How Asian brands build global rosters, one deal at a time

When Dwyane Wade walked away from Nike’s Jordan Brand for Li-Ning in 2012, the sports business press treated it as a curiosity, a wealthy Chinese company buying a name it could not otherwise earn (The New York Times, October 2012). Fourteen years later, that move looks less like an anomaly and more like the opening move of a strategy that has since scaled across three Chinese companies, two Japanese ones, and dozens of athletes spanning basketball, tennis and football.

Stephen Curry’s decision this June to leave Under Armour after more than a decade and sign with Li-Ning was treated, this time, not as a curiosity but as a watershed moment for the industry; the agreement was reportedly worth about US$400 million over 10 years.

But Curry did not arrive at an empty platform. He joined a roster that already includes Jimmy Butler, whose JB line is one of Li-Ning’s flagship basketball franchises, along with CJ McCollum, Fred VanVleet and D’Angelo Russell, according to reporting compiled by TheSportsCast and Li-Ning’s own athlete pages.

A wider field of Chinese challengers

Anta and Li-Ning are not alone. Fellow Chinese sportswear group 361° has step-by-step assembled its own NBA roster as part of a steady expansion beyond China that has drawn far less attention than its larger rivals. The company signed Aaron Gordon in 2020, added Spencer Dinwiddie in 2022 and signed Nikola Jokić, a three-time MVP and former Finals MVP, to a signature shoe deal in late 2023. Jokić has since released multiple generations of his signature 361° Joker shoe, retailing for about US$129, and told Boardroom that seeing his Denver teammate Aaron Gordon already wearing 361° products “influenced a lot” of his decision.

Unlike the sponsorship-only deals of a decade ago, 361° has backed each of those partnerships with dedicated product lines. Gordon’s AG series and Dinwiddie’s DVD series are established franchises rather than one-off colorways, following the model Anta set with Gordon Hayward’s GH line, now in its fifth iteration since Hayward joined the brand in 2018 after leaving Nike.

The presence of Gordon, Dinwiddie, Jokić and, between 2024-25, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope points to a more systematic athlete-endorsement strategy, with the company building a portfolio of signature athletes and product franchises similar to those employed by larger global sportswear brands like Nike.

A signature shoe is not an endorsement

Much of the hype around so-called brand partnerships still describes a straightforward advertising deal: an athlete wears the product, appears in campaigns and collects a fee.

A signature shoe is a different commercial tool altogether. It is a dedicated product line with recurring launches, athlete input into development and, in some cases, a share of product-related revenue. That model helped transform Michael Jordan’s relationship with Nike from a traditional endorsement into one of the most successful athlete-brand businesses in history.

Seen through that lens, the Curry, Irving and Thompson partnerships are as much product-platform stories as endorsement stories. Kyrie Irving’s arrangement with Anta goes further. Since 2023, alongside his KAI signature line, he has served as Chief Creative Officer of Anta Basketball, a role that includes influence over product development, brand direction and broader creative strategy.

The key question is not simply the size of the contracts, but whether platforms such as Curry, KAI, KT, AG and Joker can generate the kind of sustained consumer demand that has made Air Jordan the industry’s benchmark athlete-driven franchise.

A generational shift in who signs and when

The athletes themselves have changed, too. The first wave, Kevin Garnett’s move to Anta in 2010 and Dwyane Wade’s move to Li Ning in 2012, involved veterans making unconventional choices late in their careers.

The second wave, Thompson, Irving, Butler, Gordon, Jokić and now Curry, involves players signing while still competing at the highest level. Jokić signed with 361° as a reigning champion and Finals MVP; Curry joined Li Ning while still one of the NBA’s top active players. The shift from signing stars on the way down to signing them at their peak suggests Western superstars now see less career risk in an Asian sportswear deal than they once did.

Beyond the hardwood: tennis, football and institutional credibility

Basketball remains the fastest route to North American cultural visibility, but it is not the whole strategy. In much of Western Europe, other sports matter more.

• Asics has built its tennis credibility around Novak Djokovic, its global footwear ambassador since 2018, and signed Emma Navarro to a footwear deal this year after she left Fila.

• Mizuno has assembled a European football roster spanning Sergio Ramos, João Félix and, since March, Mason Mount, who joined the brand as a global soccer ambassador.

• Uniqlo built early premium credibility through Roger Federer, who signed in 2018 on a 10 year, $300 million deal with no retirement clause, and later added Emma Raducanu as a global ambassador.

Tennis, in particular, offers Asian brands a different kind of validation than basketball. NBA stars can deliver cultural relevance and sneaker credibility, but players such as Federer and Djokovic signal longevity and premium performance, associations that may carry more weight with European consumers.

361° has also pursued a route that neither Anta nor Li-Ning has emphasized as heavily: institutional sports partnerships. The company lists itself as a partner of the Olympic Council of Asia, sponsor of multiple Asian Games, and a Global Partner and official sportswear supplier to World Aquatics.

Where NBA deals build visibility primarily in North America, federation and Olympic partnerships build legitimacy across sports and national markets, the same combination of star athletes, events and governing-body relationships that underpinned Nike’s rise beyond Michael Jordan. Li-Ning’s own founder, Li Ning, won six gymnastics medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and lit the cauldron at Beijing 2008, giving the company a sporting heritage that predates its NBA ambitions by decades.

The next test

Anta has overtaken Nike in several assessments of China’s domestic sportswear market, and its acquisition strategy is moving in parallel with its endorsement push. In January, it agreed to acquire a 29.06 percent stake in PUMA, adding to its existing positions in Arc’teryx, Salomon and Wilson.

So far, courting NBA stars has had its biggest commercial impact inside China. Globally, Chinese sportswear brands remain relatively niche, even though Anta, Li-Ning and 361° have each shown they can sign an All Star.

What they have not yet proven is that this capability translates into European consumers actually buying the shoes.

Europe may be where that gets tested first. Basketball is the fastest route to visibility in North America, but European sports culture is more fragmented, with football, tennis, running and outdoor sports often carrying more weight than the NBA.

After building increasingly credible rosters in the US, Asian sportswear groups look likely to intensify their push into Europe through a broader mix of athlete signings, retail expansion, acquisitions and event partnerships. Anta already has a significant European footprint through Amer Sports, while Asics, Mizuno and Uniqlo have shown that tennis and football can build long term credibility as effectively as basketball.

In that light, the recent race to recruit NBA stars looks less like an end in itself than the opening phase of a broader expansion, with Europe as the next stop.

Eastern views

Asia-Pacific insights for the sporting goods industry

Analysis, insights, and expert perspectives on the sporting goods industry across Asia-Pacific — covering market trends, manufacturing, retail, and brand strategy from China to Southeast Asia to Oceania. With Jakarta-based contributing editor Yohana Belinda.

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