Really Big Shoe : Fashion: When 7-foot center Don Peck jogs onto the Cypress College basketball court in his Size 20 Nikes, the crowd knows it is in for a . . .

The next reserve center on the Cypress College basketball team will have big shoes to fill--Size 20s, to be exact.

Seven-foot Don Peck of Cerritos, a soft-spoken engineering student, owns one pair of handmade, $650 brown dress shoes that he wears on special occasions. He knocks around campus and works part time in extremely rare, large-sized Nike basketball shoes costing $80 to $150.

The husky freshman, 20, who’s never met anyone with shoes as large as his, said that people have talked about his feet all his life and that he’s comfortable with the attention, but there are limits.

“Some of my friends will kid around,” he said. “. . . If someone starts talking and wants to get friendly and asks how big my shoes are, that’s no big deal.

“(What) I don’t like (is) when it’s mean. If somebody wants to sit there and joke about it, it makes me mad and I’ll look at them mean. . . . Frankly, I don’t think it’s any of their business if they want to make me a sideshow.”

Their tiresome remarks include:

“Don’t hurt him. He might step on you.”

“You don’t need skis. Just go on the mountain and ski yourself.”

“Boy, he can stomp out forest fires with those.”

“God, he’s bigger than Bigfoot.”

Peck’s sensitivities are understood at Brooks Orthopedic and Custom Made Shoes in Los Angeles, where Sarkis Papikian made Peck’s dress shoes and said they were the largest he’s fitted in 12 years. The Armenian immigrant, who began shoemaking 45 years ago, took a day to fashion a wooden mold before stitching the footwear. Peck’s mother, Winifred, said the shoes were short so her son returned for refitting.

“It fits really well now,” said Mrs. Peck, who called all around the country to find a store with Size 20 dress shoes in stock before locating Papikian.

“But I feel bad because he doesn’t have a selection. He likes to go to dances and it would be nice if he could have a pair (of dress shoes) in black, maybe, or some loafers or a pair of slippers. But at that kind of price, you can’t afford several pair.”

Basketball shoes are easier to get because Peck often finds a ready supply at Sam Lichtenstein’s Tenni-Mocs in Long Beach. Peck said it was almost impossible to find his size until he started dealing with Lichtenstein several years ago.

“Nike makes a limited amount of Size 20s and is very selective where they place them,” Lichtenstein said. “I do a lot of threatening and a lot of groveling to keep these sizes in stock. We have to pound doors and write letters and get our sales rep to get his two cents through. . . .”

Lichtenstein said two other customers who wore 20s moved away so he had four pairs of 20s on his shelves last week, but, in the past, Peck has waited as long as six months for shoes on order.

Lichtenstein said Peck’s basketball playing is hard on the shoes, and Cypress Coach Don Johnson called Peck one of his hardest workers. While Peck is not ready for the National Basketball Assn., he would be a league leader in shoe size.

Former Detroit Piston and Milwaukee Buck Bob Lanier wore what many regard as the largest shoes in the modern era, Size 22 Adidas. The Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., displays the shoe, which gained enough notice that Lanier recently filmed a commercial playing off his athletic “feets.” Lanier’s German Adidas were not equivalent to American shoes, however, for he wore Size 19 or 20 Converse.

Among current players, 7-foot-1 Chicago center Will Perdue wears a Size 21. Trainers for the Lakers and Clippers know no one with comparable feet. The Lakers’ retired 7-foot-2 center, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, played in 17s. Seven-foot Benoit Benjamin of the Clippers uses 16s while 6-foot-10 teammates Joe Wolf and Danny Manning perform in 15s. At 6-foot-9, Magic Johnson and James Worthy of the Lakers wear 14 1/2s.

Peck is not sure what put him into the stratosphere of shoe sizes, but his father, Don, who runs a family business, wears a 13 and his mother is a Size 12. He has no brothers or sisters. Sometimes, however, the unusual shoes are beneficial.

“Especially when I’m talking to a girl,” he said. “Most will notice me because of my height. Then they’ll look me over and notice my feet. It breaks the ice.”

BIG MEN WITH A LOT OF SOLE BOB LANIER: Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks (retired), 6-11, Size 22 shoe (German Adidas).

WILL PERDUE: Chicago Bulls, 7-1, Size 21 shoe.

DON PECK: Cypress College, 7 foot, Size 20 shoe.

KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR: Lakers (retired), 7-2, Size 17 shoe.

BENOIT BENJAMIN: Clippers, 7 foot, Size 16 shoe.

DANNY MANNING: Clippers, 6-10, Size 15 shoe.

JOE WOLF: Clippers, 6-10, Size 15 shoe.

MAGIC JOHNSON: Lakers, 6-9, Size 14 1/2 shoe.

JAMES WORTHY: Lakers, 6-9, Size 14 1/2 shoe.