Beginning in the 2017-2018 season, there will be a different kind of swoosh visible on every NBA court.
Just yesterday, the NBA and Nike penned an eight-year partnership that will see Nike become the exclusive apparel maker of the NBA, taking over from Adidas. As part of this deal, the NBA is allowing Nike to place their logo on every team’s jersey, which is a first for the league. Nike has been a marketing partner of the NBA since 1992, but this will be the furthest that Nike has extended the partnership. According to Bloomberg Business, the partnership is purported to cost Nike around $1 billion, a significant increase in what Adidas was reported to have paid in 2006—$400 million. Additionally, this agreement will see Nike extend the breadth of its reach in the WNBA, which it was already a marketing partner with, and Nike will also make the uniforms for the NBA Development League (D-League).
While this is the first time Nike will be making NBA uniforms, they are not unfamiliar to basketball. The company already makes the uniforms for USA Basketball, and is responsible for 90 percent of all basketball shoe retail in the U.S. Nike also has endorsements with many of NBA’s biggest players, such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and Kyrie Irving.
Fans will be hoping Nike can use some of its innovative and creative powers, having not really pushed the innovation envelope with their NFL apparel deal, whom it signed a uniform contract with in 2012. Adidas’ introduction of sleeved NBA jerseys created a stir, so we will have to wait to see what Nike can do with NBA jerseys.