Behind The Scenes Of Nike's Investment In UA

In early March of 16, Business Insider disclosed a Morgan Stanley analyst, Jay Sole.

Analysis of business prospects.

The report said that in recent years, UA sales of sports shoes in the United States increased by 350%.

The commercial value of UA's star Stephen - Curie exclusive sneakers is higher than that.

All players except Lebron, James and Kobe Bryant.

The report also gives a shocking estimate of the potential value of Curie for Under Armour, $14 billion.

And there is a more unexpected story behind it, that is, how Nike used to make a fool of himself to give UA to him.

In the 12-13 season, Kuri and his Jinzhou warriors were brilliant. Kuri started 78 games and led the team to overturn the Denver nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.

In the summer, Nike and curry shoes contract expired, and they had the best chance to renew their contract with curry.

Currie's godfather, Greg Brink, works.

So, Nike was wearing everything from small to large.

In February 28, 2013, Curie's 54 Nike Zoom Hyperfuse, which he had cut down in Madison Square Garden, he still kept. He said he would leave all his favorite sneakers, just like retaining all the good memories of all his career.

The advantage of Nike lies not only in this long-term affection, but also in its brand value, and its dominance in the monopoly of the sports shoes Market in terms of culture and value.

According to the data provided by Nick DePaula, Nike has signed 68% of NBA players, and if the subsidiary Jordan is counted, this figure will rise to 74%.

In 2012, the US national basketball team, the Nike brand ambassador Mike Krzyzewski, took 11 Nike signing stars and Kevin, Lok Fu, who had only signed 361 degrees to love but only wore Nike shoes, went to London Olympic Games. The value of Nike brand is obvious.

And Nike dominating the ordinary consumers. According to Forbes's data, the market share of Nike basketball shoes reached 95.5% in 2014 and the market value reached US $100 billion.

Nike has an absolute advantage in extending the contract with Currie, and perhaps this absolute advantage can explain why the introduction of Nike and Curry's meeting was like a hangover college student scrambled together.

The venue for the meeting is on the two floor of Marriott in Oakland, and the five floor is the training hall for the Jinzhou warriors.

The famous Nike broker, also James's consultant, Lynn Merrit, did not attend. Instead, she was responsible for the meeting, Nico Harrison, director of sports marketing at Nike. From this we can also see Nike's importance to the meeting.

The other thing before the meeting was long enough to see Nike's lack of interest and interest in curi.

In the summer of 2013, several training camps sponsored by Nike will invite some of their signboards to guide young players.

Currie's friend Chris Strachan revealed that Curie wanted to get the chance to guide the training camp because he had participated in the Chris Paul training camp when he was young, and since then he has always regarded Paul as the goal of his efforts. He has seen a lot of Paul's videos and imitated his movements.

And that summer, when Nike finally made the decision, they gave the opportunity to Kaili Erwin and Anthony Davies instead of Curie.

Speaking of the meeting, Del, Curie's father, also attended the meeting. He recalled that at the beginning of the meeting, a Nike staff mistook curly's name "Stephen" as "Steph-on".

Old curly said he had heard some mispronunciations of his name before, and he was not surprised. What surprised him was that the man did not correct the wrong pronunciation.

"The pitch meeting, according to Steph" s father Dell, who was was, "", "

To make matters worse, the one written on page PPT turned out to be Durant's name. Obviously, it was not the wrong one, but it used to be forgotten by the previous PPT.

I haven't heard anything from them since then.

Said old Curie.

Although Mr. Currie remained silent in the remaining meetings, he had the idea of wanting his son to leave Nike.

Old curry felt there was no sign of any sign of signing Nike as a signboard player.

Nike will divide the athletes into different grades. They have three super stars, James, Kobe and Durant. If Curie decides to renew the contract, it will obviously only become a second player in Nike.

So old Cooley's advice to his son is also simple and clear: don't be afraid to try new things.

Curie's career is growing by proving people wrong, and Nike gives him extra motivation to prove himself again.

The essence of basketball business and sports shoes business is profit from consumers' fascination for stars. These stars must be leaders who can lead the team to win, and it is best to have individual cool leaders.

Just like the rugby game is ugly but popular, baseball games are slow and long but can bring profits.

NBA also needs some unique charismatic characters to conquer fans with cool football skills and let fans follow suit.

It's like you can never be Michael Jordan, but wearing Jordan shoes is like borrowing some of Jordan's skills.

For most people, the joy is worth paying for a pair of Jordan shoes.

The area of the shadow does not really reflect the size of the object, just like the shoe business can not reflect the real ability and influence of a player on the field.

Erwin is an all star player, but he is still far from the MVP title. He has been injured all the time in a season.

But in the shoe business, Erwin can be very successful.

His Kyrie 1s has brought considerable benefits to Nike, and the latest Kyrie 2s has also increased production.

