Bayern Munich star Harry Kane went a very unconventional route when he agreed to a partnership with Skechers.
Now, Kane’s relationship with the footwear company has become an interesting case study in how a football superstar can help an established brand break into a new market.
Kane moved away from the traditional powers like Nike and Adidas path to become the face of Skechers’ football ambitions, giving the company immediate credibility in the sport. According to Professor Rob Wilson, a world-renowned
sport finance expert who specializes in the commercial side of sports, Kane’s deal could provide a useful benchmark for what Kylian Mbappé and On are attempting to accomplish.
“Harry Kane and Skechers are another recent deal to look at and compare as a benchmark. That established that a footwear brand can enter elite football without those decades of experience and football heritage and history. Kane gave Skechers that immediate credibility that they were looking for, moving the brand away from their core market as one of the leading strikers in world football, wearing their product every week,” Wilson told CanadaSportsBetting. “Skechers have subsequently developed a range beyond that initial boot but for Kane the attraction was the chance to be the face of something rather than being just another elite athlete in the Nike or Adidas stables, or even a brand like Under Armour.
“That in and of itself has commercial value to Kane and a knock-on effect for his personal brand and attractiveness to other endorsements. Kane has certainly got more exposure as a consequence of being Skecher’s only athlete of note in that way. That’s not to say that Kane has made Skechers a major player in football. They aren’t there yet, and certainly aren’t anywhere near the scale of Nike, Adidas, Puma or even Under Armour, but that is where Kylian Mbappé and On can potentially change things up a bit.
“Mbappé is younger than Harry Kane. He’s got a greater, more global cultural reach. On have also signed up Thierry Henry as part of an explicit strategy to enter football, and it all makes for quite a compelling narrative. Kane has proved the challenger model can work but On appear to be attempting to take it further to achieve something at a much greater scale, as a brand that can penetrate the psyche of young people more so than Skechers. The questions for them now is going to be whether they convert that one superstar signing, Mbappé, into a football business that transcends generations, like Michael Jordan and Nike. I expect they’ll do it too.”
For Kane, the Skechers partnership has offered something different from simply being another superstar in an established sportswear company’s roster. For On and Mbappé, however, the ambition appears to be considerably larger and maybe more aggressive.
The challenge will be turning one superstar partnership into an entire football ecosystem. If On can accomplish that, Kane’s Skechers deal could ultimately be remembered as an important example of how the challenger model can work in elite football.
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