Yao’s Houston teammates score on Chinese shoe endorsements

As you may or may not know, Yao Ming is a Chinese-national who plays for the NBA for the Houston Rockets. Many popular NBA basketball players have their own sneaker endorsement deals, and Yao Ming is no different – he has his own deal with American (and internationally known brand) sneaker company Reebok. Well, in I believe a first, because of Yao Ming’s popularity in China, Ming’s non-Chinese teammates Shane Battier (ex-Duke basketball player!), Chuck Hayes and Luis Scola have their own six- and seven-figure endorsement deals with Chinese sneak companies Peak, Li-Ning and Anta, as reported in “Yao’s Houston teammates score on Chinese shoe endorsements“:

“While I would love to believe that it’s because of my overwhelming charisma and personality,” [Shane] Battier said, “I think it has something to do with Yao.” It is perhaps the greatest tribute to the globalization of the NBA. While Yao wears an American brand of shoes (Reebok), his teammates have cashed in with Chinese companies simply by wearing the same uniform as Yao. “Every game,” Hayes said, “I get millions of people over there in Asia watching us and supporting me, and people, they see that I’m wearing Li-Ning, so I guess that brings up my fan base even more.” ..”If Yao wore a Chinese shoe,” Battier said, “I don’t think there’d be any deals for us over here, so we’re happy with Yao and Reebok.” For all the recent news reports about lead contamination in Chinese exports – children’s toys, in particular – Battier said his Peaks are as good as any shoe he has worn. “I toured the factory,” Battier said, “and where my shoe was made, it was very well ventilated and well lit and labor practices seemed on the up and up.””

How cool is that? Because of the popularity of a Chinese basketball player in China on a U.S. basketball league, American players are endorsing Chinese branded sneakers! Talk about true globalization indeed. Who knows, maybe the next time I am in China visiting, I’ll be seeing TV commercials of American basketball stars promoting those shoes (like in Japan, where lots of American actors advertise overseas so that they don’t taint their images in their domestic market).