When
a swoosh was down at heel
JordanZone.com
- Jordan Shoes, Air Jordan Shoes, Michael Jordan
Shoes
USA (Jordan Zone) When a swoosh
was down at heel - As budding 15-year-old runner
I was given a special pair of racing shoes by
Brendan Foster. Big Bren had just returned after
racing in the States and as reward for my recent
performances he gave me the shoes, which were
in turn a gift from the American running legend
Steve Prefontaine who, sadly, would die later
that year. They were yellow with a waffled sole
and bore a trademark I had never seen. It was
the Nike swoosh.
Bren, being an Adidas man, passed them on and
they happened to sit for a season before I outgrew
them. As far as I know I was the first athlete
to run in a pair of Nike shoes in this country.
I mention this because last week the American
golfing protege Michelle Wie, who turns 16 today,
celebrated by receiving a present from the same
company - a four-year contract reputed to be
worth $20m (£11.4m ). Happy Birthday.
Throw in another lucrative deal with Sony as
pocket money and Michelle can ponder early retirement
some time before she turns 20, but hopefully
not before she actually wins something. The
signature of Wie on the substantial contract,
similar to that given to Tiger Woods, shows
just how much importance Nike and the other
leading sports brands still place on celebrity
patronage. This, of course, has always been
the case, however, the nature of the business
and the size of the contract have altered significantly.
Nike began as purely a running shoe company
and much of its early success came on the back
of British athletes ruling the world. Seb Coe,
Steve Ovett, Dave Moorcroft and myself all wore
the familiar trademark through the most successful
years of our careers.
Athletes, not footballers, sold shoes and were
given contracts that seem almost laughable now,
but set them up as the highest earners of their
day. Just the bonuses for breaking a world record
were in the region of most first division footballers'
annual salaries. Indeed, many top-level players
were happy just to receive free kits. Contracts
were rare and often resulted in back-door arrangements
that these days would give the respective legal
departments a field day. In the European Championship
final of 1982 I was persuaded by Nike to wear
a specially prepared Great Britain vest bearing
the swoosh. Adidas were the official team supplier
but with no binding contract. So after winning
my first championship gold medal the back pages
the next day were full of the row over what
I was wearing instead of the race itself.
The wonderfully named Robin Money from Adidas
wanted to hold the governing body responsible
but, legally, had no case. They had been the
victims of one of the first examples of ambush
marketing in sports. Henceforth all team kit
deals became commodities with monetary value
and were contractually binding. Football, though,
still played on a barren ground. Despite some
big deals being offered to athletes and the
likes of John McEnroe in tennis, the football
boys were still on meagre pickings. When Aston
Villa won the European Cup that same year Nike
picked up a deal with the whole team for about
£5,000 per man, even though at the time
they had no boots to sell in the shops. In fact,
some of their early boots were so poor that
the football rep had to paint a white swoosh
over other brands so the player could use his
favourite boot and still take the cash.
During the mid-80s things changed quickly as
the brands branched out from the sport shelves.
Reebok captured the aerobics craze in the United
States and in basketball a new star emerged
in the athletic frame of Michael Jordan. One
shoe, the Air Jordan, outsold every other making
him millions. In contrast I had a similar arrangement
with a shoe and clothing line here. We chose
yellow because that was the colour of my club
vest. However, they failed to mention that nobody
buys yellow shoes no matter who is endorsing
them. Ten per cent of not very much is even
less.
The Jordan experience showed that marrying a
product to the image of the individual could
bring rewards for both parties. The result on
the field became less important as long as the
fit was right. There are fewer contracts around
today but those that do exist tend to be in
the "mega" department and, to avoid
losing out, companies are offering them at a
much earlier stage in a sporting career. In
the UK, many youngsters are being measured up
in the search for the potential stars of 2012.
Maybe if golf makes it into the Olympics we
can persuade Wie to make a comeback.
By the way, if anyone knows where that first
pair of shoes ended up I would love to have
them back. It's my birthday this week. They
might be worth something.
Jordan Zone.com
October 11, 2005
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