Blue Jays P Marcus Stroman last month announced that he had split with Jordan Brand, "hinting" the company had forced him to "choose between them and his personal brand" -- Height Doesn’t Measure Heart, according to Morgan Campbell of the TORONTO STAR. Stroman tweeted, "Crazy that I had to end my partnership with my @Jumpman23 family because they didn’t want me to spread the message of #HDMH to the world. Hurts beyond belief. Either way, the climb continues!” The breakup "illustrates the minefield of overlapping sponsorships that brand-conscious athletes are forced to navigate as they seek to balance entrepreneurship with a dizzying array of corporate partnerships." A Jordan Brand spokesperson said, "While Marcus was a member of the Jordan Brand family, he wasn't under contract." Campbell notes the two sides had been partnering since February '16. Stroman's list of corporate partners has "grown to include American Express, Lyft and energy drink BioSteel, each of them happy to leverage Stroman’s social media reach." His Twitter account has "roughly 453,000 followers, while more than 496,000 people follow him on Instagram." But less than two years after announcing the deal, BioSteel "appears to have distanced itself from Stroman." Stroman "last appeared on the company’s Instagram feed in early November and his profile has disappeared from its website." Another factor in that relationship could be that the Blue Jays' bullpen and dugout "feature Powerade" (TORONTO STAR, 1/15).
