I certainly didn’t see it coming.
The American footwear and apparel brand are starting off their expansion into the football world by signing none other than Harry Kane on a multi-million, lifetime deal, and many (including me) are wondering why and how this even happened.
Well, apparently Skechers had been in the workshop designing their debut football boot for the last 18 months and had big dreams of acquiring a superstar that would resonate with their project and become their first-ever football ambassador.
Turns out they convinced the English striker to join their ranks, who turned down an extension with Nike and a possible move to Puma.
The official announcement was made on August 17, just six days after he was officially unveiled as a new Bayern Munich player. What’s interesting about Kane’s Skechers deal is the marketing tactics that came along with it.
Before signing with the German champions, Kane was actually a part of the Spurs preseason despite all the rumors regarding his potential exit from the club. When he first joined up with the team, he stepped onto the training grounds wearing a mysterious black boot with no logos.
This caused a lot of speculation, as many tried to decipher if it was a prototype Nike boot or a completely different brand.
He then began wearing an all-white version of the mystery shoe in his preseason training sessions with Bayern, as well as during his debut for Bayern in their German Super Cup loss against RB Leipzig.
A date was written on this particular pair: 17.08.23.
It wasn’t until his debut Bundesliga match a day after the Skechers announcement that he finally wore an unmasked version of the football boot, officially known as the SKX_01.
This sort of marketing involving the element of mystery played a huge role in the attention that Skechers received when the Kane deal was made public, and we won’t be surprised to see more stars joining up with the brand in the future thanks to the striker’s presence.
