Wen/Edited by Liu Jintao/Li Luyuan has been brewing for a long time, and the signing between Anta and Owen has finally been announced!

On July 12, Beijing time, Anta officially announced that Carey Owen joined Anta family and became Anta basketball spokesman. The joining of another popular NBA star undoubtedly plays a huge role in promoting the internationalization of domestic sports brands. At the same time, the industry also looks forward to how Owen will show his appeal in Anta as the former “brother of sneakers with goods.

The story between Owen, who is “China friendly”, and Anta, and even the whole Chinese market, has just begun.

Signed “best seller” Owen, Anta’s ambition revealed

The news of Anta signing Owen has actually been circulating for a long time. From the previous domestic industry people first revealed that the two sides reached a contract, to Owen’s foot riding shoes in training, to today’s official announcement, finally made a final conclusion on this incident.

Owen has a huge fan group in China, and everyone hardly doubts the former’s ability to bring goods. After signing the contract, the two sides will cooperate in what form, it has become an important direction for the public to be curious.

The first is the creation of Star signature shoes. It is natural that the signature shoes will not be absent if they go to great lengths to grab Owen. However, how to play with this product line reflects the new mode of cooperation between Anta and Owen.

It is understood that as Anta basketball spokesperson, Owen will not only participate in the design of his new personal product line as chief creative officer, but also personally invite basketball players, independent brands, opinion leaders, artists and musicians of pan-trend culture, environmental protection and humanitarian pioneers, designers, etc. work together to launch more regional products around Owen’s personal product line. Anta will also integrate global resources to empower design and production, and sell this series of products worldwide.

At the same time, the two sides will jointly carry out Anta-Owen youth basketball training camp in China and the United States to jointly help the development of basketball and culture.

Since the rumor of signing the contract between the two sides flowed out, the attention of the fans undoubtedly reflected the public’s recognition of Owen and the expectation of the new product line. The last time a domestic sports brand signed a contract was at the peak of NBA first-line stars, which also dates back to Li Ning’s hand in hand with Wade 11 years ago. After that, Li Ning launched a personal brand Wade for him, it started a new growth stage of Li Ning basketball, and Wade later became Li Ning’s spokesperson for life.

Owen naturally has this potential. On July this year, some netizens asked in social media, “who has the highest sales of signature shoes except Jordan, Kobe and James? 」 Owen replied directly in the comment area, and his signature shoes had earned more than $2.6 billion in the past 7 years, ending the problem.

Owen does have this confidence. Since he entered the league as the champion in 2011, he has a smart and gorgeous style of playing, a very creative performance on the offensive end, unshakable strength and honor, and a maverick style, it has rapidly accumulated a large number of young fans.

As a member of the former Nike signing camp, as early as in the rookie period, Nike offered Owen a big contract of $32 million for 4 years and renewed the contract for 7 years after it expired in 2014, starting to cooperate and launch Kyrie series signature shoes, more than 20 sneakers have been listed for 8 generations so far, which shows Owen’s strength in carrying goods in the shoe ring and the influence of fans.

Nike announced the termination of cooperation with Owen on last November, and the latter immediately received olive branches from many brands. Among them, Anta, a Chinese brand, was recognized and loved by Owen, and the two sides soon reached a cooperation intention-This signing is undoubtedly a new opportunity for Anta.

There has been a saying in the past in the shoe circle, “If you want to see whether a pair of sneakers can play, it depends on how many players in NBA are on the feet. 」

Since Nike launched Owen signature shoes at the end of 2014, the latter has become the mainstay of Nike mid-end sneakers market. According to statistics KIXSTATS, last season, 67% of the players put on Nike sneakers in the match, of which Kyrie series accounted for 6.3 percent, second only to Kobe series-this number is almost equivalent to adidas as a whole.

Source: KIXSTATS

For Anta, Owen’s joining can bring fresh blood to the brand. Through Owen’s excellent ability to bring goods and influence, it can help Anta open up the international market, let more NBA players and sports groups know and understand Anta and learn more about Made in China.

Although Owen’s first signature shoe in Anta is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2024, during this period, he will also personally participate in the design of his new exclusive LOGO and personal product line as chief creative officer-Owen’s unique personal temperament, in the future cooperation between the two sides, it can also add more diversified sports trend attributes to Anta.

On the other hand, for Owen, the deep cooperation with Chinese brands will also open a broader market for him and continuously enhance his personal business value, which Owen is also happy to see.

Real Owen, an NBA star full of social responsibility

Owen in the field is the favored son of heaven, while Owen outside the field is very grounded and constantly shows his sense of social responsibility.

In January 2021, Owen announced on personal social media that he would jointly launch an activity with Cai Chongxin Foundation to jointly send New Year gifts to children of Jiandong Primary School in Liping county, Qiandongnan prefecture, Guizhou province, and refurbished the school has been sticking to the cement basketball court for 17 years.

This is not only the embodiment of Owen’s kindness, but also the proof of Owen’s “China friendship.

As early as the Knight’s time, Owen said bluntly that he wanted to learn Chinese when he was interviewed by ESPN, and also said “Happy New Year” in Chinese. Since then, in basketable nets, owen has sent New Year greetings to Chinese fans many times during the competition. In addition, Owen, as the brand Player of the league, has also appeared in NBA New Year’s promotional films many times.

Owen has participated in NBA New Year’s promotional films many times.

