Anta Sports Products Limited, the Chinese athletic footwear maker, signed an endorsement contract with Klay Thomson, one of the top players in the NBA and a star shooting guard of the Golden State Warriors, who now joins Anta’s “Basketball is Priceless” team.
The company’s “Basketball is Priceless” lineup now consists of NBA stars Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, Luis Scola, Chandler Parsons, and newly joined Klay Thompson.
Klay Thompson, 25 years old, joined the NBA in the 2011-12 season and has been playing for the Golden State Warriors since joining the league. He was named starting shooting guard and became one of the scoring leaders of the team in his second NBA season. He signed a maximum contract with the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2014, formally becoming a top-tier player in the NBA. Famous for his three-point shooting and defense, Thompson and his teammate Stephen Curry were nicknamed the “Splash Brothers”, and the pair set a new NBA record by making 484 three-pointers in the 2013-14 season, making them widely acknowledged as the best backcourt duo in the league. Klay Thompson has been delivering even better performance recently. On Jan. 23, he made 11 three-pointers and scored a career-high 52 points, making all 13 shots (including 9 three-pointers) and scoring 37 points in the third quarter alone, setting an NBA record for the individual highest-scoring in a single quarter in the NBA all-time history. With his remarkable performance, Klay Thompson was selected for the NBA All-Star Game this year for the first time in his career.
Meanwhile, the first designated shoes for Klay Thompson tailor made by Anta, “KT FIRE”, has been unveiled. The name is inspired by Klay Thompson’s sharp three-point shooting and the electrifying scoring which Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry often put on display to defeat their opponents. The “KT FIRE” features the orange and blue colour scheme of the Golden State Warriors along with a sharp contour and figure, which match well with Klay Thompson’s image as a sharpshooter. Klay Thompson’s jersey number is shown on the heel, while a logo featuring the word “FIRE” is seen on the quarter. The “KT FIRE” also boasts outstanding ventilation and support functions, and flamboyant designs are removed to give a more minimal and practical look to the shoes, fully echoing basketball players’ demand for functionality on the court.
Xu Yang, general manager of the basketball business unit of Anta Sports, said, “In 2014, the sales (in terms of wholesale price) and volume from Anta basketball shoes have grown by approximately 40 percent and 30 percent year-on-year, respectively, hitting a record high. More than two million pairs of basketball shoes were sold last year, representing a high single-digit percentage of total volume of footwear sales. These figures demonstrate Anta Sports’ professionalism in the basketball segment and the effectiveness of its basketball promotions. In the future, Anta Sports will continue to promote basketball by adhering to its strategy of ‘Basketball is Priceless’. The endorsement of Klay Thompson and the partnership with the NBA are both boosting the market share of Anta basketball products in China’s basketball market as well as customer loyalty, and are crucial for Anta basketball product category to achieving a leading position in China’s basketball market in the coming years.”
