Why Are So Many Athletes Leaving Nike?

They may have just won the Germany football kit but in the last 5 years Nike have been losing athletes at a rapid rate. The full list is actually quite scary. I started to notice it when Raheem Sterling left for New Balance a few years ago. Since then so many more have followed.
When Tiger left this year I had to look deeper and it made for interesting findings. Today we look at why this is happening and how its affecting my favourite sports brand.
If you prefer content of this nature in written form, subscribe to the newsletter below: www.thelongplay.beehiiv.com
0:00 - Introduction
0:41 - Long List of Leavers
2:33 - The Impact on Nike
3:18 - Why is this happening?
5:40 - What's next?

[@TheLongPlayUK]

I really enjoyed putting this video together. If you prefer content of this nature in written form, subscribe to the newsletter. By doing so you will get content every week from me! www.thelongplay.beehiiv.com

[@xAnts247x]

Fantastically put together video, kudos!

[@MrMeMyselfandI]

Good video… but I think there’s some stuff you missed. Money thing is key (you touched on) but also Nike are being smarter with their roster. They have the two biggest young stars - Mbappe and Haaland (the only one they didn’t have is Jude) so they had no reason to keep other stars who’s appeal isn’t as big and they’re going to keep CR7 and have already given him a subbrand. Neymar leaving was due to him not participating in a sexual assault case against a Nike employee. Nike chose Greenwood and Rashford over Saka and Sterling (probably a regret now although I don’t know how many units any of them move) but Rashford has the best press. (Can’t comment on Ramos). Also Puma offered certain athletes more money Neymar and Walker fit their brand (speed and agility) so they overpaid (also not sure how much defenders sell merch these days). As for the women… you captured that perfectly, they’ve gone on to create their own brands that are pro-women in a way that Nike wasn’t at the time and many women will remember that. It’s a similar story in basketball. A lot of older more popular players are getting phased out for younger stars. Paul George and Kyrie Irving probably have another 3 years left being all stars so Nike phased them out (also Westbrook at Jordan) for younger stars - Ja, Booker, Tatum, Zion etc. They’re capitalising (also Kyrie’s controversies made it easier for them to part ways - he’s on of the best selling signature athletes of all time - I’d say 4th behind Jordan, Kobe, Bron and he had the best marketing strategy with MULTIPLE SHOES). Some of it is Nike failings whilst trying to be clever, some of it is them moving with the times.

[@Shawzac]

I’m a professional track athlete for Puma. Before I signed with them I also got an offer from Nike. Without going into too much detail, what they offered what absolutely peanuts and didn’t make me feel valued at all. On the other hand, Puma showed a willingness to support me and clearly valued me as an athlete, but also as a human. Buy Puma, not Nike.

[@truechaosmulala3831]

Puma used to have a quality issue back in the day I remember soccer players back in the day having no shirt that’s how bad it was

[@3ventiumOfficial]

Great job mate! Takes a lot to get a channel going, much respect and keep it up!

[@TheLongPlayUK]

It does I appreciate you for watching, thank you

[@mothokamothoka7718]

Very good but get a good mic

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Ha! Stay tuned for the next one for audio upgrades. Glad you enjoyed

[@notmyname69642]

Bro just put up your volume 💀

[@mecsi4088]

@@notmyname69642not about the volume its about the quality

[@notmyname69642]

But the quality is nrml

[@notmyname69642]

@@mecsi4088 yh

[@RandomHeroXJack]

In the footwear category Nike haven't dropped anything new and fresh in a while. Just cool re-releases/colourways of old classics. You look at Adidas basketball recently with Harden/AE new models killing it, the growth of Mesh runners from New Balance and Asics and upstarts like Hoka/On/Salomon and feels like everyone's attacking them from all angles! But they have such vast reach, if they just had that killer model(s) they flatten their competition in those areas but they feel short on innovation

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Common theme has felt like like a lack of innovation in recent years

[@Model_Roe]

Exactly!!!!! Adidas have way better artistic and visuals than Nike and way better commercials just look at their collab with Adidas they have been hitting Nike looks kinda stale and boring plus in my experience their shoes are super uncomfortable

[@pahlevymu]

Spot on, Nike is still a leader by fine margin from their competition but we can see they lack of innovation. Air technology has been around for 3 decades, React is good but not enough to overcome Boost. They just rely on what makes them great in 90’s.

