Former Nike tennis director Mike Nakajima suggests that Roger Federer was well positioned to become a big brand, while the fact that Novak Djokovic came from Serbia was taken into account by Nike when discussing whether to sign the Serb or not.
When Federer was just 14 years old, he was spotted by Nike and the renowned sportswear brand signed a deal with the Swiss. In 2018, Federer announced amazing news when he left Nike to sign a 10-year deal with UNIQLO.
Rafael Nadal, who created one of the best rivalries in all sports with Federer, is also backed by Nike. But Djokovic – a 22-time Grand Slam champion – was never a member of the Nike family.
Nakajima explains why Nike picked Federer over Djokovic.
“Nothing against Novak – he’s a great player, speaks well and can become the greatest player of all time. But from a marketing point of view, we felt that Serbia wasn’t a big market for us, so we took that into account.
Switzerland wasn’t that big either, but when [Federer] became ‘The Roger Federer’ he became a global athlete and that’s enough for us. Nike thought Roger was a very promising young athlete and we could see the game was moving in Europe,” said to Nakajima Talking-Tennis.
As for Nadal, Nakajima suggested that Spain was already a big market for Nike and that their goal was to have Federer and the Spaniard as the faces of their brand in the tennis world. “Spain is a huge market for Nike and Rafa has a huge following, so Roger and Rafa are the athletes we fly our flags with and you have to stick to your opinion.
When they are 16, 17, 18 years old, everyone knows them, certainly our competitors too, so we focus on 11, 12, 13 and 14-year-olds,” added Nakajima. Federer reportedly left Nike in 2018, because UNIQLO had come in with a much better financial offer.
