Entertainment
Noah Lyles’ Signature Sneakers Are in Demand for More Than Just Shoes — Andscape
What does being the fastest man alive offer you? Besides a gold medal and bragging rights, sprinter Noah Lyles hopes the excellence comes with a signature sneaker.
“I want my own shoes. I want my own coach. I’m dead serious about that,” Lyles said after his victory Sunday in the lads’s 100 meters on the 2024 Paris Olympics. “I want sneakers. There’s no money in (running) spikes. There’s money in sneakers, and even Michael Johnson didn’t have his own sneakers. I think considering how many medals (athletes) bring in, how much publicity (athletes) get, the fact that it hasn’t happened yet is crazy to me.”
It’s a matter of regulations, but Johnson got company sneakers, Nike Zoom JST shoesin 1998. The shoes didn’t sell particularly well, and which may be part of a bigger hurdle that even the world’s fastest track star might find too high. Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world, also received a particular finish during his track profession. In June 2012, Bolt’s long-time sponsor Puma released the evoSpeed Runner Usain Bolt ahead of the London Olympics, where he won gold in the 100-meter final with a still-record time of 9.63 seconds. Puma also supplied Bolt’s distinctive evoSpeed cleats, which he wore in his final Olympic appearance in 2016.
Despite the well-deserved fame that individuals like Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce bring to their sport every 4 years, it’s still only every 4 years. Track and field stays a distinct segment sport, televised in places that are not yet ready for prime time. The sport doesn’t see the commas that the NBA and WNBA saw in their groundbreaking broadcast deals. Occupying that smaller slice of the media landscape means less recognizable faces. Unfortunately, runners remain in the highlight when their names are implicated in scandal, even in the event that they have a couple of medals to their name. While Lyles’s point about track and field athletes competing against world-class competition is valid, as are his beliefs about their athletic ability, those facts alone don’t change much.
It’s easy to see why Lyles wants this for himself and, more importantly, for the game he loves. Even without squinting, it’s not not possible to see his vision. The Virginia native ruffled a couple of feathers on the 2023 world championships when compared the track and the NBAquestioning the legitimacy of a league calling itself “world champions.” While the comments went viral, the context of his words fell on deaf ears. Lyles turned to the larger issue of attracting attention to the game. Winning medals is his first, second and third goal. Still, he never stopped enthusiastic about find out how to leverage that success on an even bigger platform.
“After you win medals, more and more people start to get interested in it. You can get into fashion, you can get into music. You can start to network with people and meet bigger and better athletes. You go from athletes to artists, and from artists to the world. And now you have connections,” Lyles said.
Lyles is forging these connections, transforming himself into an undeniable brand. Skill alone now not pays the bills. But combining ability with a present for gab and a flair for the dramatic normally equals a lifelong set-up. And Lyles is halfway there.
Like Richardson, Felix, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and track legends similar to sprinters Usain Bolt, Gail Devers and Florence Griffith Joyner, the fastest man in the world stands out. Lyles wore a striking pair of Adidas Adizero Y-3 spikes created by Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto of Paris. He runs in diamond-covered chain link necklaces. The man also wears Speedmaster watch by Omegaofficial timekeeper of the Olympic Games, and Lyles is a brand ambassador. Anyone can call themselves an icon, but few have the arrogance to color different designs and messages on their nails just like the Alexandria, Virginia, native did on the Olympics. In response to Lyles’s remark about networking, retired NBA point guard Dwyane Wade noted the nails and he handed the gold medalist his props, similar to an NBA legend Magician Johnson. Aside from Johnson’s humblebrag about watching the Olympics on a yacht, these looks could get Lyles’ name ringing in places that matter. It helps that he has the personality to match his jewelry and colourful numbers.
He makes decisions and basks in the highlight at any time when it comes his way, especially when he can use it to his advantage. It didn’t trouble him when NBA players attacked him for those comments in 2023. To Lyles, the incontrovertible fact that they responded was proof of his status.
“When I won the title of fastest man in the world, suddenly people listened and said: ‘The fastest man in the world said that? I can’t believe you said something like that'” Lyles said.
Even Bolt, the person Lyles desires to surpass in the record books, said the 27-year-old’s personality and attitude are exactly what this sport needs. The same charisma Bolt sees is one reason Lyles is featured in a Netflix docuseries and is the topic of an upcoming Peacock series. If success is about preparation, opportunity and timing, the celebrities appear to be aligning for Lyles, who has a sponsorship cope with Adidas.
