How #ZionsShoe Could Change Sports Branding Forever

It was a "pop" heard, seen and talked about around the world. Suddenly, the sports world came to a halt because in perhaps the biggest game of the year, college basketball's biggest star—well, his shoe basically "exploded!"

The first of two games for the season between number 1 ranked Duke University and its biggest rival from just eight miles down the road, the eighth-ranked Tarheels of the University of North Carolina, had been much anticipated by basketball fans and much-hyped by ESPN and the sports media. Some fans had reportedly paid upwards of $10,000 for tickets in the smallish-capacity Cameron Indoor Stadium on the Duke campus just to be at the game. Even celebrity basketball fans such as Spike Lee, Todd Gurley, and Former President Barack Obama made their way to Durham for the game - a game that had become an "event."

While the game would have been important and significant in any year, this game was circled on the sports calendar by many for one reason - and that reason is Zion Williamson. At 6 foot 7 inches—and at 285 pounds— Williamson is a freshman phenom. That is why NBA analysts have compared him to one player—LeBron James—whom he may be even bigger than physically—and looks as if he may just be "The One" to follow "The King!"

And so with much anticipation, 9 p.m. Eastern rolled around and the stage was set for a college basketball classic for the ages! The "Cameron Crazies" were rocking the arena, ESPN was on-scene with every college basketball expert they could round-up for the game, and Obama was in the house! And then—it happened!

The story of the game certainly wasn't the final score (and oh by the way, North Carolina did beat Duke 88-72 that night). The story of the game was what happened right at the start of the game, and it was a moment—and an image—that will likely go down in sports history. What happened? Well, just let President Obama summarize things in the clip below.

As President Obama sitting courtside could clearly see, what had happened was quite simple: “His shoe broke!” And suddenly, just 34 seconds into the game, there was an image born that may provide for sweeping changes to not just college basketball, but the multi-billion dollar big business of sports marketing! Yes, #ZionsShoe was suddenly the most trending topic on Twitter, and @Nike was also trending—but for all the wrong reasons. With one move, one cut, and a whole lot of torque and force, yep, Zion Williamson's shoe broke. His shoe didn't just tear. It didn't just split. Basically, it exploded!

And when the shoe failed, many, many heartbeats were skipped throughout the sports world. You never want to see any athlete get injured at any time in any sport. But when the biggest star in any sport goes down, it's always going to be headline making news. And when the injury involves an 18 year-old that could arguably make more money over his career than any other figure certainly in American sports, given the accelerating pace of both NBA salaries and endorsement deals, it is a huge deal! In a split second, many interests and many sports issues converged as Zion's knee buckled and he went down in obviously significant pain - and likely terror in his own mind of what might have just happened to his knee...

... and to his career!

Now, for all parties—and especially for Zion Williamson himself - there was relief when word came at halftime of the game that he had "only" suffered a rather mild knee sprain, not the blowout of an MCL, ACL, or more as was initially feared by the collective sports world! As Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski explained the injury to the world, it was "minor"—and the sports world no longer had to hold its collective breath.

But while the injury was minor, the moment was major! While the shoe's failure could be scientifically explained (and the "scientific" breakdown of it delivered by reporter Josh Shaffer is indeed fascinating), the big, huge story was simply that it did happen!

The ramifications of a $110 shoe breaking have been - well, enormous, in the aftermath of the incident. The image of the exploding shoe and a potentially exploding knee on the biggest star in the sport of college basketball has led to all sorts of implications and intense discussion on a whole range of issues that have been lurking just beneath the surface of the sport.

On a practical level, there's first the matter of how the injury will impact Duke University's season and its potential in this year's NCAA Tournament...

Then, there's the larger questions that arise out of the incident. This includes whether it is in the interest of elite athletes to play for no money in college, as the discussion shifted to whether Zion himself should "shut it down" and not play for the rest of the year to protect his professional prospects and the countless millions that he can—and should—earn in the NBA.

And of course there's the larger matter of how all college athletes make money for their schools, while arguably receiving no direct benefits and taking all of the risks with their health and future careers.

And perhaps not by coincidence, just one day after the Zion Williamson injury, the NBA announced changes that may make it possible for the so-called "one and done" players to bypass college entirely!

Of course, this then leads to the whole notion of "student athletes," and the question of what is college sports REALLY all about?

These are certainly huge issues, and over the next few months - and even over the next few years—it is highly likely that Zion Williamson's exploding shoe will be cited over, and over, and over again as "Exhibit A" as to why college sports—and the NCAA—must change.

