LeBron James has confirmed a crossover between his Nike brand and Liverpool, sporting the new gear. It means FSG should be about to cash in on a major gamble.
Since Michael Jordan first signed on with Nike, the sports apparel brand has paid him an estimated $1.4bn (£1.1bn/€1.3bn) for his endorsements — and that’s just at the last count.
Since then, the 59-year-old reportedly made $150m (£121m/€138m) from the sports apparel brand in 2022 alone. That will have pushed Jordan’s career earnings from Nike into the territory of 20 times the amount he made from actually playing basketball.
The icon of the sport was considered the undisputed greatest player of all time until LeBron James came onto the scene; the Liverpool fan and minority FSG stakeholder has challenged that status quo.
READ MORE: FSG is being taught a lesson in ‘Moneyball’ as Liverpool and John Henry must change one thing
READ MORE: Mason Mount is a Jürgen Klopp natural but Liverpool must heed Pep Lijnders transfer warning
He is also well on his way to building up a business empire to rival Jordan’s, and Liverpool looks set to benefit from a collaboration that mirrors the project undertaken at PSG.
The team from the French capital has partnered with Nike’s Jordan brand since 2018, using the trademark ‘Jumpman’ logo on kits and other fashion merchandise. It has been a huge sales driver, opening up the market beyond traditional football fans and to a more style-conscious consumer group.
In the first week of the 2018 kit launch, the first time the Jordan branding was used, the specially-branded kits made up more than half of the PSG kit sales. Within a month, the club had earned an extra $16m (£13m/€15m) in revenue from the collaboration.
Liverpool commenced a partnership with Nike for the 2020/21 season. Given the existing links between the club, the brand, and LeBron James (who was a minority owner in Liverpool before converting that into a stake in FSG), a similar setup seemed as though it would only be a matter of time.
Sure enough, James has been pictured in what appears to be the long-awaited collaboration merchandise. Prior to the latest Lakers game, he arrived sporting a pinstripe jersey featuring both the Liverpool crest and his own ‘crown’ logo.
Liverpool chairman and FSG big-wig Tom Werner had previously confirmed that a crossover product line was in the works. He teased “seven or eight products that connect LeBron with soccer.”
It is worth remembering that when Liverpool agreed on the deal with Nike, they accepted a reduced fixed fee to the one on offer from New Balance, instead of gambling on a greater percentage of sales revenue. The pandemic threw a spanner in the works when it came to that choice, but it could be about to pay off in a big way.
The exact proportion of revenue retained by PSG on shirt sales is unknown, but the typical deal offers between 10-15 percent of sales income to the club. For instance, Michael Jordan reportedly made $6m (£5m/€6m) on the back of Lionel Messi’s signing for the French club — and that’s just the cut he gets from licensing his brand to Nike, which retains most of the revenue itself. Only a small chunk makes its way back into club coffers.
Liverpool negotiated 20 percent of sales revenue when agreeing on the Nike deal. If the James branding can have even a fraction of the impact that Jordan had for PSG, those figures could be about to shoot up. The pull of the two basketball stars should not be underestimated; there is a reason Nike has shelled out more than $1.4bn to Jordan to date, and why it handed out a lifetime contract to James that is reportedly worth a similar amount.
Liverpool owner FSG is known for running its clubs in a self-sustaining manner. That means creating revenue streams in order to fuel spending — it’s why the biggest investments to date have been directed towards expanding Anfield (increased matchday revenue) and improving the academy (youth team prospects to sell).
The James collaboration could unlock a major new source of revenue, which could eventually lead to more money to spend in the transfer market. The basketball star’s lifetime contract with Nike, coupled with Liverpool’s own multi-year deal, means the new agreement will not be going anywhere soon: what is starting off as seven or eight products could rapidly grow into an empire, should there prove to be sufficient demand.
FSG took a calculated risk on the marketing power of Nike and its affiliated athletes when it signed with the kit provider, and Liverpool could be about to reap the rewards. PSG provides the blueprint for the LeBron James development — and with its shrewd negotiation of revenue retention, the English club could be set to benefit even more.
Leave a Reply