The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Nike Inc. announced an eight-year global merchandising and marketing partnership that will make Nike the official oncourt apparel provider beginning with the 2017-18 NBA season.
“This partnership with Nike represents a new paradigm in the structure of our global merchandising business,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “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.”
Nike has a rich history of innovating and leading from the front, and has supported some of the greatest former and current NBA and WNBA players. The company has been a global marketing partner of the NBA since 1992 and expands its rights over eight years under the new agreement, where Nike will become the first NBA apparel partner to have its logo appear on NBA uniforms. Nike will also have the global rights to design and manufacture authentic and Swingman jerseys as well as oncourt warm-ups and shooting shirts.
“We’re excited to bring the full power of our global reach, innovation and creativity to partner with the NBA and grow the game in a way only Nike can,” said Nike, Inc. President & CEO Mark Parker. “In Nike, Jordan and Converse we have three of the most connected brands in the world, and look forward to making the global growth of the game a successful strategy for both the NBA and Nike.”
A marketing partner of the WNBA since its inception in 1997, Nike will now have an expanded presence at WNBA All-Star and other events throughout the season. Also, for the first time, Nike will become a marketing partner of the NBA Development League (NBA D-League), engaging in seasonlong marketing activities with a major presence during the NBA D-League All-Star Game presented by Kumho Tire and the NBA D-League Showcase presented by Samsung.
In addition, the partnership will activate around several NBA events such as NBA All-Star, NBA Global Games, NBA Draft presented by State Farm, Samsung NBA Summer League and NBA 3X. Nike will remain the official partner and apparel provider of Basketball without Borders.
Nike has served as the footwear and exclusive apparel provider of USA Basketball since 2006.
About the NBA: The NBA is a global sports and media business built around three professional sports leagues: the National Basketball Association, the Women’s National Basketball Association, and the NBA Development League. The league has established a major international presence with offices in 13 markets worldwide, games and programming in 215 countries and territories in 47 languages, and NBA merchandise for sale in more than 125,000 stores in 100 countries on 6 continents. NBA rosters at the start of the 2014-15 season featured a record 101 international players from 37 countries and territories. NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, which is available in 60 million U.S. homes, and NBA.com, which recorded 26.9 billion page views during the 2013-14 season, with more than half of all visitors originating from outside of North America. The NBA is the No. 1 professional sports league on social media, with nearly 835 million likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms. Through NBA Cares, the league and its teams and players have donated more than $260 million to charity, completed more than 3.3 million hours of hands-on community service, and created more than 970 places where kids and families can live, learn, or play.
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