‘She has been put on the backburner’: Is Nike disrespecting Caitlin Clark?

Caitlin Clark has done it all on the court during her rookie season in the WNBA. She’s skyrocketed in popularity individually, and has made the league more valuable as a whole. With that being said, Nike is holding the line in one major way with regard to her branding. All basketball statistics are sourced from Basketball Reference.

Clark’s relationship with Nike began during her time at the University of Iowa. The iconic athletic wear company latched on to the prodigal superstar after she could earn money off of her name, image and likeness in college. It was a match made in sports heaven.

After Clark was selected first overall by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA Draft, Nike wanted to make sure that partnership continued for a long time. According to ESPN, Nike signed Clark to an eight-year deal worth $28 million.

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That figure is the richest endorsement deal ever signed by a women’s basketball player. ESPN reported that Under Armour and Adidas were also in the running to sign Clark, but Nike wanted to leave no stone unturned.

Included in Clark’s deal with Nike was the clause that they would create a signature shoe for the Fever superstar.

There’s no indication that Nike is backing out of that promise, but things are taking a little bit longer than expected on that front.

Grant Young of Sports Illustrated wrote on this topic, “While the true reason for the delay with Clark’s shoe is unknown, what’s for sure is that a lot of money is being left on the table with each passing day that it isn’t available to the public.” That would seem to be spot-on accurate, as the public would likely gobble up any merchandise that has a unique connection with Clark.

Athlon Sports reported in late May that Nike wasn’t sure how to approach Clark’s shoe from a schematic standpoint. They pointed out the “big decision” Nike had to make, with regard to developing Clark’s shoe as a women’s focused product, or one that is suitable for all genders.

Retail industry expert Matt Powell told MarketWatch, “Brands make very few women-specific basketball shoes. A woman’s foot is more triangular, forefoot to heel, and her arch tends to be higher than a man’s foot. A man’s foot tends to be more rectangular, and consequently, a shoe built for a man’s foot is really not right for a woman’s foot.”

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Powell continued, “Nike could show real leadership in women’s basketball by making a shoe properly shaped for a woman’s foot.”

Another speculated reason for the delay in Clark’s signature shoe is the fact that it is believed Nike may feel obligated to develop the shoe of three-time MVP and two-time Defensive Player of the Year A’ja Wilson first.

NBA agent and marketer Nate Jones believes appearances are important in this regard. He said on the House of Strauss podcast, “I think a lot of (the delay) has to do with managing everything that they’re hearing from athletes, participants, fanbase, and athletes themselves on the WNBA side.”

Jones continued, “I got handed lightning in a bottle, and I don’t have a shoe for her rookie year. And I’m likely not gonna have a shoe for her next year. But I’ve got the MVP of the league, A’ja Wilson, her shoe is coming out. And it feels like a lot of this is around avoiding upsetting that, right? Like ‘hey, she can’t go before A’ja.’”

With that said, Jones opined, “Who the heck says she can’t go before A’ja? It’s business. This isn’t about charity… No matter what you think of A’ja Wilson, it’s obvious the business opportunity with Caitlin Clark is much more substantial and much less risky. But for whatever reason, she has been put on the backburner.”

Ethan Strauss, host of House of Strauss, talked about Nike keeping things calm rather than being a disrupter. “But beyond Wilson, it’s about a culture at the company that’s more concerned with quelling noise rather than making it, as Nike once used to.”

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Clark finished her rookie season as a first-team All-WNBA player. She averaged 19.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game. It’s perhaps no coincidence that the WNBA signed an 11-year media deal in July 2024 worth $2.2 billion as reported by ESPN, in the midst of Clark’s first professional campaign.