Why Roger Federer Decided To Leave Nike.. Pure Brilliance!!

you know that feeling when you're stuck in a dead end relationship and you just know you deserve better that's exactly what tennis Legend Roger Federer felt when he decided to end his relationship with Nike after 24 long years many people thought Roger was mad for leaving Nike and at first it did seem like that was the case but behind the scenes the decision was a business Master stroke that catapulted Federer's net worth and Life to another level this is why Roger Federer decided to leave Nike it's clear that Federer is arguably the best tennis player ever but what you probably didn't know is that at the age of 41 Roger is currently still the highest paid tennis player in the world and the craziest part is that he's been holding on to that title for 16 years in a row this means that the Swiss had been making more money than any other tennis player in the world since he was 25 and in 2022 Roger hit 120 million dollars in his yearly earnings according to Forbes the numbers are jaw-dropping but when you think about how good Federer is you'd get why he's worth so many millions in his 24-year career the Swiss won a total of 20 grand slams 103 career singles titles and eight Wimbledon titles just to mention a few he was even ranked number one in the world for 237 weeks straight with a career portfolio like this it's no surprise that Federer is an endorsement magnet for the biggest brands in the market and one of those Brands happened to be the biggest clothing brand in the world Nike now if you know anything about endorsement deals you'd understand that athletes have to embody the Brand's ideals like it's their full-time job and if we're being honest Nike and Federer were a match made in heaven for Nike the Swiss was the best representation of everything their brand stands for authenticity inspiration hard work you know the just do it attitude and for Federer he just had to keep being the best at his game and showing up all dressed in Nike while he was at it sounds like a fair deal right well at first things were great Federer was making a whopping sum of 10 million dollars a year from Nike he's even got his own unique RF logo so where did it all go wrong and why did Federer ditch Nike and end a relationship that has lasted longer than most Hollywood marriages well it looks like the only way to understand what really happened is to start from the Genesis of their relationship but in order to understand what exactly happened between the tennis Legend and the multi-billion dollar company we need to go back in time to when Federer was still a young kid with Big Dreams and a big future ahead of him you see Federer picked up a racket as a kid and never looked back at 13 he played in the Miami under 14 tournament and his rare Talent was evident to all even a blind man could see it he had the enthusiasm talent and the drive to keep getting better and it wasn't just the crowd who was captivated lucky for young Roger Nike was on a hunt for fresh talent to endorse and just like you would expect it didn't take long for him to catch the eye of one of their talent scouts who happened to be at the tournament after watching young Federer play Nike knew that the kid had the potential they were looking for so they wasted no time in whipping out their checkbook and offering him a sweet five hundred thousand dollars and if he could manage to break through that's when the real cash would start flowing imagine being 13 years old and having Nike offer you half a million dollars that's like winning the lottery except you didn't even have to buy a ticket of course Federer and his family were ecstatic they accepted the offer and the rest is history from that day on Federer became a living Nike billboard he wore Nike gear on and off the court and embodied everything the brand stood for and honestly it's safe to say that Nike hit the jackpot with that investment because Federer's incredible Talent on the court quickly began to speak for itself just three years later the Swiss became the ITF world junior tennis champion of the year after winning back-to-back Junior Wimbledon and Orange Bowl titles by the age of 25 Federer had already won 11 Grand Slam titles attaining the world number one ranking in 2004. in the years since Federer continued to dominate the tennis world cementing his place as one of the greatest players of all time everything was going fine for everyone or at least we thought it was until Federer shocked the entire world when he showed up to the first round of the 2018 Wimbledon tournament in a branded Uniqlo casual outfit instead of Nikes now hold up before you get all confused Uniqlo is a Japanese fashion brand known for their trendy affordable and functional clothing in other words they are basically Nike's direct competition so you can imagine how surprised we were to see Roger wearing a different branded outfit for the first time in 24 long years like you would expect people started trying to figure out what went wrong and when he was asked in an interview Roger revealed that his team had settled all ties with Nike now that brings us to the question why sorry scratch that after reviewing the terms of his contract with Uniqlo the correct question should