[Not the least bit surprising, in the 2002–2003 season, Kobe made the decision to part ways with Adidas.
If it hadn’t been for Adidas, Kobe might not have been able to jump straight from high school into the NBA, but at this point saying that no longer means anything; past goodwill can’t guarantee that the two sides will cooperate forever.
Kobe had long felt anger and dissatisfaction toward Adidas; he believed Adidas had never tapped into his true value, and he had no confidence in their future cooperation.
Especially in the 2002–2003 season, Kobe put up a phenomenal performance yet once again lost the MVP vote to Tim Duncan.
Both were players under Adidas, and Kobe believed Duncan surpassing him in total votes had to do with Adidas’s misguided policies.
In the 2003 Western Conference Finals, after learning he had missed out on MVP, Kobe abandoned Adidas’s new signature shoe and went back to the previous generation, The-KOBE, to express his anger at Adidas’s inaction.
According to a later report in the Oregonian, Kobe paid a buyout fee of nearly ten million US Dollar to terminate his contract with Adidas.
Sonny Vaccaro had plenty of complaints about Kobe’s decision, because Kobe made it without so much as informing him.
In his eyes, Kobe’s decision was far too reckless and made no sense at all. Though he knew that after Nike formed a consortium to acquire the Trail Blazers in 2000, Kobe’s "defection" was only a matter of time, Vaccaro still felt Kobe could have had a better future with Adidas.
"Kobe’s departure was a heavy blow to Adidas. I don’t think Kobe is as independent and free-thinking as he claims. He inevitably fell under Nike’s influence. He plays for a team run by Nike; of course he’s going to be affected. But he failed to keep his head. Back in 2000, when Nike had just bought the Trail Blazers, Kobe said he would not join Nike, just like he wouldn’t join Avia because of Ah Gan—he said he would keep his own individuality. But that’s not how it turned out."
Vaccaro’s words carried more than a little resentment. His conflict and estrangement with Nike had been brewing for a long time; including MJ and Kobe, in the end they all drifted away from Vaccaro.
At the same time, the relationship between Kobe and MJ was even more tense and ugly. During MJ’s brief stint in the Trail Blazers’ front office, his clashes with Kobe were extremely sharp, and this carried straight into the 2003 Finals.
Before the Finals, Adidas was still trying to mend fences with Kobe. They specially sent people to Portland to watch the Finals in person, hoping to meet with Kobe and lay out a grand blueprint for his future product line.
According to the vision of Peter Moore, chairman of the Adi American Branch Company and sneaker designer, Kobe’s products would not be limited to on-court shoes; they would also include casual lifestyle models, premium apparel, and men’s athletic accessories, and in the end his brand would be able to stand alongside Air Jordan and Skyscraper.
Of these two, the former had become the most popular and stylish athletic footwear brand, while the latter, relying on its ultra-complete categories and coverage, had become an all-encompassing apparel-and-footwear commercial line. Especially among Asians, Skyscraper had already become the most highly recognized brand.
Adidas wanted to recreate the commercial glory of AJ and Skyscraper, but clearly that required time and an accumulation of honors. Kobe might have three championships, but those were Ah Gan’s titles, not Kobe’s.
But in Kobe’s view, if Adidas really wanted to build such a massive brand for him, why didn’t they go all out for him in this season’s MVP race, instead allowing Duncan to win the award again?
On top of that, in terms of influence, Kobe’s signature shoes were far inferior to AJ and Skyscraper, which made him gradually lose faith and patience in Adidas.
According to Kobe’s father, Joe Bryant, as early as 2002 Kobe had already been quietly looking for a new home. He didn’t immediately and conveniently jump to Nike; he didn’t want to share resources with Jordan, so he reached out to Avia.
But Avia lacked ambition in corporate strategy—or rather, their strategic direction had always differed from Nike and Adidas. They especially favored international players and overseas markets, an influence drawn from Ah Gan’s success. And they devoted most of their energy to building Ah Gan’s personal image and brand. With Ah Gan like a nuclear plant, energy endlessly flowing, even for Kobe Bryant, Avia found it hard to tilt too many resources his way.
Missing out on Kobe caused Avia’s development over the next decade to fall into stagnation; but another ten years later, with the across-the-board rise of international players, Avia迎来辉煌, though that’s another story. In the early 21st century, NBA branding was gradually becoming Nike’s domain.
The rift between Kobe and Adidas had already begun to show in the summer of 2002.
Kobe went to Germany to meet with Adidas. The attending executives were all German, and to make Kobe feel comfortable they shed their usual severe, rigid demeanor.
But Kobe found everything about Germany irritating; he preferred Italy. After learning that Ah Gan had joined forces with Jordan, Kobe cut the meeting short, flew back to America to prepare for the new season, and left the Adidas executives hanging, which further worsened relations between the two sides.
In the 2002–2003 season, Kobe reached the peak of his individual powers. He led the Trail Blazers in an all-out push for a championship and tried to be the League’s best in every respect, including his sneaker brand. Yet his shoe and jersey sales this season were easily crushed by those two fused-together guys in Vegas.
Nike’s brand reps could come and go freely in the Trail Blazers locker room, and most players on the Trail Blazers Team had started wearing Nike shoes. They would often, deliberately or not, make fun of Kobe’s sneakers, something the sensitive and proud Kobe simply could not accept.