CNBC’s Darren Rovell broke the news:
Last night, we told you that Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade was on the cusp of switching from the Converse to the Jordan brand.
This morning that move will become official.
From a business standpoint, the two brands operate independently, which was spelled out by Wade himself.
“I didn’t want to be in the Converse brand anymore because it seemed like they didn’t know what to do with me,” Wade told The AP. Wade also told AP that he wanted to go global, so this was something he had to do.
The natural question here is if Nike thought it was important to grow the Converse basketball business, which Wade at one point had helped them to do, why wouldn’t it devote resources to making sure Wade stayed on the brand? Nike has a great reputation as a company in part because they are good at switching roles of top insiders to help out weaker businesses.
Rovell also reports the Jordan brand owns a staggering 92.8 percent of the basketball shoe market.
