Kyrie Irving, who recently re-signed with the Dallas Mavericks on a 3-year/$120 million contract, has officially left Nike. The veteran guard, who has been a Nike athlete since 2014, will now take his signature sneaker line to ANTA, a major sportswear company based in China. The amount that the deal will pay Irving was not disclosed. However, it is believed that the initial deal between Irving and ANTA has a duration of five years. Furthermore, Irving is to be named Chief Creative Officer of the company. Per Shams Charania of The Athletic, "The lucrative new shoe deal for Irving will also give him the ability to recruit/sign players and other collaborators, and bring a level of manufacturing to the United States to kickstart ANTA’s process to fully distribute in [the] US."
ANTA already has several deals in place with American athletes. Kevin Looney and Klay Thompson are both ANTA athletes, as are Gordon Hayward, Rajon Rondo, and James Wiseman. Beyond the United States, ANTA has deals in place with Manny Pacquaio and the IOC. Furthermore, the company serves as a sponsor for 26 Chinese national sports teams.
Who is ANTA?
In a US-centric world, ANTA is something of a sleeping giant. Founded in 1994, the company is the largest pure sports equipment manufacturer in the world. In terms of sporting goods, ANTA sits third behind Nike and Adidas. While maintaining a model of consistent success since the mid-90s, ANTA's international footprint exploded thanks to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Two years after the event, they would land their first major international star in Kevin Garnett. The aforementioned Thompson signed with ANTA in 2017. Going beyond footwear, the company acquired Wilson in 2019. You may know Wilson as the producer of equipment for most ball sports.
However, the company is not without controversy, especially when it comes to the US and international relations. When the Houston Rockets tweeted support for Hong Kong in late 2019, ANTA was one of the Chinese companies that announced a boycott of the NBA. Furthermore, ANTA was identified as "digging in" by Yale University in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As mentioned by Charania, the unique position that Irving's deal has granted the athlete means that ANTA is likely about to make a major push into the US market in the coming months and years.
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