Is it the shoes? Money, it's gotta be the shoes.
Spike Lee posed that question to Michael Jordan in the iconic Nike commercials of the late 80s and early 90s.
And while it certainly wasn't the shoes that made Mike fly, for the Golden State Warriors' Andrew Wiggins, it just might be.
Since Game 4 of the Dubs' series with the Grizzlies, Wiggins has switched from PEAK sneakers to Kobe's Nike signature sneakers with a taped-up logo, and his play since has been elite.
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In the seven games since the switch, he's averaging 16.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game, all the while playing some tenacious defense on Mavericks' star Luka Doncic.
It's gotta be the shoes, right?
Andrew Wiggins has a shoe deal with Chinese brand Peak (you might have noticed his red shoes), but starting in the GSW-MEM series, he started wearing yellow Nike Kobe ADs with a taped-up logo.
— Dieter Kurtenbach (@dieter) May 23, 2022
Now the dude is snatching souls and locking up Luka.
It must be the shoes. pic.twitter.com/NjtxyDm0qS
This isn't the first time this season that Wiggins has switched from PEAK to Kobes, however.
How long has Andrew Wiggins been wearing Kobes?
Wiggins has worn Kobe Bryant's Nike signature sneakers at various stages throughout this season.
He was first spotted in the Kobe VI Proto All-Star back in early October during the Warriors preseason games.
Again the Nike logo had been taped over and the sneaker world was buzzing with talk as Wiggins has been a PEAK endorser for a few years now. The explanation behind the switch was that Wiggins' feet grew a size over the summer and that PEAK was preparing new Big Triangle sneakers (the model he had been wearing until then) for him.
Curiously, though, that was not the last time we saw Wiggins in a non-PEAK sneaker this season.
He was still wearing the Kobe VI Protro when he has this huge dunk over Karl-Anthony Towns in mid-November.
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In the first two weeks of December, he was spotted in the Nike Kobe AD Exodus in games against the Spurs and the 76ers.
In a March 27 game against the Washington Wizards, Wiggins wore the Kobe IV Protro Draft Day - this time with no Nike logo blackout.
A few days later on April 1, he was spotted in the Air Jordan 36 for a game against the Denver Nuggets.
What is Wiggins' sneaker status?
At the beginning of the 2020-21 NBA season - Wiggins' first full season with Golden State - he announced that he would be signing an endorsement deal with Chinese footwear brand PEAK.
"I'm excited to join the PEAK family," he wrote on Twitter.
Wiggins signed on with the Chinese brand on a multi-year deal. Former and current NBA players such as Dwight Howard, Lou Williams and Tony Parker have signed shoe deals with Peak in the past.
Earlier this year ESPN's Nick DePaula announced that Wiggins would be getting his own signature shoe with the company due for release in June of 2021.
All-Star starter Andrew Wiggins will be joining the select Signature Shoe list later this year with the upcoming Peak Wiggins 1, here in concept render form: https://t.co/1VgsrN4Vaz pic.twitter.com/eTJScAzfsV
— Nick DePaula (@NickDePaula) January 30, 2022
Prior to signing with PEAK, Wiggins had been a part of Adidas Basketball's team of NBA endorsees. Once that contract expired he was seen wearing various Nike styles over the course of a couple of seasons before the PEAK deal came to fruition.
