I will compare him with any foreign person. We mentioned Jordan in the last section. moment that really stands out Jordan is very competitive I think his kids have been like people would stay over if you didn't wear Jordan, he would say you had to take them off, but there was only one pair of shoes he wore. that wasn't his, the 1995 playoffs, what was it like for you to see that you were playing against him and to like wearing a shoe that you made popular?

Yeah, you know, it was weird because when I got into the game I didn't look at his feet until very late in the game and when I looked down I thought, "Wow, he got on the fly." I thought he was amazing and he did it like you got into your head. Did they talk about that? Like we never talked about it, okay, he just called Nike and said, "Send me some

penny

shoes, yeah, the shoes that he wears, I'll wear those really shocking ones, yeah, I'm honored by that because you know, MJ, It's so competitive that it won't do it." I don't know why he didn't use one of the older versions of him, yeah, but I'm absolutely honored that we were able to talk to ad campaigns, you know, in Memphis, we have a piece of history here, what is this guy?

Oh wow, what is this guy doing? It means to you little Penny, yeah little Penny it's everything 'cause it's my Alter Ego, the rubbish I wanted to talk about, yeah he talked before me, such a brilliant campaign and history says that, as you know, Chris Rock will put Penny here and here, Chris Rock. He wasn't even the first choice for The Voice Damon Wayans Martin Lawrence and because they wanted too much money or something, I think they were negotiating for too much money, they didn't, they didn't see the vision of a doll. Yeah, and Chris Rock absolutely and we had Chris Rock on the show and he was like depressed.

Penny came at the right time in my career. It was like he was off SNL. She was like on the couch just chilling and then I got this call. you want to voice this doll for this advertising campaign and he was like a dime. That whole moment brought me back into the game, it also put us on another level, but it put him in the game because he did a phenomenal job. the voiceovers in terms of all the ad campaigns that Nike has done on other brands where it was like you were replaying the era of little Penny.

I'm putting it at the top, yeah, Little Penny was comedy and it was action, so, yeah. I'll put a little

penny

on top and now you see you're the head coach of the University of Memphis, what does the team think of your signature line? Do you like my lines? Okay, they really match Susie's social status. They know the collaborations and obviously they love the phones and Nike does a great job sending them to our team and we talk about everything too. Now it's the easy part of looking at the browser shell that we're going to take home, but we might have a A little twist on uh you're going to buy sneakers today okay let's see and you know what I really want to give a full run of my sneaker line to a charity of our choice, what do you think about that?

I think that sounds cool, man, let's do it. Still, Penny stopped by, we go over the story, thanks so much for taking the time, man, thanks for inviting me to a great cause, a charity of your choice is getting a full-size edition of their signature sneaker, you know where to find it. from Memphis and also keeps you up to date with the one cent Foundation thanks again thanks for having me thanks