Kyrie Irving Officially Signs Five-Year Shoe Deal With ANTA
Irving has also been named the brand’s Chief Creative Officer.
Kyrie Irving has officially signed a five-year partnership deal with Chinese brand ANTA. Not only does the Dallas Mavericks guard have a new shoe deal, but he has now been named the brand’s Chief Creative Officer.
The news of his appointment and the new deal comes after Irving and Nike ended their partnership last December. Irving was part of the Nike family since 2011 and in 2014, he became the 20th player in NBA history to receive his own signature shoe with the Swoosh. His signing to ANTA also comes after Irving just signed a three-year $126 million USD deal to return to the Mavs. In stats, the 31-year-old basketball player is an eight-time All-Star and has a career average of 23.4 points, 5.7 assists and 27.1 points and 5.5 assists per game last season with the Brooklyn Nets and Mavericks.
ANTA, which was founded in 1991, took to Instagram to announce the news of Irving joining the company. A few weeks ago, Irving was spotted wearing ANTA footwear, and now, the partnership has been officially confirmed by the player and the brand. An ANTA x Kyrie Irving model is slated to hit shelves in Q1 of 2024. In his own Instagram post about the new deal, Irving calls this “#BiggerThanAShoeDeal.” As for his role as Chief Creative Officer, he said, “I will push our teams domestically and internationally to unite like minded Trailblazers who have the vision to create and build their craft to transcend the footwear/Apparel industry for generations to come.” According to Shams Charania, there is more to the deal than meets the eye, “The lucrative new shoe deal for Irving will also give him the ability to recruit/sign players and other collaborators, and bring a level of manufacturing to the United States to kickstart ANTA’s process to fully distribute in US.” It remains to be seen how this affects ANTA’s global market. Irving joins NBA players like Klay Thompson and Gordon Hayward who also have deals with the Chinese footwear company.
Take a look at the announcement below.
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