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Tiger Woods and Nike End Iconic Partnership After 27 Years

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Source: Statista

More than 27 years after a 20-year-old golfing hotshot named Tiger Woods signed a $40-million endorsement deal with Nike, one of the most iconic partnerships in sports has come to an end. On Monday, Tiger Woods took to his social media accounts to announce the long-rumored split and express his gratitude to Nike founder Phil Knight and the employees and athletes he worked with over the past three decades. Nike responded by posting a classic shot of Tiger clad in his iconic Sunday red polo along with the tagline: “It was a hell of a round, Tiger.”

With respect to his own future, Woods wrote: “People will ask if there is another chapter. Yes, there will certainly be another chapter.” And while it’s hard to imagine Tiger Woods walking the fairways dressed in anything else than Nike, we all witnessed Roger Federer ending his career wearing Uniqlo gear and shoes from Swiss brand On – something that seemed impossible just a few years earlier. Speaking of Federer, the Swiss’s long-term partnership with Nike is probably one of the few that matches or eclipses the legacy that Woods and Nike built together. That is of course behind the gold standard for all athlete endorsement deals: the Jordan brand, which is bringing in billions in sales for Nike every year, even 20 years after Michael Jordan retired for good.

As our chart shows, Nike’s golf division has never cracked the billion-dollar mark in terms of annual sales. According to the company’s annual reports, Nike Golf revenue peaked just shy of $800 million in fiscal 2013, before dropping below $600 million in 2017, after which Nike stopped breaking out revenue figures for its golf business. For Tiger Woods, his partnership with the Swoosh paid of handsomely as well. According to media reports, his four contracts with the Oregon-based sportswear giant were worth at least $500 million over the past 27 years.

Infographic: Tiger Woods and Nike End Iconic Partnership After 27 Years | Statista

Roger Federer Is the King of Athlete Endorsements

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When the defending champion Roger Federer stepped on the Center Court at Wimbledon for his first round match on Monday, many spectators had to look twice before realizing it was indeed the 36-year-old Swiss stepping onto the court. It wasn’t a new haircut or a beard that threw them off, but Federer’s unfamiliar outfit: for the first time in his professional career, the Swiss maestro wasn’t dressed in Nike. Instead Federer wore gear made by the Japanese brand Uniqlo.

To insiders the switch to Uniqlo didn’t come as a total surprise, because it was well-known that Federer’s Nike contract had expired in March. However, he still wore his Nike gear in the Wimbledon warm-up tournaments of Halle and Stuttgart as well as in training in London, so many had assumed that a deal had been reached after all. Apparently it hasn’t and Uniqlo decided to reveal its surprise coup at Tennis’ biggest stage: Wimbledon.

According to industry chatter, the 10-year Uniqlo deal is worth $30 million a year to Federer, which is probably unprecedented for an athlete at Federer’s age and stage in his career. However, thanks to his sustained success and his flawless demeanor off and (mostly) on the tennis court, Federer is almost universally beloved, which is probably why Uniqlo (and many other companies) decided to sign him regardless of his age. As the following chart illustrates, no other athlete made more money with endorsement deals over the past year than Federer did. According to Forbes, his partnerships with companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Rolex, Moet & Chandon, Jura, Wilson and others netted him $65 million in the 12 months ending June 1, 2018, dwarfing his prize money earnings of $12.2 million over the same period.

Sports Endorsement Infographic