be why not you see being a living tennis Legend Federer knew that he was worth more to Brands than he would ever make playing tennis alone and the reason is pretty simple the 20-time Grand Slam winner is undoubtedly excellent at what he does and every brand wants to be associated with Excellence from there it's not so difficult to put two and two together having the almighty Roger Federer represent your brand that's about as much street cred as any company can get so companies were literally falling over themselves to associate their brand with the Swiss Superstar and Federer knew this so when it came time to renew his contract with Nike in 2018 Roger knew he was worth far more than the measly 10 million dollars they were offering him so his team approached Nike with some new terms and let's just say they just couldn't afford it first Federer asked Nike to Triple his pay to 30 million dollars a year for 10 years and just to be clear he also wanted a post-retirement guarantee in case he decides to hang up his racket early that meant that if he retired even after just three years he'd still get paid the full 30 million dollars for the remaining seven years of the contract now that's some big time money moves right there when you do the simple math Roger would be earning 300 million dollars from Nike in just 10 years that's impressive right but there was just one problem unfortunately for Roger Nike didn't see things his way they didn't think it was worth shelling out that kind of money for him so they offered to expand his RF clothing line instead now Federer knew his brand would sell like hotcakes for brands so like you would expect the tennis Legend took his talents elsewhere and that's where Uniqlo comes in you see at the time Uniqlo were not just looking to push their smart sophisticated tennis clothing into Europe and North America they wanted their entire brand to be in people's faces as one of the best and what better way to do that than endorse a tennis demigod they had always had their eyes on the Swiss Superstar so the second they got the opportunity they snatched it wasting no time in making the greatest player of all time their very own brand ambassador but hold on a minute there was a small problem Uniqlo doesn't make shoes so when Federer rocked up to the 2018 Wimbledon wearing Uniqlo gear eagle-eyed journalists were quick to point out that he was still wearing his classic Nike Court Zoom Vapors and in a press conference later on Federer himself confirmed that Nike was interested in signing him up for a shoe deal but of course everything was still open just in case Nike changed their mind but he still had to wear Nike tennis shoes just for its functionality the Swiss would continue his unpaid use of Nike shoes for about three years before he met a shoe brand that would make him a billionaire and that brand was on running or just on for short on is a small Swiss brand that basically makes comfortable shoes they use a unique cushioning technology called cloudtech that makes you feel like you're running on clouds now with on two things were obvious firstly they were not as big as Nike and secondly they desperately needed to go Global while also staying true to their Swiss roots so yeah Roger was definitely their guy according to the founder of on Oliver Bernard the relationship with the tennis star developed naturally it all started when Federer was spotted wearing on shoes the folks over at on took notice of Federer's love for their kicks and reached out to him Federer himself talked about how difficult it was to ignore on because everyone was already rocking the brand including his own wife so when on reached out things moved pretty fast after some dinner dates and some friendly chats Federer decided to make a powerful move and invest a whopping 54 million dollars for part ownership of on like his partnership with Nike Federer's significant stake in the company allows him to play an active role in product development marketing and fan experiences but here's the real kicker fast forward one year on shoes took the global market by storm sending the company's shares skyrocketing to a whopping 11 billion dollars in September 2021. and guess who's laughing all the way to the bank that's right Federer because his three percent stake in on was now worth a jaw-dropping 330 million dollars soaring his net worth from 700 million after the deal with Uniqlo to well over a billion dollars and there you have it folks Roger's story is the kind that reminds us to never settle don't forget to like share and subscribe to learn more interesting things about your favorite tennis players

Channel: Tennis Tiebreak

Views: 16,553

Keywords: tennis, tennis tiebreak, tennistv, cult tennis, Why Roger Federer Decided To Leave Nike.. Pure Brilliance!!, roger federer, sports, federer, sport, atp, tennis tv, atp tour, highlights, sports highlights, tennis highlights, tennis videos, best tennis videos, atp tennis videos, tennis live, tennis streams, tennis streaming, atp streams, grand slam, hot shots, highlight reel, nike, uniqlo, rafael nadal, #shorts, federer nadal, us open tennis, us open, us open tennis championships

Id: TeK1Tr3izqI

Length: 11min 6sec (666 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 03 2023