Convincing Adidas to provide him a patented sneaker continues to be easier said than done. A sneaker deal typically provides the athlete with a 5 percent or 6 percent royalty on each shoe sold. The variety of shoes sold ought to be enough to justify the hundreds of thousands invested in the athlete and help the corporate’s bottom line. Let’s say a typical deal pays a base salary of $5 million to $15 million a yr and features a 5 percent royalty on each shoe sold. In that case, it’s an enormous bet that the corporate and the star need to work in their favor. NBA players are on TV almost every night from October through June. Even if it’s a game where someone isn’t wearing the shoes, there’s a superb probability one other player will pull on a pair, given the relationships many athletes have with Nike, Adidas and Under Armour. Lyles would wish more face-to-face time with the general public, and he’d find enough running mates in his sport and beyond who wish to put his name on their feet.
It’s unlikely, but what else is recent for the person who won America’s first gold medal in the 100-meter dash in 20 years? Lyles is an asthmatic who runs faster than every other man on the planet. He has attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, Depression and anxiety. He wears these ailments with pride, in addition to his love for Observers can easily overlook his need for designer shoes. All it takes is one person and one moment to alter the whole lot. Lyles understands social media, wears his emotions on the surface, shows off as best he can and makes sure all eyes are on him.
To paraphrase considered one of the his latest posts on Xwhy not him?
Entertainment
Donald Trump’s grotesque performance with a microphone provokes a reaction from disgusted viewers
Many persons are outraged that the forty fifth president and current Republican presidential candidate appeared to simulate a sex act during his rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Friday, November 1. Social media users called him all the pieces from “disgusting” to “sleazy” and asked where his right-wing religious supporters were – the identical supporters who often see him because the savior of the nation.
The former reality star was upset because his microphone wasn’t working properly and didn’t sound clear.
A video of the event shows him complaining concerning the issue, which he said disrupted his hour-long talk time.
“I’m not asking for much. I’m not asking for much; all I ask for is a good microphone,” he said, adding that if he fired the person chargeable for the setup, people would think he was a bad person. He kept saying, “I do not even need a stage. I do not care.
Continuing, he mentioned that he had spoken at several other rallies and that, along with his microphone being cut off, it had strained his voice. He also noticed that the advanced team had positioned the microphone stand too low, forcing him to lean over to talk. At this point, he began stroking the microphone stand and opened his mouth in an “O” shape, appearing to simulate an explicit act.
Reactions on social media were swift.
The full clip is even weirder.
WHY IS TRUMP FELLATING INTO THE MICROPHONE?!
— Millennial snowflake 🇵🇸 (@Teh_Snowflake) November 2, 2024
Some X users he wrote “practiced for prison.”
One person he tweeted“He higher perfect this method. His fellow inmates won’t be glad with his weak sauce game.
Other commented“And this guy wants to be president! Disgusting! Come on, normal Americans!”
Someone else he wrote“He has no shame,” and one other nicknamed him “Hawk Tuah Guy.”
Referring to former President Bill Clinton and his infamous scandal, one person he was joking“‘I did not have sexual intercourse with this microphone’ – Donald J. Trump.”
Others expressed concerns about one user given the closeness of the election writing“…and some people want this bastard to become president! Vote Blue!”
Ana Navarro from “The View” also weighed in: tweeting“Ask yourself: What would happen if Kamala Harris did this? Yes. You saw it right. That’s Trump on stage at a rally, faking a sex act on a microphone. This is not normal. Trump is disgusting, unstable, and unfit to represent the United States. Vote for him.”
While many are disgusted by the incident, some find it ironic that his people see him because the “savior” of the nation.
Moreover, earlier this yr, certainly one of the videos Trump shared with his supporters stated: “And on June 14, 1946, God looked down on the paradise he had planned and said, ‘I would like a guardian.’ So God gave us Trump.”
“GOD CREATED TRUMP” pic.twitter.com/l03fK9SSfC
— Donald J. Trump posts on His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) January 5, 2024
According to The Guardian, this film has played at a lot of his rallies.
New York Times reports that the previous president’s language “became increasingly coarse” and “four-letter words were flying everywhere.”
Their evaluation shows that they use such language by 69%. more often than in the course of the 2016 campaign, sometimes admitting that he knows higher but adding that he can not help himself.
In the times since Election Day, the race between Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Trump is neck and neck, signaling a razor-sharp contest.
Harris is rallying in Michigan while Trump is specializing in key swing states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.
On Saturday, November 2, Trump visited Virginia and North Carolina, and Harris also campaigned in North Carolina, later surprising viewers with an appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” in New York.
Surprisingly, whatever the former president’s antics, the gap is just not widening and his base stays overwhelmingly in his favor.
Entertainment
Michael Vick voted for the first time in 2020. Now he encourages others to get involved.
Growing up in Newport News, Virginia, in the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, Michael Vick didn’t know much about elections or voter rights.
Thanks to his parents, Vick understood the scale of electing leaders in this country, especially the president, but the former NFL quarterback was surrounded by violence and poverty in his hometown (nicknamed “Bad News” because “a lot of bad things happen there,” compatriot Allen Iverson once said). As a youth, Vick’s only concern was entering into the NFL and getting over his illness, so things like voting and laws took a backseat.