Although Erwin played only once in the playoffs, his dribbling, his shooting and uncle Drew's advertisements helped him to make a huge sale in his shoes.

Perhaps in the summer of 2013, Curie and Erwin were not cool enough, and the overlap of two people was also an important factor affecting Nike marketing decisions.

Think of the sneaker world as composed of shadows shadows that that

Despite the success of Erwin's sneakers business, his sneakers are still one of the lowest priced Nike stars, about $110, which means sales are needed to boost overall revenue.

Nike's high priced sneakers began with Jordan, followed by Kobe, and now led by James.

To be a member of Nike, means you need to look different.

People familiar with the Nike marketing operation say that Curie is like an ordinary person who can't seem to be a monster different from ordinary people, which is very offensive to Nike.

They like their hair clean and well developed.

This is the Currie paradox: the reason why he was neglected before is why he is so popular now.

"He studied in a small school Davidson, he looked very thin, very fragile, he is always ignored, you do not want to be his players, he has never achieved his expectations," basketball shoes expert Sonny Vacarro commented, and then suddenly, like a flash of lightning, curly out of the world, which is what Nike can not forget now.

"What we are witnessing is like the signing of Jordan and Nike in 1984, when Jordan was about to become a household basketball player and why he became so because he looks different from ordinary people."

Vacarro added.

Just like UA's commercial advertisements for Curry2 sneakers, Jamie Foxx's lines are:

Just like that, all of a sudden, big ain "t so so", "that", "3"

lebron james

Last December, in a post match interview with the Cavaliers over the Celtics, James was asked a question about UA. Lebron interrupted the reporter's question: "who? Who do you say? Who is UA?" in the final interview, James said, "I only know Nike all my life, that's all."

James did sign a lifetime contract worth more than $500 million with Nike, and his contract with the Cavaliers lasted only a year.

ESPN reporter Bomani Jones tells us what this means: "if we define big boss as the person who gives you the most salary, it is very clear that Nike and knight are James's big bosses.

In fact, James was a member of Nike before the heat and knight era. "

In fact, people are now more connected to Jordan and his Jordan brand than to Chicago bulls.

According to the 2014 Forbes report, Jordan earned $100 million in revenue from the Nike brand, while Jordan's total NBA contract salary was slightly less than $94 million.

To this day, children are still wearing Jordan shoes.

The whole nation is full of praise for the Jordan 11 series. Recently, the bull's 72 win season has been re engraved.

The Jordan 1 series released in 1985 is still popular throughout the United States.

If you walk in the streets of any city and look down at your feet, you will find that Jordan never seems to have retired.

So the competition between Curie and James is not as simple as the competition between two different brands of shoes. This is also a competition that concerns personal influence and cultural influence. This influence can still be echoed even after they have retired for many years.

This battle of influence may be better than their basketball career.

Now it seems that although James has won 4 MVP trophies and two championship rings, he is still at a disadvantage in this competition.

For UA, who is still in the grass-roots market at that time, the shoe business is a war of war for them.

During the off-season in 2012, they settled Blanton Jennings, who was the spokesman for UA's most famous basketball shoe at that time.

UA is still striving to win every player, which is why they will throw an olive branch to Baez Moore.

As a defeated rookie of the warriors, Baez Moore wasn't even sure if he could stay in the team's name list. He didn't seem to attract the interest of the shoe company.

But his agent, Austin Walton, had a good idea. He contacted UA and sold Baez Moore to the other team. There are two other players in the team who are going to have their shoes contract expired, Claire Thompson and Currie.

So you know, if you can give us a Baez shoe contract, he can pull those two guys onto the boat.

Kris Stone, Jason, Kidd's former high school teammate, and UA's current professional basketball sports marketing executive, has been promoted by Walton.

In fact, Stone has been coveted for a long time, dating back to the 09 year draft.

In the year when Currie took part in the draft, we actually made him a customized sneaker and wanted to sell him.

But he signed up with others. "

So UA began to try to implement their plan: they gave Baez Moore a heap of shoes and other equipment, trying to attract the attention of his teammates Kure and other teammates.

UA sent me almost 19 boxes of equipment to my apartment for the first time. "

Baez Moore said, "at that time, I had no furniture in my apartment, only a pile of UA boxes and an air cushion.

My rookie contract is uninsured, and I'm not sure if I can stay on the team list. If I can't, I'm not sure what to do with it.

But it is certain that some people noticed that Baez Moore is going to be flooded with sneakers.

He was the rookie of the team that year, but he had more shoes and equipment in the locker room than any one of us.

Curry said.

Baez Moore's UA equipment is everywhere, in every corner of the warrior training hall. Generous Baez Moore even sent some clothes to team members.

"He was a rookie for us, and he got more gear more", "

UA it's not easy to get a long line to catch a big fish, but Baez Moore, a natural salesperson who always wears a smile, makes it possible.

If salesman Baez Moore wants to sell something to you, he will not sell you carefully, he will make friends with you first.

