Caitlin Clark had offers from multiple apparel companies for a shoe deal before striking a historic eight-year, $28 million pact with Nike, the largest shoe deal ever for a women’s basketball player.
Some of those companies didn’t think Clark was worth anything close to that.
When Clark’s camp informed interested parties during the NBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis in February that securing Clark would require a minimum of $3 million a year, Puma immediately dropped out, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Adidas made Clark an offer worth just $1.5 million a year — $6 million over four years, per the report.
Under Armour came the closest to besting Nike, offering the former Iowa superstar a four-year, $16 million contract that was worth more per year than Nike’s while including client Stephen Curry in its pitch.
But Clark, whom the Indiana Fever selected No. 1 overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft, opted for the greater total Nike offered while getting a signature shoe; Under Armour also offered a signature shoe, the Journal reported.
Nike did not initially offer a signature shoe, according to the report, but was at one point considered being the potential female face of the company’s Kobe Bryant line.
Clark, 22, helped get more eyeballs on women’s college basketball as the Hawkeyes set three straight women’s hoops viewership records in March Madness this year.
Iowa’s Elite Eight win over LSU in a rematch from last year’s national championship game first set the record for the most-viewed women’s college hoops game with 12.3 million viewers, crushing the mark of 9.9 million from LSU’s title win in 2023.
The Hawkeyes’ Final Four win over UConn set another record with 14.2 million viewers, and their championship loss to South Carolina two days later drew 18.7 million viewers, with the broadcast peaking at 24 million.
The interest surrounding Clark is carrying over to the WNBA, which drew a record 2.446 million viewers for this month’s draft, despite the fact it was a fait accompli Clark was going No. 1 to the Fever.
The previous WNBA draft viewership record was 601,000 for the 2004 draft, when UConn’s Diana Taurasi went No. 1 overall to the Phoenix Mercury.
Clark and the Fever open the WNBA season on May 14 at the Connecticut Sun before hosting the Liberty on May 16 and then visiting the Liberty at Barclays Center on May 18.
