Nike struck absolute gold when they signed Caitlyn Clark to an 8-year 28 million endorsement deal so why in the world are they ignoring [Music] [Music] her what's up you guys I'm Rachel deita and welcome to the Courtside Club at the start of this year's WNBA season it was announced that Caitlyn Clark signed a massive endorsement deal with Nike this deal was for $8 years $28 million with a signature sneaker included now at the time a lot of us were so excited about this Nike is obviously the biggest brand in Athletic Apparel and Caitlyn seemed to
be a perfect fit for the brand 28 million at the time while some people including myself were saying that this might be a little bit too low because of the superstar that she is it seemed to be like a fantastic deal now since she has signed this contract you guys and her WNBA season has come and gone and with that Nike has not done one thing to promote her we have not seen any commercials we have not seen any ads we have not seen any Caitlyn Clark merchandise and we for sure as hell have not
seen any Caitlyn Clark signature shoes it is mindblowing when the deal was first announced we also got to see the other offers that were on the table for Caitlyn Clark and as you can see Under Armour offered her four years for 16 million which by a year-by-year basis she would actually be making more per year if she had signed with Under Armour however it was a shorter deal Under Armour came to her and said that she could be the face of the women's line on the Steph Curry side because her and Steph's game is so
similar and I feel like looking back in retrospect that might have been the perfect place for Caitlyn because I feel like Under Armour for sure wouldn't have ignored her this entire season and missed out on so many marketing dollars the thing that is the most surprising about this is if you guys remember when Caitlyn Clark was playing at Iowa Nike ran ads about her when she broke the record for the most points in NCAA scoring history for both the men and the women Nike put up this huge billboard that's basically like if you break it
you own it and this was in Iowa they had other ads and things that came out but since then it has been crickets I personally don't understand how a brand like Nike who has had athletes like Serena Williams like LeBron James like Michael Jordan who branched off and made his his own brand in itself who has wemi who by the way they signed wemi for an over100 million contract which this is absolutely no shade to wemi I love wemi he is a upand cominging superstar and there was so much hype for him coming into the
leag League however I will say that Kaitlin Clark has created more Buzz around the basketball landscape and has actually transformed and revived a league that was the WNBA and she is getting paid a meas 28 million for 8 years as opposed to wem's 100 I believe that Caitlyn Clark if they would have released a signature shoe for her this season they would have made a killing Sabrina nescu has a shoe with Nike and it is very similar to like a Kobe or a Kyrie shoe it's actually honestly like it feels like it's a Kyrie shoe
and there are a lot of men who wear the sabrinas as well that is an example where you don't need to take all of this time in developing the greatest first shoe for a player you have Kyrie prototypes you have all of these different shoes at your disposal at Nike and you've done it for other players wy's shoe is out LeBron when he came into the league and there was so much hype around him he also was somebody who signed a 100 plus million dollar I mean his contract was like so insane but hundreds of
millions of dollar contract with Nike coming out of high school LeBron had a shoe going into his first season they didn't skip a beat so why in the world are they being so quiet about Caitlyn either one there's some stuff going on behind the scenes at at Nike their stock has dropped like 20% this year I know that they have fired people hired new people like there's a lot of moving parts that to me I know they're blaming some of it on that but that seems to be such a small Minor Detail when you have
the gold mine that is Caitlyn Clark it seems to me that it is more on the political side as to why Caitlyn Clark is not getting the praise the commercials the ads the merch like all of the things that she should have gotten during this rookie season Nike hasn't produced One ad or commercial featuring Clark since she turned Pro and despite a signature shoe being part of Nike's agreement with Clark it may not be released until 2026 according to sports business reporter Ethan stuss he reports Nike wants to prioritize Asia Wilson and it fears the
Optics of giving a rookie a signature shoe before an already established star who just won League MVP for the third time we have talked about this multiple times on my channel is Asia Wilson currently the best player in the WNBA yes is Caitlin Clark currently the face of the WNBA yes do I think if Asia Wilson dropped a shoe and Caitlyn Clark dropped a shoe today at the very same time that Caitlyn Clark would outsell Asia's shoe by a 100 times yes I think that would be the case and I'm like sorry to break that
news to everybody whether it's fair whether it's whatever that's just the truth we saw the jersey sales numbers we didn't actually see the actual numbers but we saw the top jersey sales in the WNBA this season in Asia despite being being a third time MVP her jersey sales were fifth in the league even after Kate Martin who barely saw the court the second half of this season your play on the court doesn't always equate to how many shoes you will sell a prime example of this when it comes to the NBA is Allen Iverson there
are so many people who wouldn't even put alen Iverson on their top 10 list of of greatest players of all time however Alan Iverson move the needle in so many ways when it CES to culture when it came to Fashion when it came to his style of play he was such an exciting and likable player he was my favorite player when I was growing up and I played more of a style of play like I wouldn't even say Caitlin Clark I was just a pure shooter but I did not have speed quick quickness all of
the things that AI had but I loved to watch Alan Iverson he was so exciting so like that's an example where people can love a player love everything that they're about and want to buy their shoes Wilson capitalized on Caitlyn Clark and they put out signature Caitlyn Clark balls and other merch that literally sold out within minutes of them going live the hype that Caitlyn Clark had going into this season we will not see that again she came off of playing in a national championship game that had over 20 million people tuned into that game
then going straight into the draft and then going straight into the WNBA and breaking an insane amount of Records in her rookie season winning rookie of the year however it has yet to be officially announced she had the craziest momentum that we have ever seen with any athlete in the history of ever and the fact that Nike did not capitalize on that the fact that they are the biggest athletic sports wear brand in the world and we didn't hear a peep out of them the entire season it truly makes me wonder like if I were
Caitlyn Clark's management and again I don't know what's going on behind the scenes but I would be truly rethinking the deal that I signed up for how do you miss an opportunity like that how do you not capitalize it doesn't make any sense at all and playing the politics where oh we need to release Asia's shoe first well no it's not Caitlyn's fault that you haven't done anything for Asia yet and maybe think about why haven't you released something for Asia yet is it because you're not sure how it will sell and if that's the
truth like that's just business why are we coddling these women you wouldn't see this on the men's side if a brand thinks they're going to sell shoes with a player they're going to release some stuff they're not going to be like oh well so and so has been playing in the league a little bit longer so I'm going to make sure I get theirs out first then we'll push Caitlyn's two seasons they're saying now that we might not get a signature shoe from Caitlyn until 2026 or 2027 I didn't mean for this video to turn
into a ramp but this is just another example about how people have fumbled the gift that is Caitlyn Clark and if I were on caylin Clark's team like could i m can I manage you Kaitlin Clark I don't really have that much business experience but I feel like there are so many little tweaks and little things that could be done and I am upset for her honestly I think 28 million for8 years 8 8 years is such a long time she'll be midway maybe if not over half halfway through her WNBA career by the time
that this contract is up and then renegotiating that and trying to get more at that point in her career like this was the buzz that you should have capitalized on and I don't have anything else to say but it's nuts so what do you guys think about this definitely let me know in the comments below and of course thumbs up this video If you enjoyed it and click that little subscribe button because we upload new videos every single week and with that I'll see you guys next time oo [Music]
