As a three-time NBA Champion, Olympic Gold medalist and thirteen-time NBA All-Star, Dwyane Wade has experienced a whirlwind career.
Wade joined the Miami HEAT as the fifth pick of the 2003 NBA Draft. In his first season, the Chicago-area native who also flashed his athletic brilliance for Marquette University, achieved NBA All-Rookie Team status. In 2006, Wade led his team to the city’s first ever NBA Championship. Wade represented the United States in the 2004 Athens Summer Games and brought home the GOLD representing the USA in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. In 2012 and 2013, Wade won his second and third NBA Championships. He rejoined the Miami HEAT in February 2018 after playing with the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers. During the 2018-19 season, he became the third player in NBA history to record at least 20,000 points, 5,000 assists, 4,000 rebounds, 1,500 steals, 800 blocks and 500 three-pointers. He was also recognized for achieving the most blocked shots than any guard in NBA history. Recently, the Miami HEAT retired Wade’s number three jersey.
Wade officially retired from the NBA after sixteen years following his 2018-19 season. His #OneLastDance farewell tour included jersey exchanges, gifts, and tributes. Wade partnered with Bleacher Report on a D. Wade World Tour apparel series to celebrate the final season of his career and pay tribute to his influence on and off the court.
Wade is readily recognized as a style icon and for paving the way for the NBA fashion revolution. He launched his annual A Night on the RunWade event in 2012 to celebrate his passion for fashion. Wade was selected as an ambassador for the first Men’s Fashion Week in New York City in 2015. He attends fashion week in New York and overseas. He has attended the CFDA Awards in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and the Met Gala in 2015 and 2019. In 2017, he collaborated with DSquared2 on a capsule collection for Saks and was the first athlete to partner with Amazon Fashion to create a brand Wade store.
Wade’s business partnerships include Away, PKWY, Li-Ning, Gatorade, MISSION, Hisense, BallerTV, Spades Royale, Budweiser, Mars Reel, Wade Cellars, and 800° Woodfired Kitchen.
In 2018, Wade signed a landmark lifetime deal with Li-Ning to continue to grow his Way of Wade brand of basketball and lifestyle apparel. There are currently eleven Wade retail stores across China. He serves as a global ambassador for Li-Ning, and travels to China annually to host the Way of Wade tour. He recently signed his first signature athlete to the Way of Wade brand, D’Angelo Russell of the Golden State Warriors.
Wade partnered with Away on two sold out luggage collections including a wine carrier in the second collection to celebrate his passion for wine. His wine partnership, Wade Cellars, currently features 2016 Wade Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, and Three by Wade, which includes a 2015 Napa Valley red blend and the 2018 California rosé.
Wade is the co-founder and CEO of PKWY, an affordable socks company. The joint venture with his long-time partner Stance brings his unique sense of design to a high-quality sock priced to appeal to the mass consumer market. PKWY is currently available at retailers across the country including Target and Kohl’s. In addition to lifestyle collections, PKWY has licensing agreements with the NBA and Major League Baseball.
Forty-Three is a joint company created by Wade and his former Miami HEAT teammate Udonis Haslem. The company is named after their respective jersey numbers. 800° Woodfired Kitchen is the company’s first venture. They are the owners and operators of the Aventura, Florida location. Wade is a partner of 800° Woodfired Kitchen on a brand level internationally, and locally, as a franchise partner.
Through his production company, 59th & Prairie Entertainment, Wade served as an executive producer of the Sports Emmy-nominated documentary, Shot in the Dark, for FOX Sports with Chance the Rapper. 59th and Prairie partnered with Imagine Documentaries and ESPN on D. Wade: Life Unexpected, a documentary chronicling Wade’s NBA career and life off the court during his final year in the league. He will executive produce and star in the upcoming Vudu docuseries, Legacy, which chronicles the lives of gifted young athletes who are the children of famous athletes. He recently produced the Oscar-winning animated short film Hair Love.
In 2018, Wade and his wife Gabrielle Union participated in an HGTV series about flipping a home in a suburban Florida neighborhood. He launched the YouTube series Wade’s Kitchen Convos with Chef Richard Ingraham in 2018.
On the broadcasting front, Wade signed a multiyear deal to join Turner Sports as a commentator, making appearances on TNT's NBA event coverage and serving as a regular analyst for the network's Tuesday night studio coverage alongside Shaquille O'Neal and Candace Parker. He will also appear in studio at the NCAA Final Four and National Championship as part of Turner Sports and CBS Sports' coverage of the annual collegiate tournament. Additionally, he has a development deal with his production company and will serve as creative director for Bleacher Report, working on generating custom content experiences.
Recently, Wade joined forces with CAA to launch CAA AMP, a cultural strategy agency within CAA’s Brand Consulting division. In addition, he has assumed the role of Chief Culture Officer of CAA Sports’ industry-leading basketball division.
In 2015, Wade completed the Business of Entertainment, Media and Sports program at Harvard University. His approach to brand partnerships in a Harvard Business School case study called Dwyane Wade is taught in both the MBA and Executive Education Programs. In 2018, he was appointed as an Executive Fellow.
Wade serves as a global ambassador for the Jr. NBA World Championship, a first-of-its kind global youth basketball tournament for the top boys and girls teams ages fourteen and under from around the world. In 2019, he was named to The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Board of Trustees.
Wade’s proudest accomplishment is being a father. In March 2011, in a landmark legal decision, he earned sole custody of his sons, effectively setting a new precedent for professional male athletes. In September 2012, Wade became a New York Times bestselling author with the release of his first book, A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger than Basketball. His upcoming memoir, 3 Dimensional, debuting in the fall shares his inspiring journey and will feature never-before-seen images.
Wade recognizes his true accomplishments go far beyond the basketball court. He launched his Spotlight On initiative in 2016 after the loss of his cousin to gun violence in Chicago. The initiative aims to give youth hope for a better future by shining a spotlight on youth in the community who are actively changing the city for the better and are empowering others to make change happen. He continued his activism against gun violence by supporting the Parkland students through March for Our Lives and launching a Parkland 17 art exhibit at Florida Art Walk to honor the seventeen lives lost and to bring awareness to the need for stronger gun control laws.
In June 2013, Wade received a Humanitarian Award at the BET Awards for his commitment to excellence and dedication to community and worldly charitable causes. He received the NBA's 2012-2013 Community Assist Award in recognition of his efforts in the community and his philanthropic work. In 2015, he was inducted into the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce’s Sports Hall of Champions. In 2017, Wade was awarded the Mannie Jackson Human Spirit Award. He was recently honored with the Legend Award at the 2019 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Sports Awards.
Wade lives with his wife Gabrielle Union and their children in Los Angeles, CA.
