When you’re a fan of basketball, you buy merchandise to show your support. You also may buy the shoes that your favourite player is wearing. Now obviously not every player has their own shoe with their name on it like LeBron, Durant, Curry, Wall, Kobe etc. But players usually wear the same shoe throughout the season.
For James Harden, it was primarily the Nike HyperChase, not a signature shoe but it did get sales, mainly because The Beard was rocking them.
But Adidas plan to change that. With all their domination over several sports, the German sports brand has lost grip on the basketball side of things, getting overtaken by Under Armour. So what do you do when you lose 2nd place and lose the NBA apparel deal? You offer Players MVP James Harden $200 Million of course!
The company has submitted a bid of $200 million over 13 years to sign Houston Rockets guard James Harden, sources told ESPN.com. Nike, whose deal with Harden recently expired, has until the end of next week to match the deal or lose him.
Despite having the NBA deal, Adidas has slipped in recent years due to a lack of individual basketball stars. In 2012, the company signed a massive 14-year deal with Derrick Rose, only to see him miss plenty of action because of knee injuries. Its other star is Damian Lillard, whose Portland Trail Blazers aren’t really showing much promise. Endorser John Wall shows plenty of flash, but his first signature Adidas line fell relatively flat this year.
Now Adidas screwed up big time giving DRose all that money, over so many years as well! This isn’t baseball!
Adidas have had an up and down job when it comes their ‘CrazyLight’ brand. Their latest version getting good reviews, but they have been very hit & miss with their signatures. Lillard’s being flat, Wall’s having the same results. Rose used to sell well but obviously when a guy is on the bench more than the hardwood, sales will most likely drop.
Harden could definitely break the trend. The beard, the MVP calibre. If he goes for the deal and the shoes look decent, Adidas will be back in the game.
