adidas' grip on tennis is becoming a slippery slope for the global sports brand.
With news already swirling that Ana Ivanovic is considering jumping ship after her contract goes up next season, Smith & Street's SportsBusiness Journal is reporting that Anna Chakvetadze signed a new deal during the US Open to join Fila. The former top-tenner will join Svetlana Kuznetsova and Agnes Szavay in the brand's stable.
None of this news is particularly surprising when you consider their lackadaisical efforts to promote tennis, including non-existent press initiatives to promote their ballers and the majors (where were their lead up events to PR the US Open last month?). Plus, they offer uninspired designs for their tennis gear and can't even provide proper grass-court trainers for their top ballers to wear during Wimbledon. And now they want to push racquets? P-P-P-Please.
I'm not even sponsored by adidas and I want to leave. Could Nole be next to jump after his contract expires next year? Stay tuned...
(image via Getty)
Monday, September 22, 2008
THE LOW DOWN: adidas losing more ballers, Chaky to join Fila
Labels: adidas, Anna Chakvetadze, sponsorship, tennis
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should be very interesting to see if adidas will be able to keep ivanovic.
ReplyDeleteOne point with Ana - what about her coach? Isn't he paid by Adidas? She must be planning to pay him herself. Wow, what a concept for a player who's made it to No. 1.
ReplyDeleteIt must be the money that's deciding things - I'd wear the same old white with black stripes if I were getting paid enough. Perhaps Adidas doesn't care about tennis anymore and isn't paying up?
in response to freakfries yes Sven is employed by adidas and i think he will be the ultimate decision if Ana leaves adidas or not. i just dont see Ana and Sven parting ways at this time.
ReplyDeleteWell...adidas gears are too simple.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, there is still a collection of Stella McCartney, or I think Adidas is definitely out of the tennis league!!
isn't sven the common coach for all adidas players? such that if 2 adidas players face each other in a match, sven cannot coach either of them? so i wonder if sven would be a major factor in ana's decision to leave adidas.
ReplyDeletewell from what i understand he's part of their player development program and obviously works with ana. he can't be present at any matches where two adidas ballers are competing against each other.
ReplyDeleteso he's a big variable here: does she stay because she wants to keep working with him, does she leave and offer him some type of private coaching situation, or does she leave because she doesn't have a full-time coach who can be with her exclusively.
i believe he's a major part of the decision making here - he did get her to her first major and the top ranking. nothing to sneeze at for sure.