Where’s the loyalty these days? It hasn’t gone anywhere. Matter of fact, it’s seen in the form of the most celebrated sports figures and the respective brands they’re attached to. With the recent uproar over Robert Griffin III covering up the Nike logo on the Redskins? gear, Snkrs Day takes a brief look at branding cover-ups.<\/p>\n
1992 was such a great year. We witnessed the greatest basketball team ever assembled achieve success in Barcelona. Of course with any international competition comes controversy; at least this one didn?t involve violence or racism. The Dream Team was sponsored by Reebok, so two prominent Nike athletes, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, decided to drape themselves in the American Flag to cover up their Reebok-sponsored warm-ups on the medal stand.<\/p>\n
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Reportedly, Kobe and Shaq didn?t agree on a number of subjects, but there was one that they mutually agreed on. In 1998, the L.A. Lakers were sponsored by Nike and with Shaquille O?Neal and Kobe Bryant under the Reebok and adidas label, respectively, they decided to make a statement. They covered up the Nike logos on their warm-ups with black tape to show their allegiance to their respective endorsers.
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In 2008, it seemed as if Nike struck gold again with the Redeem Team seeing that all but one player on the team was Swoosh endorsed; Nike was in marketing?heaven. Dwight?Howard, an adidas signee, was ?placed? beside Coach K during the team photo so that the adidas signature sneaker was hidden from view by way of Coach K’s foot.
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Another former Orlando Magic center sparked controversy in the form of now-Phoenix Sun Marcin Gortat. The Polish athlete had an endorsement deal with Reebok but had his own, personal branding in the form of a Jumpman logo tattoo on his right leg. Reebok?s response to the matter was to ask Gortat to wear high socks to cover the logo; he didn’t go for that. Gortat is now a member of Nike Basketball.<\/p>\n
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RGIII has certainly made a name for himself in his young NFL career. First, having one the greatest rookie debut performances in history and secondly, his recent actions in pre-game warm-ups. Using a sharpie, Griffin blacked out the Nike swoosh and wrote the word, ‘heart.’ After receiving a conversation from the NFL front office, Robert was told he could not deface the title sponsor of the NFL. So, in the second game of the season, he wore a grey t-shirt over his Redskins warm-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Where’s the loyalty these days? It hasn’t gone anywhere. Matter of fact, it’s seen in the form of the most…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":235066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[618],"tags":[1225462,1204025,1369,1206622,1225575,93,1225586,1225736,1225459,1208298,1204847,1210834],"cultivate_rss":[],"class_list":{"2":"type-post"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n