Kyrie Irving signs deal with ANTA, What other NBA stars wear ANTA shoes?

News of Kyrie Irving’s block buster deal with Chinese sports brand ANTA broke late on Tuesday night. The massive three year deal will not only give the point guard a fat payday, but he will have his own shoe, and they will make him the Chief Creative Officer of the company.

Kyrie CFO of ANTA

It has been quite an offseason for Kyrie Irving. At the beginning of the month he signed a contract extension with the Dallas Mavericks that will pay him $124 million over the next three years. Add that on top of the three year deal with ANTA worth $126 million, and those endorsement deals that Irving was losing last year seem to be miles back in the rear view mirror.

Nike broke away from the former Brooklyn Net after controversy surrounded him following a Twitter post connected to a book and movie with antisemitic tones. The shoe giant ended their relationship with and the franchise suspended him giving him a controversial list of demands that he would have to complete before being allowed to play again.

It’s not the first time that the outspoken point guard has been under fire for things that he has said. While many thought that his marketability was at an all time low, ANTA came calling with a juicy contract, his own shoe and handing him creative control in the company.

Who is ANTA

You may have never heard of ANTA before, but behind Nike and Adidas it’s the third largest sporting good manufacturer in the world. The brand has had a meteoric raise since it’s foundation in the early 90s.

After taking off in their early years, they bought Amer Sports, which brought them a load of other companies in the sports apparel and equipment business including Arc’teryx, Solomon and Wilson, which is the official ball supplier of the NBA, FIBA, NCAA and the WNBA.

Wilson became the official ball of the NBA at the start of the 2021/22 season, but ANTA was involved with the NBA and it’s players long before. The Chinese brand was able to lure Kevin Garnett away from Adidas after a long standing relationship and singed the former Boston Celtic in 2010. Rajon Rondo, Luis Scola and Chandler Parsons were also ANTA athletes before retiring.

Who else wears ANTA

Before Kyrie, ANTA’s face of the brand in the NBA was Klay Thompson who left Nike and signed with ANTA in 2017. He signed a deal that will run until 2026 and his contract could could be worth up to $80 million by the time the contract expires.

Currently there are seven NBA players that wear ANTA sneakers, including Gordon Hayward, Alex Caruso, Terrance Mann, Kevon Looney and James Wisemann. Surely the addition of Kyrie to the ANTA team will bring them much more attention, and the Chinese brand will be hoping that they will become heavy hitters in the basketball shoe market.