Wrapped inside the NBA’s new 11-year, $400 million partnership with Adidas is a plan to boost the league’s merchandise sales through the creation of Adidas-NBA specialty shops.
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Adidas’ Erich Stamminger talked about his
company’s deal with the NBA, replacing Reebok
(worn by Allen Iverson, inset). |
Adidas will test market its NBA concept store at the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. If that effort proves successful, the Germany-based company and the league plan to expand the stores both domestically and internationally.
“The concept store will be used to showcase what we can do at retail and use it as a launching pad for stores on a global basis,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern. “[Adidas] has several [specialty] stores in the U.S. and 800 around the world.”
Adidas also will sell custom-designed, co-branded shoes for the NBA’s 30 teams, an expanded effort compared with Reebok, which had 16 styles under the NBA logo but did not sell team-specific footwear.
The NBA refuses to disclose specific dollar figures, but league merchandise sales peaked at $3 billion after the 2004-05 season. In addition, at the All-Star break in February, merchandise sales were up 7 percent over last year at the break, according to Sal LaRocca, senior vice president of global merchandising for the NBA.
Adidas, whose deal to replace Reebok as official uniform supplier was announced last week, is banking on recouping its investment on a more global sales effort.
“[The growth] percentages will definitely be double digits every year,” said Adidas President and CEO Erich Stamminger.
The company has 2,100 retail outlets in China, a key distribution point for NBA merchandise as the league continues to look to China for growth.
This year, the USA Basketball men’s team, its roster made up primarily of NBA players, will play exhibition games in China. Stern also said the league remains on track to bring NBA teams back to China in 2007 following preseason games featuring Sacramento and Houston in Shanghai and Beijing before the 2004-05 season.
“When you see the strength Adidas is having in Asia and how fast we are growing, we can switch on the lights tomorrow in our stores and immediately give many millions of fans in China the NBA products,” Stamminger said.
Reebok has held the NBA’s exclusive merchandising rights since 2001, but its sale to Adidas, finalized earlier this year, allowed the NBA to reopen its apparel agreement.