A federal dogfighting conviction in 2007 sent him to 21 months in prison, further alienating Vick from the electoral process and his desire to exercise his right to vote.
“At a young age, I lost the right to be involved,” Vick told Andscape. “So for an extended time I used to be distant from it, I didn’t concentrate to it since it didn’t mean anything.
“It had no effect on me.”
While in prison, Vick made a listing of things he wanted to achieve after his release, which included: voting for the first time. In 2020, greater than a decade after his release, Vick’s voting rights were restored, allowing the 40-year-old to solid his first ballot this yr.
On the eve of Tuesday’s presidential election, the former dynamic quarterback is recommending that others register to vote in order that their voices may also be heard. He partnered with the Vote or Else campaign to engage more Black communities in the political process to improve their social standing after the four-year election cycle.
“People didn’t do this for us when we were growing up,” Vick said. “So this is a campaign where I felt like if someone watches me and idealizes me in a way, they can look at everything I do outside of playing football.”
After a two-year collegiate profession at Virginia Tech that included a national championship berth and a third-place finish in Heisman Trophy voting in 1999, Vick was chosen No. 1 overall in the 2001 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons, making him first, the Black quarterback can be chosen with the top pick. It only took one season for Vick to turn into one in every of the most fun and unique players in league history, combining a sprinter’s speed with the elusiveness of a kick return and a cannon for a throwing arm.
His Jump 46 meters during a game against the Minnesota Vikings during his sophomore season in which Vick’s lightning speed caused two defenders to run into one another trying to attack him, it felt like something out of a movie. At the start of the 2002 playoffs, he traveled to Lambeau Field to face the Green Bay Packers, who had not lost a house playoff game since 1933. At 31 degrees Celsius Vick made something out of nothing in almost every performanceleading the Falcons to a 27-7 loss.
From there, Vick became a cultural icon. Nike gave him his own signature line of shoes, a first for an NFL quarterback. His cover of the 2004 video game Madden and its almost indestructible gameplay of the game’s characters is one in every of the most significant covers of a whole generation of gamers and continues to be talked about today. In each his game and appearance (dark skin, cornrows hairstyle, streetwear), Vick displayed a coolness that was more present in the NBA than the NFL at the time. Wearing a Falcons jersey backwards with Vick’s name and No. 7 on the back was a trend, and although in 2004 he was principally just standing in the music video for Atlanta rapper T.I.’s single “Rubber Band Man,” his mere presence was a moment. itself.
“Michael Vick was the Michael Jordan of our football,” said Marvin Bing, founding father of Mobilize Justice in Philadelphia, which organized the “Vote or Else” events. “It was Jesus on the gridiron.”
Vick signed a 10-year, $130 million contract with the Falcons in 2004, a then-record amount, but by April 2007 he was under investigation for running a dogfighting ring out of several of his Virginia homes for six years. In July 2007, Vick was indicted by a federal grand jury and on December 10, 2007, he was sentenced to 23 months in prison. (In September 2007, Vick was also indicted in reference to two state dogfights in Virginia; in that case, Vick pleaded guilty and received a three-year suspended sentence.)
After serving 19 months in prison – where he refused to eat for the first three days of his stay, missed his grandmother’s funeral and witnessed various things, – he told an ESPN reporter things that “should have stayed in prison” at the time – Vick was released in July 2009. Within weeks of his firing and after consulting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Vick signed with the Philadelphia Eagles as Donovan McNabb’s backup last season, becoming the starter for the 2010 season. Vick resumed his great play – in 2010 he had a historic 400-yard game and 6 touchdowns against the Washington Redskins – and later signed one other $100 million contract with the Eagles in 2011.
While serving his sentence from 2007 to 2009, Vick didn’t participate in the election of then senator. Barack Obama for president. He knew who Obama was because he had examine the election and watched the debates, but witnessing the historic election of the nation’s first black president made him feel more misplaced in prison. So he finally decided to vote when he was free.
“I felt like on a small scale this was something that would be the most important thing at some point,” he said. “It’s about having your rights to do certain things in life.
“I screwed it up and I wanted to at least fight for it, and if I missed then at least I gave it a chance.”
But when Vick tried to vote in Florida with family and friends in 2011, they found he was ineligible due to his felony conviction. Before 2018, the Florida Constitution permanently prohibited individuals with felony convictions from voting. (Vick owned a house in Broward County, Florida). But in November 2018, Florida voters passed Amendment 4, restoring voting rights to 1.4 million returning residents like Vick. Months later, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis added a requirement in 2019 that those affected by Amendment 4 first repay any fines, fees and restitution before they’ll regain the right to vote.
