The Berlin Wall of sports marketing tumbled down last week when Nike and the U.S. Olympic Committee made official what had been anticipated since the middle of last year — they're teaming up in 2005.
Nike Inc., the global maker of athletic footwear, apparel and sports equipment, reached agreement on a four-year sponsorship contract with the USOC, sealing a professional romance unimaginable only a decade ago. The deal was first reported by SportsBusiness Journal's Terry Lefton in May.
Terms of the deal, which elevates Nike to the status of sponsor, supplier and licensee of U.S. Olympic teams for one Olympic Winter Games (Turin 2006) and one Summer Games (Beijing 2008), were not disclosed. Based on price tags approved by existing USOC sponsors, Nike's investment in a formal association with the Olympic rings is expected to be a low-eight-figure sum.
In 1992, Nike advertised aggressively around the Barcelona Summer Games and garnered endless publicity through members of basketball's USA Dream Team, the first to be composed mainly of NBA stars. Michael Jordan and other athletes under Nike contracts did not back down when USOC officials declined to make exceptions about wearing official sponsor warm-ups provided by rival Reebok. Ultimately, Jordan draped an American flag over his shoulder to cover the Reebok logo.
Four years later, at the Atlanta Games, Nike remained a non-sponsor criticized by angry USOC officials such as then-marketing chief John Krimsky as being parasitic ambush marketers. In Atlanta, Nike operated a high-profile control center and spent a reported $35 million on ads, including the notorious "You Don't Win Silver. You Lose Gold" campaign.
The category Nike is acquiring is known as "podium attire," or the apparel American Olympians will wear when they earn a medal. A key competitor, Adidas, owns the U.S. podium attire category for the Athens Games this summer. Roots had it for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
The Nike swoosh also will appear on future licensed Team USA retail apparel, said Jim Grice, the USOC's chief of sales and marketing.
USOC Chief Executive Jim Scherr said he expects the partnership to include sharing of sports science research, a priority for both. "It was discussed pretty extensively throughout," Scherr said. "We know they are committed to pushing the frontiers of technology."
As recently as a year ago, Adidas signaled that renewal would not be automatic.
Meanwhile, as long ago as late 2001, IMG senior executive Bob Kain had initiated casual discussion with Nike's vice president of global sports marketing, Ian Todd. IMG is the USOC's sponsorship broker.
During the Salt Lake Games in February 2002, Todd invited USOC officials to lunch inside Nike's hospitality headquarters. Included was then-chief executive Lloyd Ward, who resigned a year later amid an ethics scandal.
But dialogue between Nike and the USOC resumed in early 2003 as new leadership emerged, including Scherr and Grice. An agreement in principle between Nike and the USOC has been in place for months.
"[Nike] will be a major player," said Rob Prazmark, IMG president of Olympic sales and marketing. "This agreement shows the real power of the [Olympic] brand."
Steve Woodward is a writer in Illinois.
