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Both come from Nike and the Thunder. Now on the court and in the mall, the two are facing each other tit for tat. This has nothing to do with it. The MVP battle will continue for a long, long time.

Text/KrisYu

Editor/Chen Siyi

The voting for this season’s MVP has ended, and the topic of “Westbrook VS Harden” continues throughout the season , also came to an end temporarily as the Thunder and Rockets were eliminated one after another. However, when it comes to the field of sportswear, the competition between the two is far from over.

James Harden, the leader of adidas basketball, and Westbrook, the leader of Jordan Brand under Nike, will continue to compete for their respective brands. Today, let’s talk about Harden and Westbrook’s sneaker journey.

Let’s start with the current sponsorship situation between the two.

The love-hate relationship between Harden and Adidas

As we all know, Harden gained his brother-in-law Kanye West during his relationship with Khloe Kardashian in the summer of 2015. The new owner, the German brand Adidas, has offered a lucrative deal: US$200 million in 2013!

In fact, to put it bluntly, signing Harden as an endorsement was Adidas’ last resort choice at the time: Derrick Rose, the youngest MVP in history who had been promoted for many years, was no longer good after several overhauls. Howard's form has declined, and sales of his signature shoes as a center have been bleak; and rookies such as Wiggins and Dante Exum who were signed the previous year failed to form a youth storm that swept the league.

At the same time, rival Nike has a talent explosion. Apart from James, Durant and Kobe, the new generation’s Kyrie Irving has launched his first signature shoe and has received high praise. ; Paul George suffered a serious injury but is gradually recovering, and his future road to signature shoes is worth looking forward to; even UA, where the new MVP Curry sits, has surpassed Adidas' North American market share.

At this time, the only heavyweight "free agent in the sneaker market" this season is James Harden, who just led the Rockets to the Western Conference Finals and finished second in the MVP selection. However, when Harden is really spending a lot of money, Adidas also has hidden worries: the off-court image of the "little nightclub prince" has always been criticized, and this has been involved in the soap opera of the Kardashian family. The beard can leave some strength to play on the court. I can't help but let him know. People sweated.

As expected, the 2015/16 season was a nightmare for both the Rockets and Harden. The head coach fired after a losing streak at the start of the season, and Harden, who endorses the Crazy Light Boost series, was out of shape and in a sluggish state... It wasn't until the Say Goodbye love triangle with Odom and Kohler in February that Harden gradually regained his form.

However, the season is over. The Rockets and Harden, who barely made it into the playoffs, were swept out by the Warriors without any suspense. Adidas, the new top basketball player, was not even selected for the third best team. Good lineup. Seeing that the tailor-made Harden signature shoes are about to be released, the appeal of the spokesperson has declined instead of rising. Many people lamented that Adidas has made another bad move this time.

However, it was a blessing in disguise. Last season's sluggishness forced the team to "go all out". The Rockets have undergone huge personnel changes this season. D'Antoni took office and also brought in a number of pitchers suitable for small ball play.

In the new environment, Harden, who learned his shame in the summer and worked hard in training, is even more at home. He has repeatedly performed amazingly. At the end of last year, he scored 53 points, 16 rebounds and 17 assists against the Knicks. level data. Such a strong performance also gives the Harden generation the best endorsement for its release.

The first black and gold color matching "ImmaBeAStar" was sold out soon after it was launched, allowing Adidas to rekindle hope in the basketball category. Harden, the life-saving straw in the hands of the Germans, finally put the rocket on track and moved forward steadily wearing his own signature shoes.

But at the end of the season, Adidas' Harden gradually lost his glory. It's not that Beard's performance has declined, but that one of his former teammates has shown unparalleled, epic competitiveness.

The new opportunity Westbrook brings to Nike

Russell Westbrook, who stole the media spotlight with his explosive performance and shocking triple-double data, jumped into the spotlight Become an MVP favorite. Durant left, Ibaka left the team, and in such a difficult environment to fight against OKC, one man and one city, Westbrook wrote the most American personal heroism script like a Hollywood blockbuster. Defeat the Magic, defeat the Nuggets, average a triple-double in the season, break the ancient record that has been dusted for nearly half a century, it is really amazing!

Seeing such scenes, how could Westbrook’s sponsor Jordan, or its parent company Nike, which is the best at marketing, miss the hot spot? No, before the end of the regular season, Jordan Brand immediately announced that it would release Westbrook’s personal version of the AJ30.5, which immediately set off a craze in the shoe industry. Just like Westbrook's unruly personality, his personal PE "WhyNot" screams to the world that the quasi-MVP will go his own way and never admit defeat.

Then the question is:

The MVP competition between Westbrook and Harden is in full swing, so is there a competitive relationship between the shoes endorsed by these two?

In the author's opinion, the difference in the brand's positioning of spokespersons means that the two have no direct confrontation in the field of sneakers.

As mentioned earlier, Harden is the "portal signature" of Adidas Basketball, and the brand will definitely spend all its resources to promote and sell its signature shoes.

This is indeed the case. From the moment Harden signed, the Germans positioned him as the top player in the basketball category. They designed logos, released promotional videos, held sneaker conferences, and took various measures. However, Beard's overly utilitarian foul-drawing style also led to a lack of ability to attract fans, which was a major obstacle to the sales of his signature shoes.

Looking back at Westbrook, after Wade was poached by Li Ning, AJ supported the Oklahoma City Turtles to serve as the spokesperson for Air Jordan's official shoes. No connection. However, relatively speaking, Westbrook's signature shoes seem a bit tasteless.

After all, as the main spokesperson of the current generation of shoes, Westbrook has a personal actual signature shoe branch, which is really not in line with Jordan's brand planning and positioning. Offering "casual signature shoes" can be regarded as some compensation for Westbrook. Bar. Westbrook0 is affiliated with NSW (Nike Sportswear), which complements Westbrook's trendy male image.

Let’s look at sales. Since the Harden generation has not been on the market for a long time, the author has not yet obtained specific sales data. However, based on basketball shoe sales reports and brand share in recent years, we can speculate that the sales of AJ31 or Air Jordan’s original shoes (non-reissues) launched every year far exceed those of Adidas’ signature shoes.

Although Harden has exploded this season, shortcomings in his style of play make it difficult for his signature shoes to be on par with non-replicate shoes from Nike or Jordan. As for Westbrook's casual signature shoes, they no longer belong to the category of traditional star signature shoes. Competitors such as Adidas and Under Armor have not yet entered this field, so they are not suitable for comparison.

In fact, looking back at the sponsorship history of the two, it is not difficult to find that the sneaker paths of Westbrook and Harden almost turned into a completely different situation.

In the summer of 2012, when Westbrook’s rookie sponsorship contract expired, rumors that he was about to sign with Adidas were rampant. The official Instagram of Adidas Philippines even posted the news impatiently, but it was deleted soon after.

However, I don’t know whether it was the injury of good brother Rose that made the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feel timid, or Jordan’s rationalization and emotion after losing Wade. Anyway, the final result was: Westbrook stayed. In the Nike camp, he switched to Jordan Brand to take over the endorsement banner of original shoes.

Imagine, if the second brother really changed his college sponsor adidas (sponsored UCLA), then how likely is it that the third brother would get the treatment that the three stripes receive today?

It’s just that there are no ifs in life.

In the next few years, we will all have the honor to witness TheBrodie, the lone hero wearing AirJordan, and the Adidas basketball barista TheBeard fighting on the court. They both come from Nike, and they also come from the Thunder. Now on the court and in the mall, the two are facing each other tit for tat. This battle that goes beyond "MVP" will continue for a long, long time.