TORONTO Almost 20 years have pa sed since Sergei Fedorov first zipped, deked and spun his way acro s our TV screens in that 30-second Nike ad, white skates and all.

It may have seemed like just another endorsement deal at the time, but two decades later his partnership with Nike holds almost as much significance as his Andrew McCutchen Jersey play on the ice for which he was just enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

MORE: |

For the generation of Ru sian players who followed him, most notablyAlex Ovechkin, Fedorovs superstardom was a game-changer. He was a cool-as-hell Ru sian, a prominent face of the North American game, and now with the benefit of reflection, his legacy is probably bigger than he realized.

For a couple years Im going to sit back and think What really just happened? Fedorov said.

The deal with Nike was the perfect marriage; an already enormous company that had global aspirations and a hockey star who was ripe for transcending the NHL.

It was a critical time in Nikes history. The brand, we had just really decided to evolve Nike from a U.S. footwear company to a global sports brand, said Joe McCarthy, who was head of Nikes global advertising from 1993-96. The strategic decision was made to venture into hockey, and hockey all the way from street hockey products and apparel, kids playing street hockey as well as the on-ice game.

Nike acquired Bauer in 1995 for $395 million, but ran Bauer as an independent brand while it created Nike Hockey. It sold Bauer for $200 million in 2008and abandoned hockey altogether. But in the mid-'90s, Nike wanted to make a big impact and Fedorov became its main target and first non-North American spokesman. Nike signedJeremy Roenick, Mats Sundin and Cam Neely to endorsement deals.

Fedorov, at the time, was the greatest player in his day and the fact that he was Ru sian, we hadn Aramis Garcia Jersey t nece sarily planned to go to Ru sia and make Ru sia a key market for Nike, but the fact that he was Ru sian and all the history with Canada Cups and U.S.-Ru sian Olympics, the thought was hed be a great a set, McCarthy said.

Fedorovs story of defection from Ru sia is a well-known tale, and Nike made no attempt to glo s over his heritage orhistory. In this ad that appeared in Sports Illustrated for Kids in 1996, facts from Fedorovs whole life are splashed acro s the page.

He wasnt simply an NHL star, he was a Ru sian star in an NHL that had largely viewed its foreign players as acce sories to a North American game.

He was a second-wave Ru sian player to come to the National Hockey League after us, like Fedorov, (Alexander) Mogilny, and Sergei was a new generation to bring the bridge together between North America and old Soviet mentalities and the Red Machine, former Red Wings teammate Igor Larionov said. Everybody thought we Buster Posey Jersey re kind of like boring and like a Martian, but Sergei was the guy, a flashy guy, white skates, scoring three or four goals and was fun to watch.

Said former Red Wings teammate Larry Murphy: He definitely was a two-way player, which at that time, the Soviet players never really got that sort of accolade, and Sergei was a guy that came over and showed that those guys can play at all ends of the rink.

MORE: |

That print adwas for Fedorov's signature shoe, the Nike Air Street Expre s, which was designed for street hockey and modeled after the product of Fedorov's Nike deal that made the biggest splash of all the white skates.

Fedorov Pat Burrell Jersey helped the product development teams create the bold design, perceived at the time as outrageous, but also equally fitting for Nike's big push and Fedorov's flashy, groundbreaking playing style.

I was proud that I started working with real Nike; the shoes we wore, the shoes we knew and other great clothing, Fedorov said. They tried to get into hockey and I was part of (the) proce s with skates and gloves and sticks. We really started from scratch, and thats really what Im proud of, to be able to help that size of a company, the biggest company in the world, make quality products.

The commercial was an elaborateproduction that Fedorov said took two 13-hour days to shoot, and had cameos from Roenick and goaltender Jim Carey.

It was slow, but it was fast for me because I knew what I was doing on the ice . . . almost . . . until the Zamboni hit me, Fedorov said. That I dont know, I didnt film that.

McCarthy said he had limited interaction with Fedorov, but the team that worked on the shoot couldnt say enough about working with him.

In general hockey players were like that, McCarthy said. Nike was trying to raise the profile of the sport, and for them individually, so as a group of guys, they couldnt have been more accommodating and great. But he in particular was good to work with. Anything we wanted to try for the specific commercial he was happy to do so, and a lot of times with athletes, theyre like looking at their watch, they got another appointment, so they can be a Austin Slater Jersey prima donna. He was great and he was a pleasure and I think he really helped Nike make a splash and put us in the game.

For Fedorov, being the spokesman for a brand as big as Nike was something he never dreamed of, and when it was happeninghe was just trying not to get overwhelmed by the whole experience.

Its hard to do, he said. I barely spoke English. Its hard to imagine anything like that. Youre so busy with other things like playing, and making sure you dont get checked hard. Youre pretty occupied.

Larionov said Fedorov handled his exploding fame well, and spending those years in a locker room full of future Hall of Fame members with the Red Wings certainly helped.

You have to carry yourself and learn a lot of things because youre in a locker room with legends and thats how, in Detroit, things were happening, Larionov said. Older guys helping young guys and then Sergei became older so he helped Ovechkin (in Washington).

Looking back, Fedorov said his deal with Nike was an amazing experience, and he crackedplenty of jokes about it, including ones about his office at Nike (My office was next to Michael Jordan, Dave Dravecky Jersey or so they told me) and the reason why the company decided to move in another direction once his contract was up, (Tiger (Woods) signed a contract and my hundred grand went to that.)

Nike and Bauer went through a couple more changes and the joint company still has some involvement in hockey. Ovechkin signed a six-year endorsement deal with it in 2011.

It really pushed you, Fedorov said of his time with Nike, as a person, as a player to get really recognized everywhere in the world.