NBA Player Kyrie Irving Signs His Father As The First Signature Athlete To His ANTA Shoe Line
Kyrie Irving is creating wealth for his father, who has a basketball background through his time at Boston University and in a professional league in Australia.
Industry sources confirmed to Shams Charania, senior NBA Insider for The Athletic, that Irving will be signing his father, Drederick, to an endorsement deal with ANTA, a China-based sportswear brand. This also means his father will receive his own signature shoe, marking a first for a professional athlete to provide.
Drederick Irving’s shoes are projected to debut as early as September 2024 across Foot Locker stores, a source mentions.
Kyrie Irving’s connection to ANTA is the result of the company signing him to a deal in 2023 after he was dropped from his 11-year endorsement deal with Nike. Per the outlet, he is ANTA’s chief creative officer as well and has the ability to sign collaborators and endorsers.
This is not the first time that an NBA player has leveraged their status to benefit a family member. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Giannis Antetokounmpo declined an Adidas deal after the brand backpedaled on a plan to sign his brother too.
“[An Adidas representative] brought the contract and put it in front of me, and I’m like, ‘Okay great, where is my brother’s?’” Antetokounmpo explained, per Bleacher Report at the time. “And he was like, ‘We’re not going to sign your brother’s today. You’re going to sign yours, and then we’re going to bring your brother in a week to sign his.’ And I was like, ‘Uh uh, no thank you.’”
Signing his brother was important for Antetokounmpo, especially because his family was under tough circumstances. Ultimately, Nike would chime in and sign the pair.
“It was my turn to speak, and I said that it’s important for me for it to be a family thing,” the superstar recalled. “When you take me, you take my family, my brother, my mom. And [the Nike representative], she was like, ‘Yeah, sure, whatever.’ After that, we’ve been with Nike, and she’s been by our side ever since.”