[@54baxers]

Sergio Romas wears Mizuno not adidas

[@yazikhodayar]

He used to wear adidas copa then he switched to mizuno

[@waynelee8327]

@@yazikhodayarhe wore Copa but he never joined Adidas but he did sign with Mizuno

[@yazikhodayar]

@@waynelee8327 it's literally what I said

[@mvrco3390]

Sergio who?

[@munyaradzimuzividzi3618]

Whose Sergio Romas???

[@bulgarian4878]

Dont forget the second best player of 2017 and one of the best players from 2015-2019 also left Nike and immidietly dipped. Man, i don't know how, but you are insanely underated! So much work and effort put into your videos! You definately deserved a subscribtion from me.

[@SC-bc6tz]

Just stumbled across this video/ your channel. Great content, I find videos like these so interesting! I look forward to seeing you grow your channel/audience!

[@SC-bc6tz]

Am your 900th sub!

[@TheLongPlayUK]

I really appreciate this, thank you so much. There is a big summer of sport coming I have many videos to come 🙏🏾

[@wasei_everything9]

Great informative video keep it up🔥🤝🏾

[@user-ke4zw8xx1p]

Great work🎉 Am from Ghana Western Africa and i just came across your channel and am sticking with as a fan from now till you hit your 1ml subs!!Great work and never stop ❤

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Thank you 🙏🏾🇬🇭

[@waffle3732]

This was really interesting and informative, nice job.

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Thank you. Appreciate the kind words

[@rom3332]

They’ve almost lost Vini too, I think his perfs over the laat two years made them reconsider 😂

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Man they very nearly almost lost Vini. Major loss if they let him slide too

[@MavroProductions]

As someone who used to be a Nike employee, the women’s apparel, and Jordan brand focus is so correct. We would always have sales on women’s apparel and the running shoes have not been to the standard they used to be. Another reason for the loss of revenue might be due to the fact that Nike do not care about losing employees, because they know they will make money so ultimately the welfare of the employees is at the least of their concerns.

[@UberVilla]

the other companies are really stepping up their game,, puma has been up there the past few years, but skechers now the past couple, and new balance has the only wider fit options available in cleats, as well as some really good boots. the new balance 442 v2 pro being full k-leather (not just part of the upper but the full thing aside from a bit of the heel and tongue) and being a bit wider fit already,, as well as being only 7 ounces (200 grams) for ONLY $130 is INSANEEEEEE and mizuno of course! bringing incredibleeeee quality and effort we just haven’t been seeing from the other companies lately

[@addy.n15]

Great job and thank u for sharing this 👏❤

[@nigelcox5029]

New viewer here. I am glad l have seen this channel during its infancy. You will be 900 subs now but I can see this channel growing really big later on. Keep at it and continue to produce interesting topics and great content

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Thank you so much Nigel. Big summer of sport ahead I have a lot of videos coming. Stay tuned

[@riannebanzuela7099]

damn below 1k subs is crazy, you deserve a sub dude

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Ha. Hopefully not for long. Thank you dude 🙏🏾

[@barryjohnlcs9829]

But the German football team left Adidas for Nike.

[@HrithikAhari29]

doesn’t full fill the cost of losing this high profile sports players

[@2ballz543]

They did it purely for the money. Once their contract ends in 2034, I bet they will switch back to adidas

[@cpfishfan14]

@@HrithikAhari29 It would definitely pay off if Germany wins the world cup.

