Shaquille O'Neal signs deal with Li Ning for “Dunkman” line

China-based sporting goods company Li-Ning formally announced a five-year deal with Heat C Shaquille O’Neal to produce and market the “Shaq Dunkman” line of shoes and apparel in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Only 320 pairs of the Dunkman shoes will be available when the line is launched in January. Cavaliers G Damon Jones, a friend and former teammate of O’Neal, is also a Li-Ning endorser (Li-Ning). Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but in Miami, John Dorschner reports it is “certain to be worth considerably more” than the reported $200,000-300,000 Jones receives annually. The NBA claims O’Neal is the fourth most popular athlete in China, behind Michael Jordan, Rockets C Yao Ming and Real Madrid MF David Beckham. Li-Ning “hopes to expand into the U.S. market,” but its “main concern in signing Shaq is improving its position selling basketball shoes in the $1[B] Chinese market” (MIAMI HERALD, 8/15). Nike claims annual sales in China of about $600M, and while adidas does not reveal sales information, it said that it is “narrowing the gap with Nike.” Chinese sports-marketing firm Zou Marketing said adidas had sales of $385M in ’05, compared to around $300M for Li-Ning. Li-Ning has launched a Web site called “Shaq News” and will launch a print and outdoor ad campaign tomorrow, and O’Neal will visit Beijing and Chengdu this week to promote the deal. The company will continue using Jones in its domestic marketing, but it “won’t begin heavily marketing outside of China until after” the ’08 Beijing Games (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/15).

MENDING FENCES: The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Fowler & Fong write the deal could help O’Neal “overcome perceptions of racism, which were initially sparked when [he] allegedly made derogatory comments” about Yao. O’Neal later said he was joking and that he was friends with Yao, but “many Chinese sports fans were rankled nonetheless.” During the announcement of the deal yesterday, O’Neal “drew snickers from the audience when he said, ‘I’m Shaquille O’Neal and I love China’”

POPULARITY CONTEST: Last year through November, O’Neal’s No. 32 Heat jersey was the eighth-best selling NBA jersey in China. The following lists the top ten