LeBron James Signs Unprecedented Lifetime Contract with Nike | Hacker News Reader

LeBron James Signs Unprecedented Lifetime Contract with Nike

bloomberg.com

53 pointsadventured34 comments

> 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 amount of revenue for one line of shoes...but _per year_? Named for an athlete who has long been retired? Half a billion for the next great player (though of course some don't think LeBron will necessarily surpass Jordan's legend) seems like a bargain for Nike.

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.

In the case of Jordan it does.

Part of the reason for Jordan's success is that he's the GOAT - and an umbrella for other players. His "Jordan" line doesn't just include his signature shoes, but players like CP3, Blake Griffin, Carmelo Anthony and Russel Westbrook.

Way easier to pull in other players after you're retired than it is while you're still in the game. That's why you're seeing Jordan take up 58% of the basketball shoe market.

Definitely a big number. Jordan Brand - counted separately from Nike's other lines - captured 58% of all basketball shoe sales in the US in 2014 (in dollar terms). Keep in mind there are dozens of Jordan Brand shoes now (whereas once upon a time it was one specific shoe, the Air Jordan), with other major players endorsing under the label (such as Carmelo Anthony).

It's apparently also booming in China:

http://fortune.com/2015/10/23/nike-air-jordans-china/

> 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.

Like the Disney Vault, when you tightly control supply you can easily release "retro" or old versions of the same product with great success.

The resale market alone is profiting $380M per year on Nike shoes. I'd wager a majority of that is in Jordans. Nike knows this market exists, and they are doing a fine job keeping the streets hungry for their brands. Watch / read more at https://www.ted.com/talks/josh_luber_the_secret_sneaker_mark...

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.

Incidentally, the logo is called "Jumpman", and it's actually based on Jordan doing a ballet grand jeté to make it look like a more prodigious jump than his usual style.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpman_(logo)

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.

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

Jordan's legend isn't due just to his prodigious basketball skills, but also his meticulous approach to personal branding over his career. I remember reading an article about 15 years ago where he talked about how he wore a suit to walk from his hotel room to the team bus, a walk through the lobby of a few feet, because fans had come to see him and he wanted to leave a good impression.

> Named for an athlete who has long been retired?

For what it's worth, Drake is wearing an Air Jordan t-shirt in latest music video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxpDa-c-4Mc), which has already reached 180+ million views since the end of October. I'm in my middle 30s so I've only heard about Drake at the start of this year, but he seems to be quite influential among younger people. He's also wearing one of those Moncler things, the video reminded me of the famous "They Live" sunglasses scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inZUDMGJsKo).

For people thinking this not hacker news related. I thought so too, but according to the guidelines it is.

> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.

Thanks for sharing OP.

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).

And David Beckham.

All of which have equity stakes in the brand as well.

Mike Trout would like to have a word with you, but Bryce Harper is by no means a bad get,

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...

As well as Cam Newton.

Lebron sells more shoes than all those guys combined.

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

Hasn't Derrick Rose signed a lifetime contract with Adidas a few years back?

That is a lot of sneakers.

Hacker, news?

First of all how is this a hacker news? Second I've seen these shoes and I'm no basketball buff but wtf?! Lebron nike shoes are so "UGLY or SUPER UGLY" they're in no where near the cool designs of those Air Jordan shoes. That Under Armour branded shoes those are cool. Peace out!

Am I the only one who has never heard of him?

"Air" Jordans will make me jump higher and win championships. "Something" LeBron's will make me sound like a Buick.

How can hackers profit from endorsement deals like this? If any software or hardware marketers are interested, please get in touch.

Seriously? no sense of humor...

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.

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