[@HrithikAhari29]

@@cpfishfan14 but never recover the lose of neymar,kane,tiger woods,federer, they bring so much money to nike, one team wc can’t bring money, just remember argentina won 2022 wc it’s doesn’t benefit adidas much

[@markmeloni2388]

@@2ballz543 depends on how successfull the Team will be in 2034

[@vihaannayak3091]

amazing quality, and editing,if you get a better mic youll blow up man

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Thank you so much 🙏🏾 Stay tuned, more coming

[@henrylam92]

Nike shifted their marketing/ad spending towards getting contracts with the whole league vs individual athletes. They are paying in the range of $100m each year for the NBA, MLB, and NFL between 8-10 years that has been paying off greatly in terms of exposure and return from licensing jersey sales. I think they realize it is just more cost efficient and they can just create some jerseys vs a new shoe or clothing line for individual athletes.

[@007-bourne]

Good content. Thank you for the analysis.

[@kaiserjudas]

Lovely breakdown, the video looked liked it came out from a million subscribed channel. Much love ❤

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Appreciate these words, thank you.

[@Luvluvangel]

Agree with your point. Not much of a football fan but as a huge basketball fan, most big athletes are signed with nike and the ones they lost just do not provide much benefit. Fox while good they have other good point god athletes, Jokic is the leagues best player but his personality is not the best for advertising and he plays a position that simply is not popular for kids. Kyrie is still a popular player but the break up is due to controversies. Nike has so many of the leagues best and popular athlete with Lebron, KD, Giannis, Ja, Booker and many more. Nike’s main athletes are getting older however so i assume their plan is to get the athletes they have hope for to rookie deals and keep them or drop them based on how well they play. Nike had just got the most hyped rookie in decades to a deal in Wemby so i do not see them falling anytime soon.

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Yeah very salient points. The Wemby coup is a massive one. Anthony Edwards feels like a Nike athlete to me but he has gone with Adidas. If Ja sorts his act out he could be a big win for Nike

[@Luvluvangel]

@@TheLongPlayUK When Nike loses an athlete i believe it is more that they are not interested instead of the athlete choosing another company. Nike/jordan is basketball and they have the highest investment into athletes by far. Nike took Ant for granted even as a #1 pick I am sure if they knew the player Ant would become they would happily given him a grand offer. Anyways keep up with the work i am invested in these type of content

[@thewraithize]

You’re telling me Tiger Woods don’t provide benefit. He’s the biggest start still in Golf and every young golfer still looks at his influence

[@smash284]

@@thewraithizeisn’t Nike pulling out of golf tho? To continue paying for the top athletes of a sport you have clearly very limited interest in the market.

[@ericbosquet8442]

Great video mate, subscribed!

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Glad you enjoyed. More coming soon 🙏🏾

[@sutden5963]

good video! get a better mic set up and your hannel wil be very big. keep up the good work G!

[@gamingwithastranger3358]

Great video bro

[@substanceftbl]

Great informative video!

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Thank you brother 🙏🏾

[@HarrisonConnor]

only just found you but great video man, when you get a better mic your going to blow up! don’t know if you know who he is but you remind me of football iconic before he blew up aswell

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Great channel, thank you for tuning in 🙏🏾

[@ianoconnor5914]

Great content!

[@Ian11Green]

Great video!

[@owsiankapower1803]

this is top notch content but please get a better mic for the sake of these videos’ quality

[@PeterParker-es2gg]

that advert from Guy Ritchie out of a POV ❤ legendary

[@cloud4565]

I think another reason is that most of the players they've let go are aging stars, Allyson felix's contact gives the sense that nike feel that they've extracted all they can from her career and its probably the same for federer, its quite telling that a lot of them are starting their own brands to secure their retirement

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Yeah, salient point. At the time Raheem Sterling wasn’t old (he still isn’t old now). Harry Kane was in his absolute prime. So was Grealish. Saka is very young. They allllmost lost Vini too. Whilst some of them are older there’s also some other examples of younger stars too

[@hxrold12]

Great content mate you’ve got a new viewer

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Appreciate you, more content coming very soon 🙏🏾

[@marcoss.g432]

Simple... Nike sponsors the shirt they wear. so it doesn't matter if they wear boots from other brands. Nike still appears as an advertisement with them.

