At some point, James Harden of the Houston Rockets will have to deal with the fact that his ties with Nike are no longer in effect and that he will have to don a whole new set of wardrobe from rival brand Adidas.
After being spotted wearing Nike Air Jordans alongside girlfriend Khloe Kardashian recently, the getup seems to have caught the eye of a lot of onlookers who of course know that Harden is now under the wing of Adidas.
To refresh a bit, Harden has moved over to the three-striped brand after Nike decided not to match the record offer given to the Houston Rocket star guard.
Harden signed a 13-year deal with Adidas worth $200 million which places him among the top paid shoe endorsers such as Lebron James, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant.
The deal also makes Harden the top endorser for Adidas, ahead of other Adidas brand endorsers like Derrick Rose, Damian Lillard and John Wall.
Adidas is pinning its hopes on Harden whom they believe that the bearded one has the on and off-court buzz to stir up some noise for the company’s lifestyle business.
"The difference between football and basketball is that a guy like Aaron Rodgers doesn't have a walk-around shoe," says Mark King of Adidas via ESPN. "Harden does, and he will be in our lifestyle stuff."
Going back to the Nike-wearing Harden spotting, it should be noted that the deal between Harden and Adidas does not take effect until October 1 of this year. So in all, the folks who spotted Harden and Kardashian and reported by TMZ, may have overreacted a bit when they saw the couple a movie date to see 'Straight Outta Compton'.
On the other end, one would think that Harden would be doing his part of trying to flush out any remnants of his Nike deal considering his contract takes effect in a couple of weeks.
"That's part of the deal" says King when asked on whether Harden will have to stop wearing his Air Jordan collection in public.
Again, the scenario would be different if this had happened on or after October 1. There have been cases before like in 2001 where Reebok ended its deal with former NBA player Shawn Kemp.
At that time, Kemp made a controversial statement saying that the shoes of today weren't made as well and that his favorite pair of shoes were Nikes. Both sides eventually came to a settlement.
Hopefully, Harden doesn’t make the same foolish and tactless mistake.
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