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LeBron James Signs Unprecedented Lifetime Contract with Nike

bloomberg.com

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Re: LeBron James Signs Unprecedented Lifetime Contract with Nike

#21

Post by justinator »

brandonmenc wrote: post #12
danso wrote: post #3

> His lifetime deal with Nike could eventually become something similar to Michael Jordan’s. Jordan, 52, is officially the chief executive officer of the Jordan Brand, which continues to release new shoes. Sales of Air Jordan brand shoes topped $2.6 billion last year, according to Forbes. I had to read that last figure twice...the first time, I thought it meant $2.6 billion total , which seems like a reasonable amoun…

> for one line of shoes There are at least a few new Jordan sneakers released every single week. http://sneakernews.com/air-jordan-release-dates/

This is amazing, they're just shoes named, "Air Jordan". some of them are just reissues of shoes that came out when I was in middle school.

Re: LeBron James Signs Unprecedented Lifetime Contract with Nike

#22

Post by racl101 »

nhebb wrote: post #16
danso wrote: post #3

> His lifetime deal with Nike could eventually become something similar to Michael Jordan’s. Jordan, 52, is officially the chief executive officer of the Jordan Brand, which continues to release new shoes. Sales of Air Jordan brand shoes topped $2.6 billion last year, according to Forbes. I had to read that last figure twice...the first time, I thought it meant $2.6 billion total , which seems like a reasonable amoun…

Hands down, Air Jordan is the best logo ever created. Designers might not think so, but people bought $2.6 million worth of products last year just because of it. It's hard to beat that.

Agreed. Air Jordans have consistently been popular and the Jumpman 23 Logo is iconic. I still remember being in elementary and marvelling at rich kid's Jordan (version 1) or just (1) high tops.

Jordan may be retired but his product line is thriving. It's a beast onto itself.

And yes, I know the shoes aren't necessarily inherently better than a cheap pair of sneakers but, hey, it's a cool shoe that can't be beat. I don't know how you quantify cool but those shoes are cool.

Re: LeBron James Signs Unprecedented Lifetime Contract with Nike

#23

Post by 3stripe »

nhebb wrote: post #16
danso wrote: post #3

> His lifetime deal with Nike could eventually become something similar to Michael Jordan’s. Jordan, 52, is officially the chief executive officer of the Jordan Brand, which continues to release new shoes. Sales of Air Jordan brand shoes topped $2.6 billion last year, according to Forbes. I had to read that last figure twice...the first time, I thought it meant $2.6 billion total , which seems like a reasonable amoun…

Hands down, Air Jordan is the best logo ever created. Designers might not think so, but people bought $2.6 million worth of products last year just because of it. It's hard to beat that.

Swap 'logo' for 'brand' in that sentence and you'd be more on track. Without the personal brand of Jordan, the logo is moot.

Re: LeBron James Signs Unprecedented Lifetime Contract with Nike

#24

Post by voltagex_ »

Animats wrote: post #15

Ah, Nike. The company with worse fanboys than Apple. Nike managed to conceal the fact that Air Jordans were inflated with sulfur hexafluoride, not air. They needed a big molecule that wouldn't slowly leak through the bladder. It took them 14 years to come up with a bladder lining that would hold nitrogen.

Might be better to cite sources with incendiary comments like this: http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/2006-09-24/nike-goes-for...

No idea if they tried to "conceal" that though. Seems to be around the same time CFCs were used in refrigeration.

Re: LeBron James Signs Unprecedented Lifetime Contract with Nike

#25

Post by swyman »

rjvir wrote: post #10
pbreit wrote: post #6

I'm as impressed or more with Under Armour snagging Bryce Harper, Tom Brady, Steph Curry and Jordan Spieth (arguably the top players in their sports currently).

At likely much better contracts than their competitors have for their marquee athletes.

They tend to include equity as well[1], which is probably the only way they can compete with Nike for signatures.

[1] http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13672569/stephen-curry-ext...

Re: LeBron James Signs Unprecedented Lifetime Contract with Nike

#26

Post by sharkweek »

magic_man wrote: post #18
pbreit wrote: post #6

I'm as impressed or more with Under Armour snagging Bryce Harper, Tom Brady, Steph Curry and Jordan Spieth (arguably the top players in their sports currently).

Lebron sells more shoes than all those guys combined.

I dunno, Brady's Ugg game might have him topped... (kidding)

Re: LeBron James Signs Unprecedented Lifetime Contract with Nike

#28

Post by thaumasiotes »

joelrunyon wrote: post #4
danso wrote: post #3

> His lifetime deal with Nike could eventually become something similar to Michael Jordan’s. Jordan, 52, is officially the chief executive officer of the Jordan Brand, which continues to release new shoes. Sales of Air Jordan brand shoes topped $2.6 billion last year, according to Forbes. I had to read that last figure twice...the first time, I thought it meant $2.6 billion total , which seems like a reasonable amoun…

I think you have to compare the "brand" of Jordan vs. Lebron. Jordan has had almost 30 years to mature. Lebron is not even half that. Interesting to see how this compares & will play out compared to other deals (Under Armour has equity deals with Brady / Curry) which insinuates longer term deals - even if it's not explicit.

> Jordan has had almost 30 years to mature. Lebron is not even half that.

This is a reasonable thing to say, but celebrity branding doesn't necessarily get better with time, and I think is actually particularly unlikely to do so compared to other forms of branding.

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