[@ExcuseMyStutter]

Kyrie Irving did not leave Nike. Nike dropped him due to all the controversies. Every article even reads that Nike terminated its partnership with him.

[@TheLongPlayUK]

They did. But they've also stood by a lot of athletes through big public scandals and PR storms so they could have kept one of the best players in the league on their books here too

[@ExcuseMyStutter]

@@TheLongPlayUK true but this is the woke generation era remember. This is cancel central during these times so Nike decided to switch up and avoid a lawsuit

[@rkerry01]

@@ExcuseMyStutteryou’re acting as if kyrie’s anti-Semitic claims weren’t worth the backlash don’t downplay it bc you have an agenda to push😂

[@ExcuseMyStutter]

@@rkerry01 no agenda to push. Lmao dude you don't even know me. 🤣 Yes this millionaire deserved all the backlash but is still making more than me and you combined. Get over it and move on.

[@symptomofsouls]

​@@rkerry01They really weren't, Nike has kept athletes for saying way worse

[@towkowloshihunter3466]

Love your video love from South Africa 🇿🇦 ❤️🙏

[@TheLongPlayUK]

International fans! Thank you so much glad you enjoyed 🙏🏾

[@kroslee4416]

Absolutely amazing video

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Glad you enjoyed dude, thank you

[@docmemphis]

Subscribed. Good content

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Thank you 🙏🏾

[@karanluna5656]

Slight correction : Ramos is with Mizuno

[@chanchaniceman]

A little bit of a minor correction Sergio Ramos left Nike for Mizuno As someone who loves football and is a big football boots enthusiast. I say in my opinion on the football landscape they have a lot of other athletes they wanna market. I say bar Neymar,Andres Iniesta and Sergio Ramos who were big marketing materials for the Nike brand and their respective football boots ranges. Ramos for Tiempos,Iniesta for the CTR360/Magista and Neymar with the Hypervenom then Mercurials. The rest that they have let go weren’t heavily used in their marketing materials which I think Nike don’t really mind losing. Sure Harry Kane,Robert Lewandoski,Raheem Sterling and Ralphael Varane are big names and elite footballers in their respective positions. Have featured on certain new football boot release marketing but again they weren’t hugely used in their marketing materials as we saw with Ronaldo(both cr7 and r9),Rooney,Neymar,iniesta and Ronaldinho. With the cost cutting measure as it’s been mentioned along with the emergence of new talents like Gavi and Halaand. Nike don’t mind them leaving Though Neymar is a bit of a shock of the bunch given he has Neymar signature colorway boots and for a brief while was the face of the Jordan themed football boots but it was in a time when he was getting injured and such. Great video btw

[@Bluewine-ky6fc]

just popular in the US and few others things like the Jordan’s etc. I played football basketball all my life got blisters once never bought Nikes again

[@RichardLea1979]

Some of the designers from Nike Football left to go to Sketchers and they took their contacts with them

[@V99899]

Don’t forget Steph curry was with Nike before he joined curry brand too.

[@TheLongPlayUK]

He's big enough to be the main man. Would never be THE guy at Nike with LeBron there so he had to make a move. That one I completely understand

[@airF1gun]

I guess hard remembering things a little different but curry did join Nike because they got his name wrong In a meeting

[@Knb19]

I also think although sales are high for Nike, I don’t think it’s over high performance sports materials. When you hear the best running shoe on the market you almost never think of Nike anymore and there’s way more brands that make products that are superior to Nike for a fraction of Nikes cost. But tons of people are still buying Nike AF1 with the price being inflated 20 percent (US) from what it was 10-15 years ago

[@timhughes3684]

It doesn’t make sense for Nike to keep them all

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Maybe not no. But not long ago they had of these guys signed, with many of them being at the same time!

