LeBron James faced a decision similar to the one Zion Williamson will have to make after declaring for the NBA Draft. Many sneaker companies will throw their hat in the circle in hopes to secure a meeting with the most-coveted college athlete, just like they once did for James coming out of high school in 2003.
James wound up signing with Nike, despite having a much beefier offer from Reebok, one that if looking at the raw numbers was hard to resist.
But LeBron had something else on his mind. He knew the numbers. He'd been sitting with the reality that he might be going with Reebok for a couple of weeks at that point. But he didn't want to do it. He didn't like their shoes that much. A couple of years earlier, one of Reebok's endorsers, Shawn Kemp, had said the shoes Reebok gave him failed during games, calling them “throwaways” in an interview with a newspaper reporter. Reebok sued Kemp for saying it, but he said it just the same. LeBron had always envisioned himself wearing Nike and wanted to be a part of their great ad campaigns and work with their designers.
Yet Reebok's offer was tens of millions more. That money was there to make LeBron forget about his hesitations. Nike certainly could have afforded to match the Reebok offer; it would have made little difference in their bottom line. But they had to do many more endorsement deals with many other athletes. They had to factor in holding that line to a degree. But when LeBron imagined his future, he'd always seen himself in Nikes. He'd dreamed of being in Nike commercials. He wanted to be like Jordan. He wanted to do business with Nike. In his words, he wanted to be in the Nike family. Some of it was Jordan's legacy. Some of it was superior branding. Some of it was ego: He wanted to wear the swoosh. Some of it was Merritt, who had been able to win LeBron's trust.
While Reebok had made successful shoes in the past with stars like Allen Iverson and Shaquille O'Neal, the brand's lack of consistency with the non-signature models brought some questions to their production quality.
Nike had (and still has) a much larger reputation in the basketball world, boasting some of the biggest names in the NBA — ones LeBron James couldn't ignore.
LeBron James was able to see past the initial numbers and see a future with the brand, soon becoming the face of Nike in the NBA world and now in line to reap over $1 billion from them by the time he is 64 after signing a lifetime commitment to the Swoosh.
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