Nike have made it their business to strike endorsement deals with the most powerful athletes in the world for some time. Of the top five most valuable athletes in the world, Nike have endorsement deals with four of them. (Cristiano Ronaldo, Lebron James, Roger Federer and Kevin Durant are being funded by Nike, the exception is Leo Messi).
Basketball is one arena in which Nike have been keen to exert their influence, and while they have deals with virtually all of the major stars, there is one notable exception: Steph Curry. This is, however, not for the want of trying.
Curry was on Nike's books in 2013, and the company's shambolic attempts to extend his contract has been revealed by Ed Kavanagh on medium.com.
Curry and his father attended a pitch by Nike in an Oakland hotel, and it would appear that Nike greatly underestimated exactly how good Curry would become, as the entire pitch was fairly half-arsed.
Not only did Nike's top executives not turn up for the meeting, those who did mispronounced his name: calling him Steph-on.
The worst was yet to come: Curry was made sit through a PowerPoint presentation featuring Kevin Durant, without a mention of Curry. It seems that Nike merely recycled the presentation they gave to Curry's new Warriors teammate.
It was quite an oversight by Nike: Curry went on to leave Nike to sign with Under Armour, and it has cost Nike a hell of a lot of money.
Business Insider estimated in March that Curry added as much as $14 billion value to Under Armour shares, and not only that, they believe that Curry's popularity has the potential to catapult Under Armour into being a long-term sneaker (runners, in our parlance) rival to Nike.
Most of us have had our fair share of dodgy PowerPoints, but none this expensive.
