Sony Offers NBA All-Stars Custom PSPs in Snowy Dallas
At NBA All Star Weekend in a snow-covered Dallas, Sony makes players happy with custom PSP Gos
DALLAS, Texas -- Inside the exclusive Player's Lounge at the Hyatt Regency in a snow-covered Dallas, Texas, some of the biggest names in the NBA are getting custom PSP Go portable gaming devices. Sony had had success with its partnership with Gallagher Designs, making some of the biggest names in sports the proud owners of custom gaming consoles.
Behind the scenes of secret recruiting meetings between Nike and some of the biggest athletes in the sports world, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and PSP plays an important role in encouraging the best tennis, golf, basketball, and football athletes to sign with the sporting goods company.
This convergence of videogames and sports is the result of a chance meeting between Portland, Oregon-based Gallahger Designs and Sony Computer Entertainment America. It occurred in New York City at a Nike Basketball Pop-Up Store (a temporary retail location) for LeBron James in 2006. Tim Gallagher, founder of Gallagher Designs, was using a trophy laser etching machine to customize Nike shoes. Ron Eagle, director, product publicity at Sony Computer Entertainment America, thought the laser etchings would look great on the new PlayStation 3s, so he sent Tim one.
“We painted the PS3 and lasered it and it looked great,” said Gallagher. “We started working with Sony at Super Bowl XLI in Miami designing special PS3s for athletes. Nike loved the custom PS3 idea and we started using this as part of their player presentations.”
Gallagher went to town on his first custom PS3s, which were showcased at Super Bowl XLI. They spent thousands of dollars customizing these consoles with diamonds and rubies and elaborate designs. There was a snake with a ruby for an eye, an Egyptian-themed PS3, a hot rod- themed PS3 with flames and a skull, and an old school tattoo design, and a Pacific Indian design, to name a few. Each of these consoles was displayed in a museum-quality case, complete with a hydraulic door that opened to showcase the PS3. Since then, the custom designs have been scaled down to include custom paint jobs and designs – sans jewelry -- to accommodate many athletes at once.
Today, the sports world’s biggest brands court emerging or established sports greats to sign them to endorsement deals. Gallagher Designs works with Nike to create specialized rooms that explore the various likes of a Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova or Kevin Durant. Gallagher said his team researches everything about an athlete from their favorite color M&Ms to whether their father enjoys fishing – if yes, a special lasered fishing pole is part of the custom-designed room. The PS3 has become a fixed part of this process, regardless of whether the athlete is a gamer or not.
“The athlete comes into a room that we’ve decked out for them,” explained Gallagher. “For Maria Sharapova, we made a pink PS3. For Kevin Durant, we went with his Texas college color of burnt orange and had a Western collage including a six-shooter lasered onto his PS3.”
In some cases, Gallagher brings the laser to the client. When Nike was wooing Greg Oden, part of that process involved Gallagher going to Oden’s room with the laser and customizing PS3s and Nike sneakers for Oden and his friends on the spot.
The technology behind these laser etchings, which Gallagher uses on PS3, PSP and a lot of Nike sneakers, was designed to etch names onto trophies. Instead, the designers use this technology on everything but trophies. On average, it takes about 15 minutes to etch a design onto a PS3, although the consoles are first painted to better showcase the laser imagery.
“We have an unlimited palette to work with,” said Gallagher. “We can even do faded colors, pearl essence colors or candy colors like you’d see on a car.”
For shoes, it takes about 5 to 10 minutes to laser a design on the heel. But for toe designs, especially complicated patterns, it can take a lot longer. Gallagher said shoes have to be taped off for more complex patterns. He works exclusively with Nike on shoes.
When attending an event like NBA All-Star in Phoenix last year or Dallas this year, Gallagher and designer Brian Kappel pre-paint a set number of PS3s that Sony provides ahead of time. The designers come to the event with a variety of imagery for NBA All-Stars to choose from.
“It’s basically like a glorified printer,” said Kappel, who has been working with this technology on PS3 and PSP for the past two years. “We brought patterns like skulls, flowers and Obama for players to chose from.”
Gallagher said the newest Sony PSP Go, which is being etched at this year’s NBA All-Star Game, offers more room on the back side to etch designs on, giving his designers a nice blank slate to work with. This year, a special wooden PSP Go carrying case was also etched for top players like Paul Pierce (Boston Celtics), Nate Robinson (New York Knicks) and Chris Paul (New Orleans Hornets).
