Former Nike director in charge of tennis, Mike Nakajima, believes Roger Federer was well placed to become a big brand, while the fact that Novak Djokovic is from Serbia was taken into account by Nike when he s it’s about deciding whether or not to sign with the Serb.
When Roger Federer was just 14 years old, he was scouted by Nike and the famous sportswear brand signed a sponsorship deal with the Swiss. In 2018, Federer announced amazing news when he left Nike to sign a 10-year contract with UNIQLO..
Rafael Nadal, who created one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports with Federer, is also sponsored by Nike. But 22-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic was never part of the Nike family.
Nakajima explains why Nike chose Federer over Djokovic.
“I have nothing against Novak – he is a great player, he speaks well and can become the greatest player of all time. But from a marketing point of view, we felt that Serbia was not a big market for us and we took that into account.
Switzerland wasn’t very big either, but when Roger Federer became “The Roger Federer”, he became a world athlete and that was enough for us. Nike thought Roger was a very promising young athlete, and we could see tennis evolving in Europe,” Nakajima told Talking-Tennis.
As for Nadal, Nakajima hinted that Spain is already a big market for Nike and their goal is to make Federer and the Spaniard the faces of their brand in the tennis world.
“Spain is a huge market for Nike, and Rafa has a lot of followers. So Roger and Rafa are the athletes we decided to partner with, and you have to be true to his principles.
When they are 16, 17 or 18, everyone knows them, at least our competitors, so we focus on 11, 12, 13 and 14 year olds,” Nakajima added. According to reports, Federer left Nike in 2018 because UNIQLO made a much better financial offer.
2023-04-23 03:09:36
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