Kobe Bryant has a shoe again, and Nike has its Michael Jordan replica.
The endorsement deal that had been expected for months, since rival Reebok withdrew from the competition for Bryant, or perhaps for a year, since Adidas and Bryant split last summer, was confirmed Monday by a source close to Bryant.
In the wake of Jordan's retirement and Nike's reported seven-year, $90-million deal with high schooler LeBron James, the company reached agreement with Bryant for between $40 million and $45 million over five years, according to a shoe industry insider.
The same insider said that Bryant, who spent several days recently at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., would receive royalties on a planned signature shoe, which would boost the total value of the deal, though not necessarily into the range of the James contract.
Bryant, in seven NBA seasons on the league's highest-profile team, has won three championships, twice was first-team All-NBA and five times was an All-Star. James led his high school team to the Ohio state title.
The disparity, in part, speaks to sluggish sales of Bryant's Adidas shoes. That relationship ended abruptly and with a handful of conditions that limited Bryant's options and cost him plenty. After buying himself out of the Adidas contract and factoring in lost fees, Bryant could have lost as much as $18 million in a season spent playing other brands, none of which paid him.
"I don't know if we have any proof that Kobe's endorsement sells shoes," said Rick Burton, executive director of Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. "No disrespect to Kobe -- he's a great guy -- but historically, if you look at what happened at Adidas, there's not proof [of his ability to sell shoes]. Kobe could be justified in saying the product wasn't right, the marketing wasn't right, that it wasn't Kobe, it was the product. But, if we take a historical perspective, we don't know that Kobe's name attached to a shoe will cause it to sell."
He settled on Nike in February, about the time Reebok went public with its withdrawal from negotiations and about the time Bryant concluded a run of nine games in which he scored at least 40 points. Although the season ended poorly for the Lakers -- they lost in the Western Conference semifinals to the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs -- Bryant averaged a career-high 30 points and cemented his status as one of the league's marquee players.
