Olympic Champion Phelps Endorsed UA But Wore Nike?

Phelps, the most gold medal winner in the Olympic Games, was a natural cover.

As spokesperson, he did not advertise well for his endorsement brand Under Armour, but ran to advertise for NIKE.

As the UA's ace spokesman, the brand's Olympic champion's "crown jewel", Phelps is wearing Nike.

With the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, the other two big stars of the United States, the "female fishes", Ledki and gymnast Simon Byers, boarded the cover of the latest issue of a magazine in America.

In sports marketing world, this undoubtedly constitutes a very bad thing.

Superstar athletes, as well as their agents, managers and marketing teams, are super aware of what brands they should wear, because they earn a lot of money from contractors.

Since 2010, Phelps, who has become a UA signing athlete, has taken the trademark of his endorsement brand opponent on the front cover of a well-known national magazine, which also occupies the central position.

You know, more than 18 million Americans read the magazine.

People who know the inside story keep shaking their heads.

Rick Burton, the former chief marketing officer of the US Olympic Committee, points out that Nike will put the cover on the wall.

Danielle Daly, a spokeswoman for UA, and Peter Calle, a broker of Octagon Phelps, claimed that the US Olympic Committee asked Phelps to wear Nike.

Nike is a sponsor of the US national team.

However, three people familiar with the filming showed no such request.

So far, the US Olympic Committee has not commented on the matter.

As an engineer for the combination of millions of dollars signed by Phelps, Calle pointed out that there are a series of complex rules and contracts about what clothes the Olympic athletes are wearing during the competition.

"Usually, it is a severe challenge to analyze, understand and manage the rules and regulations that many athletes are told to follow," said Carlyle.

For athletes, their endorsement is at stake. "

If Phelp had to wear

He did not do very well.

Behind the scenes footage showed that he wore UA sneakers and Ted Baker Polo blouses.

He was photographed with Nike's shorts and vest, while Bayer wore UA's Gymnastic suit worn by the US gymnastics team during the competition.

However, the sponsor of Bayer himself is Nike.

It is necessary to add that Ledki and Bayer's clothes are not seen in the cover photographs.

According to people familiar with the situation, the shooting site was in the main media center of Bala Olympic Park, and the shooting lasted only 15 minutes.

Phelps came from the official activities of the US Olympic Committee.

In this official activity, Phelps was asked to wear Nike.

The media center is also the official venue of the Olympic Games.

This undoubtedly adds to confusion.

Of the 40 people who took part in the film, at least 3 were with Phelps.

Nobody commented on his wearing Nike sports pants.

Hovey and birch, former marketing director of Reebok and Fila, pointed out: "some people have fallen off the hook, especially when you are the best athlete in Olympic history."

Sponsorship and analysis company Apex Marketing group pointed out that Time Inc magazine has a total of 18 million 200 thousand readers, and Nike will get about 453 thousand dollars from the brand exposure.

Nike is undoubtedly the beneficiary of UA's embarrassment and annoyance.

UA and Nike have been competing frequently in signing NBA player Stephen Currie.

International Olympic Committee has been strongly criticized for overprotecting the exclusive right of sponsoring competition.

The United States Olympic Committee and Nike have a cooperation agreement, which means that American athletes must wear Nike at the awards ceremony, press conference and other official Olympic Games.

The star athletes who are very sensitive to protecting their Signing company are often found to be flexible.

For example, when Nike spokesperson Michael Jordan put the US state enterprise on his shoulders at the 1992 Gold Medal Presentation Ceremony, he used a patriotic action to cover the trademark of Reebok on his clothes.

There is another way.

"I have experienced some situations, and we have terminated the endorsement contract, because as our paid signer, the athletes are in the public arena to match their competitors' products," said birch. "You have to be very careful about these things."

Under heavy pressure, the International Olympic Committee relaxed rules last year to allow companies that are not sponsors of games, such as UA, to call Olympic athletes in advertising.

However, such advertisements must be approved by relevant organizations, and the Olympic symbols can not be used, such as Olympic rings, or Rio, summer and gold medals.

5 months before the start of the Olympic Games, UA photographed Phelps's "Rule Yourself" (managing himself) as the theme of the advertising film, which is Phelps's training day after day before the games.

This is not the first time that Phelps has been on the stage of the Olympic marketing stage.

As early as 2012, two advertising photos of his photo taken with LV bags spread rapidly on the Internet. Many fashion magazines praised "Philippine fish" very fashionable.

Unexpectedly, these two photos actually caused him trouble.

International Olympic Committee's "regulation 40" revised earlier in the year clearly stipulates that all athletes are not allowed to take part in any non Olympic marketing activities from July 18, 2012 to August 15th during the London Olympic Games.

LV is not an Olympic sponsor, and Phelps's LV advertising photo was released on micro-blog Twitter during the Olympic Games, which is a clear "jump jump" foul.

Both Phelps and LV denied publishing the photos.

Former Nike executives, Ultimate Fighting Championship chief Global

Cook said, "Phelps is not the first person to do this, nor will it be the last one."