It’s official. Four time NBA All-Star and three time NBA Champion Tony Parker has left Nike to sign with PEAK Sports in a 3-year, $1.2 million endorsement deal, CounterKicks has been told.
Parker is the latest high profile athlete to leave the Nike roster for a Chinese based brand. Dwyane Wade made headlines last year switching from Nike’s Jordan Brand division to Li-Ning.
The initial thread on the Tony Parker to PEAK signing appears to have come from the Twitter account of Li Shuangfu a few days ago, with the news slice amplified by Ben Hunt this past Saturday who says he saw TP wearing PEAK branded shoes in a Spurs shoot around practice.
Here’s the rest of the relevant details and storyline CounterKicks has gathered from sources:
Beginning in the summer of last year, PEAK showed strong interest and made attempts to pull the endorsement services of Tony Parker, a Nike athlete for his entire professional career until now.
We’re told the official PEAK signing took place last Wednesday, Jan. 2. and Parker’s deal is for 3-years, $1.2 million.
Tony Parker branded signature product with PEAK is already in the works, with a tentative unveiling on Parker’s feet for this spring’s NBA Playoffs. A couple different styles are currently being developed, with more to come in the following seasons.
While the PEAK deal is official, TP has still yet to make his first PEAK footwear appearance in game on an NBA court.
Last night, TP optioned again for an old favorite in the Nike Zoom Brave IV (see gallery above), chipping in 16 points in a Spurs loss to the New Orleans Hornets.
Parker joins the PEAK athlete stable which includes Shane Battier, George Hill, Kyle Lowry, Patrick Patterson, JaVale McGee, Dorell Wright, Carl Landry, Andrew Goudelock, and Beno Udrih.
