When Yao Ming entered the NBA with its back to China’s huge market, why did it sign reebok, now unknown, instead of NIKE, the industry leader?
If everyone knew about Yao Ming before he entered the league, in fact, NIKE has been sponsoring a small number of domestic basketball players since the 1990s, and since 1997, NIKE has contacted Yao Ming to sign a contract with him, and provided basketball shoes and financial support. When the contract was renewed in 2003, nike thought that Yao Ming’s performance in the rookie season did not meet expectations, and the best rookie was also taken away by Stoudemire of the Suns. At the same time, it was also the time when the Platinum Age entered the league in 2003. Seeing that tomorrow’s superstars such as James, Wade and Anthony entered the nba, nike’s energy was naturally dispersed. After all, who didn’t want to have James at that time, NIKE gave James a super-luxury contract of 9,100 W for seven years at the same time, and the budget was not unlimited. NIKE could only offer Yao Ming, who needed to renew his contract at the same time, an insulting offer of 160w for four years.
In fact, there was an episode at the beginning. Yao Ming’s agent revealed that NIKE had signed a contract with it whenever the offer was raised to 3-4 million, but unfortunately, the NIKE brand department thought such an offer was like a joke, implying that Yao Ming was not worth the offer.
At the same time, reebok threw an olive branch to Yao Ming. At that time, reebok was not as down and out as it is now. Its stars included mvp players such as O ‘Neill and Iverson, and the offer made to Yao Ming was quite sincere for six years and 50 million yuan. After learning about the amazing offer made by competitors, NIKE has a legend that considering the influence of the China market, it re-offered an offer of over 100 million in seven years, which is the biggest offer contract in the whole nba.
But in the end, Yao Ming chose reebok, who was more sincere at the beginning, which was a little color for the nike team who despised themselves. It is said that Yao Ming was not won, and the nike representative who was in charge of the negotiation in that year was also dealt with by the demotion office. The reason was that he was robbed of Yao Ming by competitor reebok on the premise of absolute superiority.
In the 2004-05 season, reebok launched the only pair of signature sneakers reebok high post for Yao Ming. However, the tradition that the center does not sell shoes still exists, so the original sales volume was not ideal, and the domestic nba market has just been opened, and domestic consumers are not very willing to pay for this sneaker.
And Yao Ming also sustained injuries in the later period, drawing a question mark on the functionality of sneakers. If Yao Ming chose NIKE in that year, could he avoid some injuries by wearing his brand’s sneakers?