[@tolathach]

Great content, audio could be better. Subscribing for now, but if your audio doesn't improve, I'm leaving you like you're Nike.

[@TheLongPlayUK]

😂 My favourite comment so far. Thank you for the feedback

[@logosg]

😅

[@triviacosmica]

This is ultimately great, is awful in any industry when just one brand has all the power

[@implive17]

Sregio Ramos is with that Japanese brand Mizuno not adidas.

[@luca99191]

Saka last boot deal was with adidas? Lewa is still with Nike too. The only player in the football world recently that may have hurt them was Neymar but they have arguably have the best three new players in the world in there stable of Mbappe Haaland and Vini jr

[@balltalkdeep]

nice breakdown

[@mikerich3741]

all athletes that left are either old and towards the end of their career (if not at the end) or simply not superstar status which is what I think nike is focusing on. Nike have 3 out of the top 5 best footballers in the word currently with Mbappe, Haaland and vini jr who are all relatively young and will go and bring a lot of football exposure to nike so I don't think they're really fussed. the remaining two are Kane (who they let go because he's towards the end of his career) and Bellingham who they missed out on to their greatest competitors Adidas.

[@QWSAZXCDEC]

Thierry Henry leaving was when I first noticed as he really suited the brand.

[@RunRecoverRally]

Federer was offered 10mil/year from Nike with no retirement clause, Uniqlo upped that to 30mil/year for 10 years with the ability to transition from a sports athlete to a lifestyle athlete. A more lucrative deal that will stay through retirement? Too easy to take. A former Nike Tennis president did mention that it was a huge regret to let Roger go but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

[@aevi09]

Because these other countries are paying them more….not hard to figure out

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Do you mean companies? If so, you are right. Question is do you think they are overpaying?

[@eckieboy]

Nothing unusual about the top football players where Puma boots. Eusebio, Pele, Maradona, Cruyff, Matthaus, Dalgleish all wore Puma.

[@Anfernee3355]

One thing to add is that Nike spent an insane amount of money to be the DFB kit supplier.

[@flossbee]

I'm a Nike faithful to the fullest, but when I look at their most recent sneaker offerings, they seem more concerned with over branding as opposed to letting the silhouette and design of the shoe stand front and center. Either that or maybe I've just been "swooshes" and "Jumpman" over everything for far too long and have gotten bored with the brand.

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Sneakers aren’t a world that I’m very familiar with but some of the comments on my other platforms echo this sentiment. I’m sure they can bounce back but it seems to be a running trend

[@Brasilcat]

Some of your information may be incorrect, just an example Vini Jr is has left Nike and they are in court settling the separation.

[@AA-yt4oj]

You forgot that Nike now also makes deals with music artist> Aubrey ‘Drake’ Graham. Nocta. New grounds

[@natesemler7022]

Great video

[@jabrur]

One thing also it’s seems like adidas is capitalising of this, for example here in Sweden there’s two born in 2007 that are sponsored, while adidas sponsores like 50 players or something

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Nike once had a strategy of volume, now it seems like they’re going for quality, not so much quantity. Will be interesting to see if it pans out

[@jabrur]

@@TheLongPlayUK very much true, I think itll work, everyone wants to be like vini jr not like Milner, like you said

[@MikeHunt-fx9rg]

Nike’s perception from US sports leagues is at an all time low as well, With the release of polarizing uniform designs and the cheap quality of the newly released MLB uniforms.

[@Kxji]

I don’t know more than half of the football athletes but Tiger Woods leaving Nike was a shocker

[@dreamingpain]

Nike’s plan is to have the most famous player design a boots, the pay everyone else to endorse it. Other brands started offering players personalized hands on deals

[@Geggo1611]

Surely Nike *always* had some new pros signing and some leaving to the competition and it didn't affect them much

[@theosantana7750]

Make a video on why Jay Z is signing Footballers... I guess Lukaku was one of the first but released.. recently Vini Jr joined his Agency..

