New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. is already regarded by many to be the top wide receiver in the NFL today. Now he has the shoe endorsement to back it up.
Nike has signed Beckham to “the most lucrative shoe deal” ever for an NFL player, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.
#Giants WR Odell Beckham signed the most lucrative shoe deal ever for an @NFL player. Nike & his agent Zeke Sandhu worked out a 5-year deal.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 23, 2017
Just how lucrative, you may ask? According to Nike Kicks, Nike struck a five-year deal with OBJ for a reported $29 million, not including incentives. If all of the incentives are met during the contract, OBJ could actually see his deal inflate to $48 million over eight years. As a result, OBJ will be making more money from Nike than he will from the New York Giants. The Giants have OBJ under contract through the 2018 season after picking up his fifth-year option for 2018 on his initial 2014 rookie contract, valued at $10.4 million. Of course, he’ll soon be getting a new contract (likely with the Giants), so that number will be going up. For now, OBJ joins some elite company in receiving more money from shoe endorsement deals than from the team they play for. Darren Rovell of ESPN notes that list includes LeBron James and Kevin Durant, both Nike partners.
“It was a long process,” Beckham’s agent, Zeke Sandhu, told ESPN’s Rovell. “This proved he’s an icon.” Nike knows a thing or two about building up players to be icons.
As a sign of the times, Nike is not just investing in OBJ the football player to wear their shoes on the field and do some commercials like the old days. Nike is tapping into Beckham’s social media reach as well. And he has quite the following online to take advantage of.
OBJ's value to Nike stretches well beyond the field:
Instagram – 8.3M followers
Twitter – 2.3M followers
FB – 1.3M fans pic.twitter.com/EQrEzcoWnw— Opendorse (@opendorse) May 24, 2017
Nike’s contract offer came in just under the deadline during a negotiating period that allowed OBJ to receive offers from other potential endorsement suitors. Adidas made a strong push to sign the talented and flashy wide receiver, but Nike utilized its exclusive window to match the Adidas offer. The window to match the Adidas offer ended yesterday, so Nike got in their contract at the final hour.
