Michael Jordan’s Jordan Brand may be printing money at this point but when it comes to signature athlete shoes, LeBron James rules the NBA.
According to Forbes, LeBron’s signature line sold $340 million worth of merchandise in the last year. The King’s next closest competition? Kevin Durant, whose signature line managed sales of $195 million.
Kobe Bryant rounded out the top-three selling signature sneaker lines with $105 million in sales. Kobe’s shoe received the biggest boost in sales compared to the year prior (when Kobe’s line “only” sold $50 million) despite the fact that Kobe’s been oft-injured over the past two seasons.
For those that pay attention to brands, the two major takeaways from the Forbes report are that signature sneaker sales are still rising (LeBron, KD and Kobe all experienced sales growth in the past year) and that the top three signature sneaker lines are all made by Nike.
Yes, Nike (when combined with Jordan Brand) has the basketball sneaker market cornered to a comical degree:
Nike and its Jordan Brand subsidiary commanded 95.5% of the $4.2 billion basketball shoe market last year, according to SportScanInfo.
Poor adidas, Under Armour and Reebok. That isn’t a mountain to climb, it’s a Sisyphusian nightmare.
Here’s the list of the top signature shoe sales of 2014. Adidas top three signature athletes don’t even make the brand half of what Kobe brings in for Nike.
LeBron James: $340 million (Nike)
Kevin Durant: $195 million (Nike)
Kobe Bryant: $105 million (Nike)
Chris Paul: $32 million (Nike/Jordan)
Derrick Rose: $32 million (Adidas)
Carmelo Anthony: $30 million (Nike/Jordan)
John Wall: $8 million (Adidas)
Dwight Howard: $1.5 million (Adidas)
