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Top Nike designer canât stand LeBronâs entourage
By Eric Freeman
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Since LeBron James(notes) stopped being a nominal amateur inthe late spring of 2003, Nike has acted as both witness and primary aide in theman's hopeful rise to global icon status. It's nurtured his brand, and thebiggest part of that work has been his signature shoes.
As you can imagine,Nike had its top shoe designer, the wonderfully named Tinker Hatfield, workwith LeBron. Except, after dealing with LeBron's entourage, the legendaryHatfield decided the work wasn't worth the trouble. At a rare public appearancein Miami, he explained his decision. From Brian Windhorst at the Heat Index:
"I don't likeworking with LeBron's entourage," Hatfield said. "It's too many people,too many ideas, too many opinions."
It is the secondtime in the last six months Hatfield has publicly taken a shot at James variousfriends and managers. During a similar event last October in Santa Monica, Calif., Hatfieldtold a group of listeners at a shoe store that "I used to work onLeBron's, until his entourage kind of pissed me off."
Hatfield was the main designer on the first generations of James' shoes,starting in 2003. But according to sources, in 2008 he stopped working with himto focus working on Kobe Bryant's(notes)shoes and the Jordan Brand. In themeantime, Hatfield said last week that James' products have "suffered alittle bit" and "hasn't done as well as the Kobe stuff."
"[Working withBryant] one guy comes into the room with him and he has ideas and is very forwardthinking and is smart about what he needs to do, what he thinks he needs to doto be a better player," Hatfield said last week.
"LeBron is a great guy, I reallylike him, but when he comes into the room and he's got like eight other guyssaying things. That is one reason why the LeBron stuff, even though it does OK,it isn't quite as exciting to me as the Kobe stuff or what we've done with theJordan Brand."
Congratulations toKobe fans, who now have one more piece of evidence to declare that Bryant is abetter player, since we have now learned that Kobe knows shoes in addition tobeing excellent at counting his own rings.
http://Hatfield's remarks are obviously bad news for LeBron's business sense --if he wants to be a massive international brand, he probably shouldn't doanything to alienate the top basketball shoe designer in the world. But theamount to which you think this is a problem probably depends on what you thinkof LeBron, as is usually the case with all manners related to King James.
For instance, ifyou like LeBron, then it's possible to look at the decision to quit workingwith him as a sign that Hatfield has reached such great heights at Nike that hecan pick and choose his projects as he wishes, opting to take those that havefew distractions apart from the work at hand. However, if you don't likeLeBron, then it's possible to think that his entourage must have been terriblyannoying to make Nike's top designer quit their biggest project.
We should takeHatfield at his word and assume that LeBron's entourage actually did make thesediscussions more difficult than they need to be. But the amount to which youthink they acted out of turn is most likely dependent on how you look ateverything LeBron does. He's divisive even when everyone can agree that he andhis friends are annoying.
By Eric Freeman
[font=Arial, sans-serif]
[/font]
Since LeBron James(notes) stopped being a nominal amateur inthe late spring of 2003, Nike has acted as both witness and primary aide in theman's hopeful rise to global icon status. It's nurtured his brand, and thebiggest part of that work has been his signature shoes.
As you can imagine,Nike had its top shoe designer, the wonderfully named Tinker Hatfield, workwith LeBron. Except, after dealing with LeBron's entourage, the legendaryHatfield decided the work wasn't worth the trouble. At a rare public appearancein Miami, he explained his decision. From Brian Windhorst at the Heat Index:
"I don't likeworking with LeBron's entourage," Hatfield said. "It's too many people,too many ideas, too many opinions."
It is the secondtime in the last six months Hatfield has publicly taken a shot at James variousfriends and managers. During a similar event last October in Santa Monica, Calif., Hatfieldtold a group of listeners at a shoe store that "I used to work onLeBron's, until his entourage kind of pissed me off."
Hatfield was the main designer on the first generations of James' shoes,starting in 2003. But according to sources, in 2008 he stopped working with himto focus working on Kobe Bryant's(notes)shoes and the Jordan Brand. In themeantime, Hatfield said last week that James' products have "suffered alittle bit" and "hasn't done as well as the Kobe stuff."
"[Working withBryant] one guy comes into the room with him and he has ideas and is very forwardthinking and is smart about what he needs to do, what he thinks he needs to doto be a better player," Hatfield said last week.
"LeBron is a great guy, I reallylike him, but when he comes into the room and he's got like eight other guyssaying things. That is one reason why the LeBron stuff, even though it does OK,it isn't quite as exciting to me as the Kobe stuff or what we've done with theJordan Brand."
Congratulations toKobe fans, who now have one more piece of evidence to declare that Bryant is abetter player, since we have now learned that Kobe knows shoes in addition tobeing excellent at counting his own rings.
http://Hatfield's remarks are obviously bad news for LeBron's business sense --if he wants to be a massive international brand, he probably shouldn't doanything to alienate the top basketball shoe designer in the world. But theamount to which you think this is a problem probably depends on what you thinkof LeBron, as is usually the case with all manners related to King James.
For instance, ifyou like LeBron, then it's possible to look at the decision to quit workingwith him as a sign that Hatfield has reached such great heights at Nike that hecan pick and choose his projects as he wishes, opting to take those that havefew distractions apart from the work at hand. However, if you don't likeLeBron, then it's possible to think that his entourage must have been terriblyannoying to make Nike's top designer quit their biggest project.
We should takeHatfield at his word and assume that LeBron's entourage actually did make thesediscussions more difficult than they need to be. But the amount to which youthink they acted out of turn is most likely dependent on how you look ateverything LeBron does. He's divisive even when everyone can agree that he andhis friends are annoying.
