NBA Finals Kick Off With an Old (Footwear) Friend

Nike’s Swoosh logo — and its Air Jordan silhouette — are virtually synonymous with the concept of unrepentantly slamming an inflated sphere of leather down over the top of someone’s head. That’s thanks to the shoemaker’s savvy endorsement deal with His Airness Michael Jordan in the 1980s that exploded its market share and paved the way for later deals with poster artists like Vince Carter and Lebron James and scoring machines like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant.

But when the NBA Finals kicked off last night, the high-flying MVP of the National Basketball League and the biggest star of the series, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, was laced up in Converse. A sputtering brand that dominated basketball half a century ago, it sure could use the publicity. Lucky for Nike, it owns Converse now, unlike in the 1980s.

Bringing Back the Magic

The art of dunking all over people — heck, the balletic majesty of the entire modern NBA — was pioneered by Julius “Dr. J” Erving in the 1970s at a time when he, and most basketball players, wore Converse high-top sneakers that you’re more likely to see today at a beer league softball game or a pop punk show. He made Chuck Taylors so cool that Jordan himself, who idolized Dr. J, wore them before inking the Nike deal that turned the Portland-based upstart into the world’s biggest sneaker company and inspired a half-decent big-screen reunion of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

Nike’s Jordan-fueled rise, ironically, would contribute to Converse filing for bankruptcy in 2001 after it failed to keep pace with the emerging competition. Nike bought it for $305 million two years later, though results have been up and down since — revenue for Converse dropped 18% to $405 million in Nike’s latest quarter, reflecting the parent’s own struggles to maintain relevance in an increasingly crowded field. Global Data estimates Nike’s share of the global sportswear market fell to 14.1% last year from 15.2% in 2023, while Adidas, New Balance, On, and Hoka all gained ground. Having Gilgeous-Alexander’s rising star attached to its subsidiary could be a way of capitalizing on the fraying:

• An increasing share of NBA endorsement deals has been spread among shoe firms fighting for a piece of Nike’s market share: Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid is inked with Skechers, Golden State Warriors icon Steph Curry rocks Under Armour, and Tyrese Haliburton, the Indiana Pacers star whose underdog team stole the first finals game from Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder on Thursday, is signed with Puma.
• This fall, Converse will release the league MVP’s own basketball shoe, the $130 Shai 001, capitalizing on its highest-profile talent since the days of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, but with Nike reaping the windfall of the market’s move away from the swoosh.

Drink Up: The decentralization of endorsements has hit other sports products where competition is fierce. The star of this year’s Stanley Cup Finals and the world’s undisputed best hockey player, Connor McDavid of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, signed with Coca-Cola-owned sports drink Bodyarmor last year and became one of the faces of a rebrand launched in April. It’s trying to win market share from Pepsi’s dominant Gatorade, which has the weight of longstanding partnerships with the NFL and NBA behind it.