Despite Caitlin Clark Move, Nike’s Gender Bias Over Signature Sneaker Exposed by Ex-Agent (Exclusive)

The basketball world turned their heads when it was reported the Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark would be signing a $28 million deal for 8 years. The agreement also landed Clark a signature shoe which is expected to be out on the market soon. However, women’s sports are taking a step towards advancement and with it, equal recognition. But, things weren’t as breezy for them as they look now.

Now that the women’s sports after the emergence of Clark hit a record ticket revenue of around $2 million during the recent Indiana Fever game against the New York Liberty, it is time to look at some of the biases that the sport has endured over these years.

Entrepreneur and sports agent Leonard Armato recently got in an exclusive chat with EssentiallySports and answered some looming questions from Vishal Kolar. Armato’s experience as an agent got us some stories that were previously privy to a few people. His account of trying to get a signature deal with Nike on behalf of the WNBA veteran Lisa Leslie rang a few bells of undervaluing women’s sports previously.

Vishal Kolar: “Another thing you’ve been very vocal about right is… is the gender pay gap… pay gap in sports. Um, and your volleyball league did a lot of progress in wiping that out. Um, and now Caitlin Clark’s Nike Deal started a completely different conversation with the likes of A’ja Wilson, you know essentially being ignored. Um, as someone who’s seen these decisions up close like what do you think drives these scenarios and more importantly like how… how do they respond to these claims of bias?”

Leonard Armato: “Well, it’s really interesting. Um, I remember representing Lisa Lesley and we went to Nike way back when and said ‘hey we want a shoe deal. We want a signature shoe’ and they laughed at me and said there’s no way you know… Nobody buys shoes because women wear them. You know, when women play basketball they look at Michael Jordan and see what he’s wearing and that’s what they want to wear so you know we’ll pay you little money but that’s it they don’t you know you,you don’t drive any sales for us.” 

Leslie got her Nike Total Air 9 in 1998 which was a major success during that time and also was the first major shoe by a women’s basketball player. Meanwhile, the craze for Jordans is such that Nike introduced a special batch of Air Jordans 4s for WNBA players in 2023. The shoes were minty green in color and were introduced to the fans by Nike’s senior designer Kelsey Amy. Therefore, there is no denying that the sporting company has pushed men’s sneakers and gained a lot from it. Meanwhile, with Clark’s emergence, the disparity has equaled to a lot extent.

Caitlin Clark’s era with Nike

As per The Guardian, Clark received numerous offers of shoe deals including one from Under Armour and another from Adidas for $16 million and $6 million respectively for four years. But the NCAA queen chose Nike over others.

She will soon release her shoes and if fans are to be believed Clark’s signature shoes could break records that were made by Jordan’s in 1985. Finally, it looks like men’s basketball has got a worthy opponent in a woman player.

This story from Armato only demonstrates how far we have come; perhaps with Clark’s emergence in the WNBA, women’s sports might overtake their male counterparts.