Maya Moore deal with Nike's Jordan Brand may expand women's market

basketball.JPGView full sizeConnecticut's Maya Moore drives to the basket during practice this April for a women's NCAA Final Four semifinal game. With her endorsement deal with the Jordan Brand, a Nike affiliate, Moore has an opportunity to reach a wide audience for consumer products.

and the

are about to realize whether one deal will make a difference.

The Jordan Brand, a thriving affiliate of Nike, Inc., announced last week that it had inked an endorsement deal with Moore, the former University of Connecticut star who was the overall number one draft pick of the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association.

Moore has the distinction of being the first woman basketball player to be brought into the Jordan brand, which has the recognizable names of the Miami Heats Dwayne Wade and the New York Yankee's Derek Jeter.

Now, just as soccer star Mia Hamm lured American girls to soccer in droves -- and to soccer equipment -- the Jordan Brand is about to find out if Moore might have the same marketing impact in basketball. For Hamm, her effect was enough to prompt Nike to name a building after her.

Moore's credentials are top notch, having become the first four-time first team All-American in the history of the college basketball with the UConn Huskies. In April she was named as the 2011 Naismith College Women's Player of the Year, the second time she'd achieved the award. Her teams won two national titles and set an NCAA record 90 consecutive victories.

"I'm excited about seeing more females wear Jordan products because they're excited to see me wearing them," Moore said in an interview Friday at the conclusion of a Lynx practice. "More young guys wear Jordan shoes than females."

The Jordan Brand, which like its parent is based at the World Headquarters campus near Beaverton, has not said what marketing plans are in store for its new signee. But a University of Portland marketing professor, where they know a thing or two about successful women's athletic programs, sees opportunity in the signing. Moore might be just what Nike, Inc., needs for continued growth in the U.S. market.

For its overall brand, Nike officials have pointed to points on the globe other than the United States for sales, such as emerging markets in China, South American and Eastern Europe.

Mark Parker, Nike's chief executive officer, and others in the company have sometimes referred to the "mature" U.S. market, where growth opportunities might not be so plentiful.

But companies often recognize strategies to tap those mature markets anyway, said Diane M. Martin, associate professor of marketing in the Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. School of Business Administration at the University of Portland.

"Whenever you saturate a market," she said, "you either have to develop a new product so (consumers) will buy your brand -- with footwear, there's been a lot of that -- or you have to look for underserved markets."

Martin said motorcycle sales offer a good example.

"A lot of bike manufacturers are realizing that, having saturated the men's market, they are starting to see the opportunity for marketing to women," said Martin, who wrote a paper on that subject called "Claiming the Throttle: Multiple Femininities in a Hyper-Masculine Subculture," for the journal Consumption, Markets and Culture.

And generally, be it basketball or motorcycles and several markets in between, Martin said, "Women have been largely underserved in a variety of consumer products." Martin said the general appeal of women's sports can be found in the popularity of the Portland Pilots women's soccer teams.

"They have built an incredibly positive culture in training the entire individual," Martin said, noting that she has had some of the players in her classroom.

It helps to be nationally competitive every year, of course, along with a couple of NCAA championships tossed into the mix. But with all due respect to the men's soccer team and the men's basketball team, the Pilots women's team is the dominant draw. The team draws more attendance than any other women's team in the NCAA.

One of the players on the 2005 national championship team, Lisa Sari, said she was encouraged by Moore's signing.

"It's great for a female being recognized for her athletic ability on a worldly scale," said Sari, a Pilots assistant coach who played professionally three years after college.

The reality, though, is that few WNBA players have individual sneaker endorsement deals.

That's a plus for Adidas, whose WNBA apparel contract calls for all players without shoe deals to wear Adidas, said Chris Grancio, head of sports marketing for basketball at

, based in North Portland.

Sales to women basketball players "has always been a very important part of our business," said Grancio. Adidas signed Candace Parker of the Los Angeles Sparks to an endorsement deal after she was made the number one overall draft pick in 2008.

Moore said it is too early to say whether the Jordan Brand would be designing a Maya Moore shoe, though she acknowledged the possible appeal for women basketball players in high school and college.

She did not want to comment about what kind of marketing plan -- such as videos produced by Portland-based advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy as well as print materials -- might be in store.

"It's still so early," she said.

For now, she's excited to be associated with a company that is the namesake of one of her childhood basketball heroes. Growing up, she kept two posters of the Chicago Bulls great on her bedroom walls, including the memorable W+K-produced "Wings" poster featuring Jordan's outstretched arms holding a basketball.

But she also had posters of WNBA stars Lisa Leslie, Teresa Wetherspoon and Cynthia Cooper.

Moore believes the popularity of the women's game is growing.

"First of all, the talent," she said. "The amount of talent has gotten a lot better. You don't have just a few superstars. You have a group of us who are really talented."

That can only help in gaining further publicity for the WNBA, she said.

"People are flocking towards it," she aid. "The more popular it gets that that way, the more coverage we'll get and it will keep going in a circle, getting more popular."

;

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.