The Times U.K. reports that Andy Murray has signed a five-year sponsorship deal with German brand adidas, worth over $16,000,000 (£10 million).
Via the adidas press release:
adidas has a new addition to its tennis line-up in 2010 with Andy Murray joining the global sportswear brand. The 22-year-old Briton will sport the iconic 3-Stripes from January onwards joining a list of illustrious athletic names including Muhammad Ali, David Beckham, Rod Laver and Stan Smith. Andy will wear the adidas apparel Competition line and the world’s biggest selling tennis shoe, the Barricade.
According to the Times, Murray was “determined to stay loyal” to his long-time sponsor, Fred Perry, until after the celebration of the founder’s 100th birthday this summer. Festivities included putting Murray in the only decent outfit the British company ever made for him – the retro shorty shorts number he modeled at Wimbledon:
Murray will be showing off his new “exclusive” adidas look at January’s Hopman Cup, where he’ll be pairing up with Laura Robson. Robson signed her own deal with adidas at the ripe old age of eleven.
Andy Murray is appropriately thrilled at the partnership:
“I’m really excited to be joining adidas as they are a massive global sports brand with a credible heritage in tennis. Joining a list of stars who have worn the brand, including Muhammad Ali and David Beckham, is an honour. I’m in no doubt that this deal will help me both on and off the court.“
Yep, Andy, this deal definitely will help you off the court – and all the way to the bank!
Andy Murray won his first round match in Valencia on Tuesday.
UPDATE: Since we started chatting about the Nole/Murray rivalry in terms of sponsorship, I’d live to thank LilyPop for reminding me that Djokovic may be switching to KSwiss at the end of the year. Form SportsBusiness Journal:
“K-Swiss is looking to make a splash with a major tennis endorsement, having already made a run at Andy Murray and continuing to talk with Novak Djokovic, whose contract with Adidas expires at the end of this year.”
So we’ll see!
Tags: Adidas, ATP, Fred Perry, Murray
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Good for him. It’s what happens when you come from a major market. Poor Fred Perry could never compete with that kind of money.
And Murray will earn it even if he doesn’t break out with Slam wins in a significant way. I’m in the U.S. and even I cannot get him off my news feeds — the most trivial piece of information is treated with pomp.
worth over $16,000,000 (£10)
Heh heh, I’ve just spat cashews all over myself laughing.
And I, too, once I realized my mistake! Thank goodness the USD isn’t that weak!
i wonder how nole feels about this… they both use head racquets and now the same big clothing and shoe line? i know novak has his own addidas line (he looks pretty cute in those ads), but still, that must be weird since they’ve flip-flopped rankings as of late. i guess for now their biggest star is still nole, but time will tell depending on results, especially in the 2010 slams. very interesting!
I guess it would only matter if he was getting paid less.
Isn’t Djokovic being dropped by Adidas in favor of Murray?
I think Djokovic is going to K-Swiss. I’m not 100% sure. :/
A rather surprising switch seeing as Djokovic IS world number 3 and has the Falcon thing going on.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Sports Business Journal says Nole and KSwiss are negotiating as his adidas contract runs out at the end of the year:
“K-Swiss is looking to make a splash with a major tennis endorsement, having already made a run at Andy Murray and continuing to talk with Novak Djokovic, whose contract with Adidas expires at the end of this year,” Kaplan reports in the latest issue of SportsBusiness Journal.
*grins* No need to thank me Freakyfrites. You’re especially welcome. ^_^
I also just noticed that I made the GTT All Stars. Although I’m not exactly sure what I did to deserve that honor, I’m super happy nonetheless. Yay! Vamos! *does fist pump and leg kick*
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Hmm, it’s an interesting switch don’t you think? Is this a case of them thinking about Murray’s future potential (what with all of the “experts” of the game tipping him to win majors next year?) VS Djokovic not having won a Major since AO 2008?
I find it a little bit surprising that they are switching actually. I mean, Djokovic STILL has a Major and he IS world number 3. Plus, and I don’t want this to come off the wrong way, he has more personality that Murray!
Like him or not, he has more pizazz than Murray. I have nothing against Andy, but he somehow rubs people the wrong way, even without meaning to. And I think that Djokovic maybe more popular than Murray as well. *shrugs* Maybe Adidas is sick of Nike having their players in the top positions on both the men’s and women’s sides. So they view this as their big chance. What do you guys think?
I guess we’ll finally see Murray wearing colors. Can you say bright oranges, blues and lime greens?
Hey LilyPop. Allstar status means you’ve got lots to talk about on GTT. So we give props to our peeps who take the time to comment on GTT.
GTT Allstars does get reset every month to be fair to everyone.
Okie dokie!
Thanks a lot for the info!
fo sho
I agree with what you said Lilypop. Even though I’m not a fan of Djokovic’s personality (he can be too militant for my taste, what with the chest pumping and saluting and such. I’m not really a fan of Hitler.) I still think he has more going on marketing-wise than Murray.
I mean Murray has this huge promo machine working around him and they are practically force feeding Murraymania! Plus, as you pointed out, Adidas had a clothing line with Djokovic. What about the smurf shoes?!
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So…
Freakyfrites (Federer avatar), Freakyfritters (Rafa avatar).
Are you guys related? Or are you sort of just…alter egos?
Freakyfrites is me! (By “me” I mean Honor, the main writer at GTT.) Freakyfritters is John, my husband and webmaster extraordinaire!)
Omg, that is just too cute! Your names (frites/fritters) as wifey and hubby is utterly adorable!
You two make an awesome duo!
Wonderful job on the site! Keep it up!
*hugs*
I think Nole is way more popular and loved than Murray, so wrong move by Adidas if they let him go!!
I agree with you on that Nina. Djokovic has alot more going on the personality dept than Murray does as well. Strange move by Adidas.
I think that Andy Murray is such a media juggernaut in the U.K. that he is in that way much more marketable.
We don’t know that Adidas doesn’t want Nole anymore – perhaps K Swiss is just offering more money. . .we’ll see!
I’m becoming more and more of a Nole fan, even though as a Fed fan I was pissed at him and his family after all that “The King is Dead” talk. But regardless of that, I’m loving his outgoing personality and his ability to mix things up in the tennis world. Don’t love the blue shoes, though!
Not quite head-over-heels about Murray, yet. But maybe he’ll grow on me. . .
I like Nole’s tennis but still hard to love him for all his ‘look-at-me’ personality or off-court activity (wtf with stripe?!).
Well, I’m Marat’s fan, so prefer more subtle ‘look-at-me’ personality or ‘media-go-away’ personality.
That’s probably the new generation things — am I that old
Monfils, Tsongsa, etc seem to need media attention too.