After the announcement of the cooperation officer, more details about the signing of the contract also emerged. Xu Yang, CEO of Anta, revealed that Owen had asked him if he could arrange a trip to China to have a good look at China? Xu Yang said, you can have a good time in China for a week. But Owen asked: a week? How can a week be enough? Be sure to arrange a longer time.

“Owen is a very real person. He will not give you the feeling that he is conducting business negotiations. He is very emotional. Once anyone can become his brother, he will be very kind to his brother. This is what I seldom feel in other stars. He can be handed. 」 Xu Yang said.

This is Owen, an NBA superstar who is very interested in Chinese culture. Not only China, Owen has a more global vision.

As early as August, 2013, Owen visited schools in South Africa with the United Nations Children’s Fund and participated in various education projects supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund in African schools. He said, “I have witnessed how early childhood education and school sports have changed the lives of these children. Although they are facing challenges, it is encouraging to see how much children want to learn and how hard teachers are working. 」

In March, 2019, Owen’s jerseys were being auctioned on some websites. The proceeds from the auction will help schools in rural areas of Kenya to clean water projects through Underdogs United. At that time, it was reported that, about 19 million people in Kenya lack clean water. Owen is the first athlete to help people in other regions through shirt auctions.

In November 2021, on Thanksgiving Day, Owen donated 60000 dollars to a school in New York. On March this year, Owen donated 45000 dollars to children in Ghana and Nigeria. When talking about this incident, he said, “too many things have happened in our world, I just try to do some small good things every day. 」

I believe there will be more and more such stories in the future. After signing a contract with a Chinese brand, Owen will also gain more attention in China, and naturally have more real stories close to him to be excavated. At that time, the clouds will be removed, owen’s image in front of Chinese people will be more complete and true.

But then again, this is Owen’s opportunity, and it is also a test for the operation of Anta and even more domestic sports brands.

How can domestic brands deeply activate the spokesperson of the top star?

Looking back at the NBA endorsement market in recent years, we will find that more and more national brand spokesmen have appeared in NBA. However, an embarrassing coincidence is that in the past 2022-23 season, none of them have entered the all-star lineup.

When sports brands grow to a certain stage, the pursuit of superstars becomes inevitable, especially the endorsement and platform of popular players, which is also an important weapon for national brands to stand out in the market competition.

Actual basketball shoes have more wearing scenes than other product lines, but focus more on functional and technological elements, covering more vertical consumer groups. For signature sneakers, the fan base brought by players’ personal charm has always been the core target group of their “bringing goods”-from a good point of view, this provides a basic guarantee for brand signing star spokesmen, but on the other hand, if the product line cannot “break the circle” through the star, attracting more consumer groups, then it will also limit the ceiling of contract value.

How to deeply explore the emotional value of stars based on their personalities in addition to actual scenes, connect a wider audience group beyond the basic functions of products, and bring new growth to the overall business, it has become an important direction for brand signing stars to consider.

Owen has nearly 20 million fans in Ins, ranking 4th in the NBA active player (Clay Thompson 6th in the signing camp with ANTA), which shows that he has enough influence, and it is still in the Golden Age of career, and there are still unlimited possibilities on the court in the future. This provides a guarantee for the basic value of Anta’s signing behavior.

In addition, as one of the most topical stars in NBA, Owen’s distinctive personality and style will further enhance the overall appeal and spiritual attributes of Anta brand. According to the cooperation between Anta and Owen, Owen still hopes to continue to expand his brand endorsement matrix in the future and integrate his unique views and perspectives into the design of goal shoes, show more touching brand stories.

And this is exactly what domestic sports brands lacked for a long time in the past.

As a bridge connecting stars and fans, signature sneakers need to take into account “functional value + emotional value” so far, that is, they can meet hundreds of sports demands of fans professionally, in the design of appearance and details, story can be perfectly integrated into it, and sense of belonging can be generated based on emotional connection, thus establishing closer user stickiness.

The reason why the Air Jordan generation series is regarded as the eternal holy grail is that it captures this point. It not only has the functional value of the top basketball shoes over the years, but also carries the glorious history of “flying man” Jordan, in the tide of the times, it has become an important symbol for fans and consumers to affirm themselves and build identity. This emotional value is the key to enhance brand influence and premium ability.

“Easy to wear, good-looking, with stories” is the core competitiveness of top stars to bring goods. And brands can let more consumers find emotional resonance through the stars, and then transfer to the brand identity, which is undoubtedly an important part of endorsement signing.

It is not easy to tell this story. The “Mamba spirit” advocated by Kobe was packaged later in his career. In the future, how domestic brands bring more spiritual attributes to Owen’s product line and give more emotional value to sports products is obviously a big test.

Over the years, the star effect has been a sign of a sports league, focusing on the eyes of fans. Nowadays, the influence of stars is spreading to more fields and becoming the facade of different brands, set a benchmark in the field of sports.

The signing of Anta and Owen undoubtedly dropped a heavy bomb on the market. In the new era of the continuous rise of domestic brands, the recognition of more stars and players not only proves the growth of domestic products in various aspects such as products and brands, it has also built bridges and ties for sports and cultural exchanges.

Together with NBA superstars, opportunities and challenges coexist, but this trend is inevitable. I believe that with the efforts of national cards and stars, more and more moving basketball stories and sports products have emerged, let the release of love be purer.

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