Reebok is close to signing an endorsement contract with 19-year-old Scoville Jenkins, who would become the first American male tennis player to sign with the sneaker company since it gambled successfully on a young Andy Roddick in 1999.
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| Scoville Jenkins would be the first American male player to sign with Reebok since 1999. |
Roddick severed ties with the company earlier this year and now endorses Lacoste.
Jenkins is an African-American player who advanced to the second round of the U.S. Open in September. He had worn Nike, but Reebok beat out its rivals with a roughly $300,000, three-year deal, plus bonuses for performances.
That seemed pricey to some for a player ranked No. 274, considering that many top 25 players don’t have deals that healthy.
“We didn’t participate because we thought it was too expensive,” said Marty Mulligan, a tennis scout with Fila.
A final contract is expected to be signed soon.
Notably, Adidas, which tried to sign Jenkins last year, did not compete this time around, sources said. Adidas is set to buy Reebok next year, but in the interim, the two companies have said it is business as usual. In tennis, that means competing against each other for talent to wear their gear and promote their brand. Adidas, which counts Americans Andre Agassi and Taylor Dent among its endorsers, did not respond to a query for comment.
Reebok’s head of tennis, Dianne Hayes, said she first met Jenkins at Wimbledon in 2004 and has been watching him since.
“He is a great fit for [Reebok] performance and apparel launches,” she said.
Jenkins began wearing the Reebok gear last week at a minor league tennis event in Sacramento and is scheduled to visit Reebok’s Massachusetts headquarters later this month.
He is among a group of young American tennis players the sport hopes will emerge to compete against the Europeans and South Americans who dominate the game.
Only two Americans — Roddick and Agassi — are ranked in the top 20. But Jenkins made some noise by winning a major boys’ amateur title last year, becoming the first African-American to do so at that event. And this year at the U.S. Open he won a five-setter in the first round, and gave No. 2 Rafael Nadal a good match before bowing out.
“He is an exciting, charismatic, young player that at this pace … can become a real factor in the American tennis landscape,” said Tom Ross, head of men’s tennis at Octagon.
For Reebok, Jenkins joins a slim list of tennis endorsers. Once a big name in the sport with the likes of Todd Martin, Michael Chang, Patrick Rafter and Roddick, Reebok has grown very selective while it has increased its role in team sports such as the NFL and NBA. It also has looked to musicians for endorsements.
Venus Williams still wears Reebok but has been without a contract since January 2004. While the company tried to re-sign Roddick, negotiations grew acrimonious during the spring and he bolted.
Its endorsement roster in the sport includes Nicole Vaidisova, a WTA player from the Czech Republic who is ranked 18th, as well as the Israeli Shahar Peer, ranked 48th.
