Irving’s Nike signature shoe was popular with NBA players and one of the best-selling basketball sneakers across all brands before they split in 2022.
Chinese sports brand Anta announced a new partnership with Kyrie Irving on Tuesday night, seven months after Nike severed its relationship with the eight-time All-Star point guard.
Anta said Irving would serve as its chief creative officer and help recruit other players, brands and “influential figures in pop culture” to collaborate with him on additional product lines. Anta is launching youth basketball training camps in China with Irving and expects his on-court signature shoes and lifestyle footwear to be available in the first quarter of 2024. The terms of the agreement were not released.
“The first step in becoming partners is to share the same dreams, goals and missions,” Irving said in a release announcing the news. “Anta’s rapid development over the years, openness to creativity, willingness to embrace family and teamwork, expertise in areas like product innovation and manufacturing processes have left a remarkable impression on not just me, but also my A11Even team.”
Anta CEO Xu Yang said the collaboration will “create a fusion of Chinese and Western cultures.”
Irving’s Nike signature shoe was one of the best-selling basketball sneakers across all brands, often only behind LeBron James among current players. Irving recently posted on Twitter that his shoes generated more than $2.6 billion in revenue during the past seven years. His shoes resonated with youth players and were also available at lower price points than those from James or Kevin Durant. NBA players also gravitated to the sneakers; only Kobe Bryant’s signature line was more popular with players last season, per the Baller Shoes DB database.
The Nike-Kyrie partnership began in 2011 when he was drafted first overall by the Cavaliers, and it was one of the richest in basketball, worth more than $10 million annually. The pairing began to sour in 2021 when Irving called the design of his latest shoe “trash.” In November 2022, Nike suspended its relationship with Irving, and said it would not release his Kyrie 8 shoe following the backlash he faced after posting a link to the film Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America on social media and repeatedly refused to denounce antisemitism. Nike and Irving officially split the following month.
Anta, stylized as ANTA, was founded in 1991 and got a global boost with Beijing hosting the Olympic Games in 2008 and 2022. It controls 14.8% of the Chinese sportswear market, including Fila, which it acquired the Chinese rights to in 2009. Nike is the leader of that market at 15.3%, according to research firm Euromonitor. Anta’s parent company, Anta Sports Products, trades on the Hong Kong stock exchange and had total revenue of roughly $8 billion last year. Nike’s annual global revenues are $51 billion with Adidas at $23 billion. Anta has more than 9,000 retail stores throughout Asia.
Klay Thompson has been Anta’s biggest NBA star since he signed with the brand in 2014. Other NBA players on the endorsement roster include Gordon Hayward, Kevon Looney and Terance Mann.
The Mavericks traded for Irving last season and recently signed him to a three-year contract worth $120 million, plus up to $6 million in incentives.
Source : Sportico