Curie and Baez Moore came from North Carolina and were fans of the Panthers, although one grew up in the wealthy Sherlock and another grew up in the remote Kelford. "

Sometimes when you meet someone for the first time, you know that he is a great guy.

Baez Moore talked about Currie.

The friendship between the two men went further in the late night training.

In order to survive in the league, Baez Moore continued to practice after the competition or training.

Baez Moore said, "I won't play in the game, but the guy is playing 35 minutes a night, and he is still shooting and shooting at the same place."

Friendship gives birth to commerce.

I have nothing to say, "Baez Moore boasted." yes, I am not ashamed of the UA brand.

I will tell him the name of Under Armour and tell him my high opinion of UA.

Then Currie said, brother's shoe contract is about to expire.

Then I grabbed the chance to tell him to switch to the UA camp, you will have your own signature shoes, and you will become our top card.

I didn't even talk to UA about this. I made a promise freely.

For salesman Baez Moore, it's time to get in touch with boss Stone.

I told Stone that I was trying to recruit curi, and he was somewhat interested.

But Stone did not give Baez any chance to relax. "

I will make three or four calls to the cup and cat almost every day.

Asked if he had talked with Currie? Did he talk to Currie? "What's the next step?" Stone said.

The meeting between UA and Currie was arranged in Sherlock, the hometown of Curie, and before the meeting between Nike and Currie.

Stone said he remembered that Currie asked a question. He said you did these things for Baez Moore. So what are you going to do for me? During the break, Baez sent a message to Baez Moore that he might sign UA.

For Baez Moore, everything he did was rewarded.

Three years later, now Baez Moore can get a six digit salary contract from UA. The new sneaker contract was finalized before Baez Moore signed an eagle last year.

Baez scored 6 points before he got the fat contract, and now he has steadily entered the rotation of the Hawks, playing 28 minutes.

Decision

Curie wants to become a superpower like the United States, and wants to learn to remain neutral like Switzerland.

He hopes to live in peace with Nike, even though he may now be Nike's biggest commercial threat.

When the representatives of Nike came to the Oracle arena, Currie welcomed them with a smile.

When Nike's Rap singer Drake visited Oakland, Curie and his wife Ayesha took him to the local In-N-Out snacks.

Perhaps for these reasons, Currie will use a smarter and witty way rather than frankly unfair treatment to describe his failure to negotiate with Nike.

"My favorite story is about little Riley."

Curry said.

It was a week before he made the decision to sign the final shoes, and Currie made a test for his daughter, little Riley, in his agent Jeff Austin's home.

Baby, what kind of shoes do you like? "Riley, who was just over 1 years old, put a pair of Nike sneakers, a pair of Adidas shoes and a pair of UA sneakers.

She picked up Nike sneakers, threw his shoes behind him, picked up a pair of Adidas shoes, and threw them back; finally he picked up third pairs of sneakers and handed them to my hand, which was UA's Anatomix Spawn, so I knew then how to decide.

"Laughed Currie.

Perhaps in this instant, perhaps because of the recruitment of Baez Moore for a year, or perhaps because of Nike's arrogance.

But for whatever reason, the result has been unable to change. Hundreds of millions of cash has been plugged into Maryland (Nike headquarters) from Oregon (UA headquarters).

The Next Frontier of Basketball

In fact, in 2013, Nike still had the right to match the contract of the curry shoes, which was equivalent to the restricted free agent matching NBA.

Even though curi himself is not willing, Nike still has the right to sign a matching offer contract with curry.

However, according to ESPN reporter Darren Rovell, Nike chose not to match the contract which was issued by UA for an average of less than $4 million a year.

Stone said, "the decision of mismatch is made by them.

This figure is not beyond their tolerance. They just do not intend to do so. "

The players want to join the Nike. They have always had such dreams since they were children. The value and cultural heritage of Nike are long-standing.

Jordan not only defined Nike in the past, but also sold far more players than players in service.

Although the most famous brand of Jordan is Jordan's original boots, they also unveiled new shoes for the new generation of Russell Westbrook.

In the latest Jordan 30 series of sneakers, Westbrook is shown in the picture, and the background voice is the cry of a child: "what are you waiting for? Are you waiting for a little boy to play guard?" obviously, Kiri and his team could not have missed such targeted advertising.

The final conclusion of the advertisement is "the new airspace of hegemony".

(The Next Frontier of Flight)

Perhaps this explains why Nike will miss Jordan. Over the past decade, they have been committed to finding and wrapping up the successors of Jordan, so that they have overlooked a player who has a more than average shooting ability. He has been seized by the company which is less than 1% of the market share of a sports shoe.

The new airspace of tyrant may not be able to control the entire stadium. Even though it can not fly, Curie can dominate the whole field with his range and change the times.

The next frontier of flight didn't happen to be the next the, "Dan", "Wei,", ","