Cyrus Langhorne
Mega sportswear company Nike has something to brag about this week after announcing a return to working with the National Basketball Association (NBA) on an eight-year deal.
According to reports, the iconic organization’s apparel partnership will begin in 2017.
The NBA announced on Wednesday that it has signed an apparel deal with Nike beginning with the 2017-18 season. The deal is an eight-year partnership. Financial terms were not immediately disclosed, but the deal is worth roughly $1 billion, according to sources, which is approximately a 245 percent annual increase from the previous deal. (ESPN)
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has confirmed the billion-dollar news.
“This partnership with Nike represents a new paradigm in the structure of our global merchandising business. As our exclusive oncourt apparel provider, Nike will be instrumental in our collective efforts to grow the game globally while applying the latest in technology to the design of our uniforms and oncourt products.” (Statement)
Earlier this year, Kanye talked about launching his Yeezy 750 Boost adidas sneakers.
“I didn’t want them to be limited, that’s something the company did,” Kanye revealed. “I really want as many people as possible to get them. I didn’t want the price to be 350 [dollars], I don’t want to play this sneaker culture game with costs and they’ll be re-selling them for high prices and stuff. I just want people to have what I make. There ain’t no limited release of The College Dropout [album] – I think with clothing right now, there’s real separatism.” (“The Breakfast Club”)
Back in 2013, Kanye talked about his breakup from Nike after a few successful releases.
“This is an analogy, so this is nothing. 50 is my brother, Game is my brother, but I just want to use this as an analogy because I want to put this into rap terms so you can understand what happened and why I was frustrated. So say 50 signs Game and gives him the opportunity to do a demo. Just one song or something. He does that song and everybody likes that song better than any song 50 had done over the past ten years, since 50 made the Jordans. And 50 saw that and was like, ‘Huh, I don’t know about that.’ But then people, everybody’s pressuring him, ‘Let him do it again.’ So he lets him do one more song and that’s even bigger. So 50’s like, ‘I don’t even know that.’ Then Game is like, ‘Can I do more?’ They’re like, ‘I don’t know.’ And 50 is just sending people to Game to just talk to him. He won’t even talk to him himself. Said, ‘Can I do more?’ He won’t even get on the phone with him. This man made the biggest song and it’s for G-Unit. 50 won’t even talk to him. So that’s what I’m talking about when I say Mark Parker.” (V-103)
All hail NIKE.