By Trefor Moss
Patrick Mahomes is a marketing dream. He is arguably the biggest name in football after leading the Kansas City Chiefs to a third Super Bowl triumph, and they are undefeated so far this year. His wife is even besties with Taylor Swift.
But can Mahomes actually sell shoes?
Adidas is betting not only that he can, but that he will be the catalyst for the company to finally pose a formidable challenge to Nike in the coveted U.S. market.
The Chiefs quarterback "is a fantastic athlete that we haven't activated enough in the past," Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden said during an earnings presentation earlier this year.
Adidas on Tuesday raised its earnings guidance, citing positive brand momentum, and released a new line of Mahomes-branded sneakers.
The challenge, though, has less to do with Mahomes and more with the sport he plays.
While giants on the field, football players have long been relative weaklings where it matters most to commercial partners -- their ability to sell replica shirts, shoes and other products to the broadest possible audience.
Though it is by far the country's most popular sport, players wear a helmet during most of the action. And their gear doesn't easily translate to everyday wear.
Adidas is pitching him as a transcendent star who can break the mold, emulating the likes of Michael Jordan and soccer icons who have energized swaths of global consumers.
"He's probably partner No. 1 for us," said Chris Murphy, the senior vice president for North American brand marketing at Adidas, in an interview.
The brand also counts Inter Miami's Lionel Messi among its roster of sponsored athletes, and Murphy argues that Mahomes has "transcended into that global icon status" just like the soccer legend.
The Messi comparison is instructive. In 2020, the year after Mahomes won his first Super Bowl MVP, Messi came in first in a Nielsen ranking of the most marketable global athletes. Mahomes was the top-ranked NFL player, at No. 26. (The survey hasn't been updated in recent years.)
Mahomes's star has continued to rise, with his appearance in commercials making him borderline ubiquitous during football season.
Still, his off-field earnings -- accrued through longstanding partnerships with Hunt's Ketchup, Oakley and State Farm, among others, in addition to Adidas -- clocked in at $25 million last year, according to Forbes. While more than twice the off-field earnings of the nearest NFL player, the haul lags far behind LeBron James's $80 million or Messi's $70 million.
While American basketball stars such as Jordan, James and Shaquille O'Neal broke through to "signify something beyond their sport" via their commercial and cultural achievements, Mahomes hasn't yet gotten there, says Marcus Collins, a marketing professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.
But he said he thinks Mahomes is getting close.
Mahomes's agent and other representatives declined to comment. The 29-year-old quarterback has talked for years about wanting to build an off-the-field financial empire that will far outlast his playing career. "Football is first, but I want to maximize the opportunities I have and keep building my brand," he told Forbes.
Adidas has long dreamed of securing a bigger slice of the U.S. market, only to be foiled by a combination of Nike's dominance -- powered in large part by Jordan's enduring appeal -- and its own muddled approach.
Now, the company senses a shift on both fronts. Nike's grip on the American market has weakened, with the company recently replacing its chief executive in a bid to reboot its strategy and re-engage consumers. Nike's share of the U.S. sports-footwear market, though shrinking, was still roughly 35% last year, according to GlobalData, ahead of Adidas's roughly 11%.
Adidas, meanwhile, is nearly two years into its own turnaround following the collapse of its successful Yeezy partnership with Kanye West in 2022. That process has included appointing a new president for the North American business and investing in U.S.-based designers and facilities to boost the development of products better tailored to American tastes.
Adidas said Tuesday that it expected revenue to grow 10% this year, up from an earlier forecast. Its North American sales accounted for 25% of the company's business in 2023.
The company's recent success has also been fueled by the trendiness of the Samba sneaker and other retro styles, which Adidas has said inevitably drift in and out of fashion. The company needs fresh designs to continue growing.
Murphy says that is where Mahomes is integral to the game plan.
In September, Adidas launched a new commercial as part of its "You Got This" campaign, in which Mahomes helps a young player calm his nerves before a potentially match-winning kick. He's also been starring in a campaign for Adidas and Dick's alongside basketball star Candace Parker, and recently joined Adidas in launching "Team Mahomes," a student-athlete sponsorship program, at his alma mater, Texas Tech.
Earlier this year, Adidas launched the Mahomes 2 sneaker and training range, which targets a global, non-football audience. The first drop of the Mahomes 2 signature shoe sold out within minutes earlier this year, the company said.
Commercials for a subsequent launch over the summer featured Mahomes sneakers dangling off London landmarks Big Ben and Tower Bridge, in an indication of Adidas's confidence in his international appeal.
The shoes sell for around $150, slightly less than Nike's LeBron James line. Some of the Mahomes shoes are selling for discounted prices on the Adidas site, with the all-black Mahomes 2 available for $90, but the company says demand has been robust.
Collins, the marketing professor, said Adidas needs to continue building Mahomes's appeal as a person as well as a player to reach a wider audience, adding: "This is a great time to be in the Patrick Mahomes business."
Write to Trefor Moss at Trefor.Moss@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 19, 2024 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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