Although Vick paid nearly $1 million in restitution for his conviction, he still had not registered to vote as of early 2020. He partnered with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which works to restore voting rights to individuals who have served their sentences for crimes, and led the effort to pass Amendment 4 to each regain his rights and lift funds to help other returning residents pay court fees. During that time, the coalition raised greater than $4 million to cover the fees, with some support from the More Than a Vote campaign backed by Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James.
“(If) people can call you a criminal, it means they can treat you differently” – Desmond Meade, executive director of the coalition, he said in a 2020 documentary about Vick’s electoral journey. “We deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and the best way to achieve that is to make our voices heard.”
Vick voted for the first time in November 2020, filling out a Florida absentee ballot from his home in California. “I felt that younger generations, seeing me do this, whether they were white, black or indifferent, would strive to do the same,” he said.
Across the country, in Philadelphia, Bing was mounting a campaign for Tuesday’s upcoming presidential election that relied on people like Vick for support.
In addition to founding Mobilize Justice, Bing also served as national artistic director for the human rights organization Amnesty International USA and is co-founder of Justice League NYC, which advocates for criminal and social justice reform. Bing’s father, Malik Aziz, was a Philadelphia civil rights activist who in 2000 successfully challenged a state law barring residents with returning felonies from voting.
“He was one of the first people to actually engage in advocacy for this organization and partner with it to actually challenge the legal system in the states to gain voting rights after he got out of prison,” Bing said of his father.
For the Vote or Else campaign, Bing invited athletes and entertainers to connect with Black communities who may feel forgotten between election cycles and support collective change to improve their social standing. That list includes Vick and Iverson, rappers Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Jadakiss and Killer Mike, and actor Woody McClain.
Bing said he selected these stars because their upbringing and background made them credible messengers.
“They come from what I consider ‘mud,'” Bing said. “They know what it’s like to fight, they know what it’s like to just play this sport to get out of a bad situation and change their family and (their) circumstances.”
Vick walked through neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Atlanta, knocking on doors, talking to residents, hugging them and taking photos to educate them about their right to vote and the importance of getting their voices heard. A girl Vick met in Atlanta told him her father was an enormous fan and hung his Falcons jersey on the wall.
“It makes me persevere and achieve more in life,” said Vick. “I’m not a young man, but I still have a lot of life ahead of me, God willing, so I continue to set goals for myself. People like that encourage me to hear stories like that and people appreciating what I did in the time I spent there.”
Bing said Vick brings a novel perspective as a talented black athlete, entrepreneur, husband and father who managed to escape Virginia and the criminal justice system. Vick, who retired in 2017 after 13 seasons, speaks the languages of the Black community and the resilience he has shown over the past twenty years is an indication of hope.
So much in order that, according to Bing, Vick inspired no less than one person in Philadelphia to fulfill his civic duty.
“One woman said, ‘S— I could go vote early now,'” Bing said.
Entertainment
Bianca Censori’s disturbing appearance in new photos with Kanye West is causing concern as fans think she looks ‘amazing’
Kanye West and Bianca Censori are making headlines again, but this time fans are expressing concerns for Censori’s health following the pair’s latest appearance.
TMZ obtained photos the duo at an event at Maison Margiela Gallery in Tokyo on Wednesday, October 30. Ditching the black clothes from their last photographed outing, West and Censori showed as much as the event dressed in white.
While their outfits – as usual – caught the eye of fans, others were more concerned about Censori’s well-being. In one photo, the model posed next to her husband with her hand on her head and her eyes barely open.
Some observers speculated that Censori could have been intoxicated or under the influence of medication.
One commenter wrote on Instagram: “Looks like it’s not true.”
“Looks beautiful,” wrote one other.
A 3rd commenter wrote: “This girl always looks so AF, someone help her!!!”
A fourth person appeared to think Kanye West wasn’t completely sober either. They wrote, “They both drank pink booga suga,” referring to “pink cocaine.”
Pink cocaine is a new drug that was recently named in a civil lawsuit against Diddy. This was also discovered in a toxicology report after One Direction star Liam Payne fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Argentina.
Of course, there is not any method to know if West was under the influence of medication, but from a photograph shared on TMZ’s Instagram, it appears the “Runaway” rapper was drinking from an all-white cup.
In August, West’s former chief of staff, Milo Yiannopolous, sent the so-called a series of tweets making shocking accusations against his dentist, who he claims conspired to get the rapper hooked on nitrous oxide (laughing gas).
Yiannopoulos accused celebrity dentist Thomas P. Connelly, who also installed Kanye’s titanium grill, of being a “dangerous predator who targets African-American celebrities.”
In a grievance filed with the California Dental Board, Yiannopoulos alleges that lots of West’s team members became concerned once they noticed “four large surgical tanks of nitrous oxide” were installed in Kanye and Bianca Censori’s apartment.
Kanye has not spoken publicly about Yiannopoulos’ claims.
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