“I’m a big gamer so getting a customized PSP is really cool,” said Robinson, who had Kryptonate engraved on his PSP Go. “I’m excited that EA Sports is bringing back NBA Jam because I used that game to get ideas for the slam dunk contest.”
Robinson has already won two slam dunk contests and hopes to notch a third this year at American Airlines Center. His Knicks teammate David Lee had his initials engraved on a PSP.
Some players were looking out for others. Last year Robinson was in a giving mood. He asked Gallagher Designs to make a custom PS3 for his teammate Malik Rose as a gift. He had Rose’s name and number engraved on it.
Cleveland Cavalier Danny Green had “DG UNC” etched on his PSP in honor of his alma mater, the University of North Carolina. The former Tarheel thought the customization was a very cool technology and a great gift for players attending the NBA All-Star Weekend.
Paul had “CP3” engraved on his PSP and he said the laser technology that Sony PlayStation had set up in the lounge was amazing. He came to the lounge on crutches to pick up his custom PSP.
“I play a lot of games so this PSP will get a lot of use,” said Paul, who was on the cover of 2K Sports NBA 2K8.
Last year, President Barrack Obama was popular with the NBA All-Stars on both their custom PS3s – on a red, white and blue painted backdrop – and on their Nike Air Force Ones. NBA All-Stars Pierce (Boston Celtics), Thaddeus Young (Philadelphia 76ers), Daequan Cook (Miami Heat) and Roger Mason (San Antonio Spurs) were among the Obama PS3 recipients.
“Everyone plays PlayStation 3 and now the latest thing is customizing it a bit,” said Mason, who picked a silver Obama PS3. “Obama’s the man that hopefully can make some change.”
“I’ve never had a personalized PS3 until now,” said Cook, who went with the red, white and blue Obama design. “In fact, I’d never even thought about it until now. This technology is really cool.”
A lot of players who stopped by Sony’s PlayStation Lounge inside the Hyatt Regency this weekend came up with their own designs. Kappel was able to take logos and picture files via e-mail and etch players’ custom designs on the PSP while they waited. Many players took part in some PS3 gaming, which included unreleased games like God of War 3, MLB 10: The Show, ModNation Racers, and Gran Turismo 5.
Last year, Courtney Lee (Orlando Magic) got his nickname and jersey number on his PS3 and his shoes – Lucky 11.
“They’re customizing it to your liking so you’re getting the only PlayStation like it,” said Lee.
“They’re burning the design right into the PS3 and the shoes without damaging them. It’s basically upgrading the PS3 and the shoes.”
Last year, Mike Bibby (Atlanta Hawks) had his PS3 customized with a coy and his nickname – T Dime. He said it’s really interesting what Sony and Gallagher Designs are doing with this laser etching technology.
Former NBA player and current TNT analyst Gary Payton let his sons choose the PSP laser designs because they play videogames all of the time. He asked Gallagher Designs to make some special shoes.
“I got a pair of tennis shoes with my college and all the NBA teams I played for engraved on it,” said Payton.” It’s a great way to have my history of basketball collected.”
Al Horford (Atlanta Hawks) Went with his logo “AR 15” on his PSP this year. In Phoenix, he had “JR 15” engraved on both his PS3 and his shoes.
“I think it’s awesome,” said Horford. “It gives your PSP more of your personality.”
In Phoenix, LeBron James stopped by the Player’s Lounge to watch Kappel make a King James lion head on a gold PS3.
Brandon Roy, cover athlete for Sony’s NBA 10 on PSP had “B-Roy” on his PSP. In Phoenix, he got a purple PS3 with his “B Roy” nickname and a W for his alma mater, the Washington Huskies.
Last week in Miami, Gallagher was set up in the Nike suite for Super Bowl XLIV. It’s only a small number of NBA, NFL and sports superstars that own these custom PS3s, PSPs and shoes. Because they’re considered works of art, the shoes are rarely, if ever worn, while the game consoles are often used as a display.
“Anyone can buy a PS3 or PSP,” said Gallagher. “This puts a PS3 or PSP over the top.”
Bookmark/Search this post with
About the Author
John Gaudiosi
Editor-in-Chief
John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 17 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Playboy Magazine, NVISION Magazine, GamePro Magazine, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Maxim.com, AOL GameDaily.com, GeForce.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.
Popular content
GamerLive.TV newsletter
Latest Videos
Like us on Facebook
