Chapter 109: Adi's attention

To say that Adidas is really sad enough, although they can wrestle with Nike in football, but their vision in basketball is too bad!

Michael Jordan, the "God of Basketball", had been a fan of Adidas before entering the NBA, and he dreamed of wearing Adidas shoes to play, and at that time, Adidas dealers were also interested in signing Jordan for sneaker sponsorship contracts, but Adidas executives insisted that basketball was a sport for tall people, and consumers preferred tall athletes. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

During the negotiation process between Jordan and Adidas, Jordan wanted to print his name and logo on his basketball shoes, Adidas was still a brand focusing on Europe at that time, Adidas felt that it was not necessary to agree to such a special endorsement request from an athlete who had not yet participated in the NBA game, so Adidas did not sign with Jordan because it was not necessary to meet Jordan's requirements.

In the end, Adidas executives decided not to sign Jordan and instead chose the tall center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jordan was very disappointed with Adidas' choice, so Jordan entered the NBA in 1984 and signed a five-year, $500,000 contract with Nike, plus royalties.

Jordan chose to sign with Nike because Nike promised to meet all of Jordan's requirements for the number and design of his sneakers, which made Jordan feel respected.

Jordan was hugely successful after signing with Nike, and Jordan's AirJordan licensing agreement with Nike brought him a fortune, and for every pair of Jordan-branded basketball shoes sold by Nike, Jordan received a share of it.

The second is Kobe, when Adidas signed Kobe, it was also very visionary, and in the few years of cooperation between the two sides, Kobe Bryant pushed the Adidas brand to a new height with his super popularity.

I thought that the young talents led by Kobe Bryant and Maddy would lead Adidas to a new peak, but the good times did not last long, and it backfired.

Kobe Bryant entered the league in 1996 and signed with Adidas, for Kobe, the first sneaker sponsor in his life is as sweet as the first love in his life, but as time goes by, the two sides have no original tacit understanding, Kobe is a perfectionist, several times asked Adidas to improve his sneaker design, but Adidas did not really consider Kobe's opinion, after Adidas offered Maddie a lifetime contract, Kobe was even more dissatisfied, so Kobe and Adidas terminated the contract early.

Here I have to mention the inescapable black spot in Kobe's playing career - the Eagle County incident, which dealt a big blow to Kobe's image and caused Kobe's image to fall into a trough, including Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Spalding and other sponsors have terminated Kobe's contract, but Nike withstood the pressure and continued to support Kobe.

Perhaps deep down, Kobe Bryant is full of gratitude to Nike, and perhaps it is this gratitude that makes Kobe Bryant work hard again, find his original image, and be recognized by people.

After several setbacks, Kobe has reached his peak, winning 5 championships in his career, and has always been regarded as the closest basketball player to Jordan, and Nike has also made a lot of money because of Kobe's super popularity around the world.

After that, James, for signing James, Adidas is not careful, during James's high school game, Adidas was very close to James, privately funded James, provided him with sneakers, and even Adidas has imagined customizing private sneakers for James.

James's warm help to Adidas is also in mind, in 2003, James is about to enter the league, the two sides reached a 10-year $100 million signing contract, for this contract, James is very excited, but at the signing site, in front of James is not the previously negotiated $10 million, but $7 million per year, in the face of a significant reduction in the amount of the contract, James felt cheated, and refused to sign in a fit of rage, and finally the signing of the two sides broke up.

Adidas's successive mistakes made them miss the best players of every era, until Rose burst onto the scene, Adidas began to sign Rose for $200 million over 10 years in order to compete with Nike for the domestic sneaker market in the United States, but Rose was injured directly after signing a big contract and the season was reimbursed.

Rose disappeared from the attention of fans all of a sudden, although there are still many Rose fans who are worried about Rose, but for a big company like Adidas, this is a mistake, it just so happened that Ye Feng suddenly emerged at this time, and after Rose's injury was reimbursed, Adidas urgently needed a new appealing spokesperson.

They originally set their sights on Lillard, after all, Lillard has been a strong contender for the league's best rookie before, and as for Anthony Davis, it is recognized that big shoes are not easy to sell, and Adidas naturally will not consider Davis.

However, when he worked with Lillard before, Adidas only had a cash contract with the other party, but Lillard's performance made Adidas a little tempted to sign a signed sneaker contract with him.

Herbert Heiner looked at the group of executives: "That's right, we have Rose, but do you know Rose's injury?" I can tell you that I learned through my relationship that after Rose's injury this time, he can't reach the level he used to be, which means that our investment in Rose has been lost, and you tell me what to do? ”

Many executives looked at each other without squeaking, and Herbert Heiner looked very satisfied with his performance. In such a large company, Herbert Heiner had to suppress the executives' decisiveness: "That is, we had to pick a player who could compete with Nike to lead us forward!" ”

At this time, the marketing manager spoke again: "Mr. Hainer, then why don't we sign with Lillard, Lillard's strength has been known by everyone in college, I think it may be safer to sign with Lillard!" ”

Herbert Heiner looked at the marketing manager who had always been jealous of his position as CEO and sneered: "Hmph, John, it was your idea to sign with Ross before, why didn't you expect Ross to be injured so badly?" As a result, we are now losing in the field of basketball! ”

Marketing manager John looked embarrassed, no one thought that Rose, who won the regular season MVP strongly, would be reimbursed directly for the season after signing a big contract.