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Great suggestion. One of my upcoming videos is on the evolution of the “agent” and the model being used today. Stay tuned 🙏🏾

[@thewraithize]

Nikes quality of products are over priced and terrible quality, that’s why I don’t buy them anymore

[@hugobonfa8657]

Didn't Sergio Ramos join Muzuno??

[@jug1415]

Lewi uses Nike boots still. Look at a recent pic vs psg

[@ibrahimel-rafie5239]

Isn’t Lewandowski still technically with Nike though? Like he still wears their boots in matches, I know he’s joined a Polish sportswear brand, but that isn’t related to the boots he wears.

[@tekkz3190]

Saka was with Adidas ah lie?

[@sabirathfarabi3169]

In football they released so many players but keeping the biggest names

[@Betbuilder254]

Saka wore Adidas

[@TRXmomentez]

Another reason is to focus on the future that’s why they left all the old player

[@SriramSivakumar-iz3nu]

That was amazing.

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Glad you enjoyed brother thank you for watching 🙏🏾

[@raymaponga458]

Like you said they could've done with Rodger what they did with MJ. Too bad

[@wokeaf1337]

Maybe Nike is focusing on something else, national football teams like Germany joined Nike, ditching Adidas.

[@julienansay2979]

Something also to be mentioned! Nike is not the best brand in term of the technology it was used to be in the late 90s and early 2000s. Brands like New Balance, Asics and Adidas happen very often to provide goods of superior quality

[@Humanityiscomedy]

Start buying stocks in some of these new companies

[@TheLongPlayUK]

On Running seems to be a major player for the next few decades

[@gregs7753]

The list of “elite athletes” are largely on decline of influence. This appears to be a simple cyclical reload.

[@dryames4319]

Your blow up is imminent. Keep up the good work!

[@TheLongPlayUK]

I hope so, thank you 🙏🏾

[@TheFatGandalf]

Nike cares more about making collectors items than performance shoes. Performance shoes are expensive to innovate and expensive to make. Even then, the market is more niche. If they want to get into a niche, why not make short production runs of collector shoes where fashion is more important than innovation.

[@sungjeh]

Romero looks like he’s wearing adidas, Porro also now wears under armor

[@ML-yu5ij]

Federer has an equity stake in On Running.

[@TheLongPlayUK]

I urge you to watch my most recent video 😅

[@bbrp1450]

For every 3 big names that are leaving there are 30 future prospects joining.

[@Jimm-se2ny]

brahim diaz left nike for adidas in the middle of the seazon

[@fistofren3483]

1. Varane is on a steady decline for years now 2. Nike just signed Germany for 100 Mio/year. No one alive can remember a time when adidas was not the sponsor of Germany.

[@hartiwanger9176]

Why the hell do they keep going to Nike?

[@jabrur]

Lewandoski signed again with Nike I think because he’s always using the newest boots

[@thehanoian258]

Ramos left Nike for Mizuno mate

[@Model_Roe]

I think Adidas has been pretty successful in cornering the market on all the young hot athletes right now they have Bellingham Pat Mahomes not mention Lamine Yamal not to mention veteran icons like Zidane and Leo Messi plus their designs just look cooler idk who their artistic director is but their designs are hitting and they have better commercials

[@TheLongPlayUK]

They do seem to have the creative edge lately.

[@audreyskateinfinite9068]

Ramos ~ Mizuno

[@wizlb]

But look what happened to NBA players, who gets sneakers made, and get a percentage of that and become wealthy

[@jcalvarez6450]

Good job but you can improve your video with some music

[@rygetit811]

I think nike has to focus on home base these sports arent their main demographic female sneaker style is

[@alexovsijenko3211]

Good video this

[@TheLongPlayUK]

Glad you enjoyed 🙏🏾

[@aevi09]

Hazard doesnt play anymore

[@calummacdougall8400]

Fc Barcelona and Nike are in negotiations with each other over unsatisfactory price.

[@user-ug8ly9bf3h]

I'm sure Lewa still wears Nike