From a marketing perspective however, the most fascinating—and the biggest—business issue to arise out of all this is how does all of this impact Nike? While the adage holds that there's no such thing as bad publicity, in truth, there really, really is! Phil Knight is the founder and Chairman Emeritus of Nike, and his phone and head must have exploded when the biggest college basketball star goes down because his Nike shoe literally came apart on national TV! Can you say "crisis management?"

Nike's competition was game to pounce on the company's misfortune. As can be seen below in a tweet from ESPN reporter Darren Rovell regarding how rival shoemaker Puma danced on Nike's misfortune, the reaction on social media—and beyond—to Nike's shoe failing was swift—and often brutal.

Heck, even The Onion waded in on the issue, connecting Nike's problematic reputation for using sweatshop labor in Asia with Zion's shoe disintegrating in a way that only they can....

And many just "Average Joe" Twitter users weighed in with their opinions on Nike's misfortune, making fun of the iconic brand just about as soon as Zion's shoe came apart. Of course, all of this just made #ZionsShoe and @Nike trend even higher on Twitter.

And so from a marketing and branding perspective, this was a nuclear event for Nike! Sports pundits opined on how bad the publicity was for Nike and its reputation....

...while stock analysts speculated on just how the injury—and all the attendant publicity—would impact Nike and its stock.

And yes, there was an impact on Nike's stock, as between late of Wednesday night when Zion's shoe failed and the open of stock trading on Thursday morning, shares in the company fell in value overnight. Yes, much money moved and many trades were made based on speculation as to how bad Zion's knee was—and how bad the blowback would be on the shoemaker.

Now as it became clear that the injury was—thankfully—minor, Nike stock almost fully recovered over the next two days of trading. And yes, there certainly had been some investors who "shorted" (bet on the stock to fall), banking on a catastrophic diagnosis and thinking that the knee injury was far more serious than the initial diagnosis (as any ESPN-viewer knows often does happen) would cause even more serious damage to Nike and its image. It's cold, it's hard, but it's capitalism!

Nike did dodge a huge bullet in the fact that Zion Williamson did not severely tear-up his knee when the circumstances combined in that instant to create a moment that no company would ever want—its product spectacularly failing in front of a national and global audience and becoming an image that would linger in people's (i.e. shoppers) minds for years to come—of course, reinforced by our ever-present companion, "Mr. Social Media." However, is there a lesson—a warning—for companies and branding in this instance?

As a strategic management consultant and professor, I believe that there certainly are lessons that can be learned from the fact that Zion's exceptional force and strength torqued enough to tear through the Nike's he was wearing that night (of course, he was obligated to wear Nike gear, as the company has a contract to be the sole supplier for all Duke University teams through 2027). Like all other players in college athletics, Zion himself received exactly zero for fulfilling "his" obligation to take the court wearing Nike shoes, while Duke and Coach Mike Krzyzewski receive an "undisclosed amount" for the Nike sponsorship (Since Duke University is a private institution, they have no obligation to reveal the amount of money involved). However, a recent Forbes analysis of such sponsorship deals shows that this amount would certainly reach into the many millions of dollars in value for a school with the reputation and following that Duke has—particularly with its basketball program performing at a championship-contending level almost every year!

Now the debate over the equity and propriety of such sponsorships for the athletes and the universities involved (and it's almost every college in America today!) is a whole other matter that is deserving of much debate— and to the credit of the media and even some academic researchers, this is happening—and an "event" like this only brings more attention to the issues involved in these arrangements. However, Zion's shoe incident does prove that yes, there can be downside risk from the ties between brands and schools. The image of a player cutting down the nets or hoisting a championship trophy wearing a company's gear can become inedible and garner tons of recognition for the university's apparel sponsor.

But what happens when less fortunate things take place? A player suffers a major injury? A player punching another player? A player comes back from a drug suspension? Yes, that same logo appears both in good times and in bad. So while brands like Nike, Adidas, UnderArmour, Puma and more fight—and pay considerably—for the right to sponsor not just colleges and universities, but whole leagues, there are instances when such associations create negative impressions for the brand. Maybe these cases aren't as severe as the Zion Williamson injury almost was for Nike, but it is a risk—just as the risk of being associated with a program - or a coach or a player—that gets into significant trouble off the court or field.

