Dwyane Wade, Bleacher Report Partner on Special Collection
Dwyane Wade may be retiring at the end of the NBA season, but Bleacher Report is making sure his fans have some memorabilia to help send him off in style.
The sports media company and web site today will debut the D. Wade World Tour collection, an exclusive line of apparel designed to commemorate the basketball star’s career.
Related stories
Dwyane Wade Admits He Has a Sock Fetish
A. Sauvage to Launch Sportswear Collection After Moving Studio to L.A.
Amazon Celebrates Dwyane Wade 'Pop-up' Shop
The collection of T-shirts, long-sleeve shirts, hoodies and hats is intended to highlight major moments in Wade’s life and include images of him as a child as well as some of his career milestones printed on the back of the pieces to mimic concert tour merchandise.
Prices range from $30 for a Dad hat and $35 for a T-shirt, to $45 for a long-sleeve shirt and $75 for a hoodie.
The line will be promoted through an advertising and social media campaign by both Bleacher Report and Wade that will include a concert tour-style photo shoot with the Miami Heat player.
“I have been closely involved in every step of the design process of this very personal collection,” Wade said. “My fashion partnerships have always been an authentic reflection of who I am. It’s been a joy to look back at my career and incorporate very special moments into the design.”
Over the years Wade has been involved with Stance, a sock brand he has partnered with since 2013, as well as Dsquared2 and Tie Bar. In a presentation at Bloomberg last summer, he said he intends to create a lifestyle brand to capitalize on the fame he’s had on the court once his career is done. Wade said in September that he would wind up his 16-year NBA career at the end of the 2018-19 season.
Ed Romaine, chief brand officer at Bleacher Report, said the D. Wade World Tour follows the successful launch in December of the Bleacher Report Drop Up event where the site partnered with Levi’s, Adidas and Twitter on a fan-skewed evening for its B/R Kicks subbrand that celebrates sneaker style and culture. Romaine said 12,000 people walked through the art and exhibition space it created in New York City in one day.
“We’re breaking down the walls between sports and culture,” he said. And the Dwyane Wade initiative is seen as another way to scale the company’s business.
Romaine said Bleacher Report plans to host a number of other, similar initiatives under the World Tour moniker with other athletes later this year.
Get more from WWD: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
