Maria Sharapova finished last season inside the top 5 in women’s world tennis but when it comes to Nike she’s the ace.
The fourth seed at the 2012 Australian Open is well know for being the glamour girl of tennis, but what isn’t that well know is that she is a dab hand at designing shoes – enter Nike.
In fact, the flat ballet shoe she designed is one of the best sellers for the Nike wholly-owned subsidiary.
It was a talent that was just waiting to be discovered, and thanks to an enforced lay off due to a shoulder injury in 2008 it was found.
Her first Cole Haan collection was introduced in the spring of 2009.
“It was really an experiment for me,” said Sharapova, who gets a percentage of sales from both her Cole Haan line and a collection of Nike (NKE) tennis dresses, which she also designs. “I certainly did not think I would be making any money from this because I had zero experience.”
Sharapova won her first major at Wimbledon age 17 in 2004. Grand slam titles followed at the 2006 U.S. Open and the 2008 Australian Open.
On court she is being challenged by the world’s best tennis players, but off court all she wants to do is to out-do her ballet shoe.
“When you start with - let’s call it a ‘luck shoe’ - it’s pretty tough,” Sharapova said. “The great thing is that now you have customers that are coming back to get another pair in a different colour when the one that they bought wears out.”
3 News
source: newshub archive