One need look no further than the University of Louisville for a case study on negative associations with brands, as Adidas suffered from its association with the scandal-plagued Louisville basketball program and its fired Coach Rick Pitino. The University of Louisville even had to rename its football stadium after the scandal that drove Papa John's founder John Schnatter out of his own company, removing Papa John's name from its venue, despite the sizable contributions made to the school and its athletic program by Schnatter in the wake of the scandals that ensnared him. The Louisville experience shows that there is indeed downside risk for all parties in such endorsement deals, both from the corporate and the schools' sides of the equation. Just as a brand can be damaged by what happens on or off the field with the university, so too can the school be damaged by what happens with the brand. The Louisville saga just serves as a cautionary reminder of the realities of doing business today - and yes, college athletics are a big business—in the age of social media and 24/7 news coverage of well, everything!

In much the same way, brands have been accustomed to making major investments in athletes as personal endorsers of their wares and their services. In fact today, the "elitist of the elite" top athletes, those that we know by a single name—like a LeBron or a Tiger or Ronaldo or a Messi or a Brady—may make more - sometimes far more—off the playing field than they actually earn for playing their respective games. And so brands invest in the athlete's image—their persona, and in turn, the athlete has a connection with the sponsoring company in people's minds (that's the basic endorsement equation, after all!).

And so positive public perception of the athlete - that being a fluid and often incalculable mix of success on the field combined with being a generally good representative of the brand both on and off the field—is all important to companies paying the large sums to athletes to represent their company and its products. That is why when athletes fall from grace —for whatever the reason—Tiger Woods with a sex scandal, Ray Rice with domestic violence, and yes, O.J. Simpson with double murder (allegedly) - sponsors often flee their deals, not wanting to be associated with the negative publicity surrounding the star.

However, with the Zion Williamson case, we see something different. We see perhaps a turning of the tide when its comes to the relationship of athletes and brands. Before the night of February 20th, 2019, the risk in the sponsorship relationship appeared to fall entirely on the companies, as any misstep on the part of the athlete-endorser—a failed drug test, an assault charge, a DWI, etc.—would bring negative attention to the products he or she endorsed. Now however, Zion's Nike shoe ripping apart in an instant on national TV in the biggest college basketball game of the season may just have changed the equation forever.

Think about it, Zion Williamson already—even before entering the NBA— has been forecast to become the highest earning basketball player of all time over his anticipated career! That is largely because he is widely anticipated to become one of the leading athletic endorsers on the market once he "officially" goes pro after this college season. As Sports Illustrated put it, "the sky is the limit" literally for Zion when it comes to his endorsement potential, given his being in the one name club already - combined with his basketball prowess, his social media savvy, and his size and personality. All told, according to a recent Forbesanalysis, Zion Williamson could earn over a billion dollars both on and off the court during his basketball career! To date, only three athletes—in history—have achieved this status over their lifetimes—Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Floyd "Money" Mayweather (and yes, LeBron James is well on his way according to estimates!).

Yet, with Zion and his shoe deal, which will likely be his largest single source of sponsorship income, the endorsement equation may well have changed for all parties. Which sneaker and apparel company—Adidas, Nike, Puma, UnderArmour—will sign Zion Williamson is already a subject of intense speculation. The image of Zion's shoe failing is out there. It is almost iconic. And so, it will be interesting to see if he ends-up signing with Nike. Prior to this, companies were concerned about being associated with an athlete who might suddenly;y have an "issue" that would create a negative image for him or her and thus, bring bad publicity to the sponsor and the brand. However, the tale of #ZionsShoe shows the risk to the athlete of being associated with a brand in trouble. In this way, this single shoe failing may highlight an important new consideration for athlete endorsers: Do they want their image tied with a company and/or a brand that can suddenly have a problem?

Now to date, we've seen very little talk or thought of such risks on the athlete's side of the endorsement equation. However, I think this may be the lasting impact of what happened on that cold February night in 2019 in Durham, North Carolina in a much hyped-game that failed to live-up to expectations because a single Nike shoe failed. There is no doubt Zion Williamson is a game-changer on the court. Now however, in the months to come, the precedent he sets in selecting which shoe and apparel company he will partner with may be important in changing the endorsement equation forever, giving athletes more power in the sponsorship arrangement than ever before. And to think, it was all because his shoe basically exploded...

About David Wyld

David Wyld ([email protected]) is a Professor of Strategic Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, publisher, executive educator, and experienced expert witness. He is the founder and publisher of both The IDEA Publishing (http://theideapublishing.com) [The Best in News, Information and Content Marketing] and Modern Business Press (http://modernbusinesspress.com) [The Best in Academic Journals].

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