Former director of the tennis sector at Nike, Mike Nakajima has still not digested the passage of Roger Federer at Uniqlo in 2018.
KEYSTONE
While he had almost become inseparable from the comma brand, Roger Federer had joined the Japanese firm for a juicy contract of 30 million dollars per year over 10 years. In a book entitled “The Roger Federer Effect”, written by Simon Chambers and Simon Graf, Mike Nakajima returned to this tumultuous departure which still remains in his throat today.
“Letting someone like Federer go like this is an atrocity. This should never have happened. Roger Federer should have stayed at Nike for the rest of his career. Just like Michael Jordan. Like LeBron James, like Tiger Woods. He is one of the greatest Nike athletes of all time. I’m always disappointed,” says the man who worked for the American company for almost 30 years.
Before concluding: “We should never have come to this. Nike still sells millions and millions of pairs of Jordans. When did Michael last play? It has been many, many years. They could have done the same for Roger. For years to come, they could have created shoes with an RF logo.”
