(Newswire.net— July 20, 2018) — Tennis star Roger Federer left NIKE for UNIQLO, the Japanese brand that Novak Djokovic promoted for years after leaving Adidas. But leaving NIKE comes with a price that is unbearable to Federer.
According to Business Insider, the transfer worth $30 million a year left Federer without the rights to his iconic RF logo which was created by NIKE. Now, Federer wants it back.
“The RF logo is with Nike at the moment, but it will come to me at some point,” Federer said during a conference call at Wimbledon earlier this month, according to Tennis World USA.
“I hope rather sooner than later that Nike can be nice and helpful in the process to bring it over to me. It’s also something that was very important for me, for the fans really.”
A 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer first appeared in Uniqlo sportswear at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships. When Djokovic started wearing the Uniqlo brand he was still playing in his Djoko Adidas tennis shoes branded with his logo. Following the same pattern Federer was wearing NIKE shoes at the Wimbledon tournament, the only sportswear he had left branded with his RF logo.
After signing for Uniqlo, Federer has lost legal rights to use his personalized logo, but hopes that NIKE, who launched this logo in 2010 will understand what it means not only for the tennis champion but for his fans too since they wouldn’t be able to purchase a new tennis outfit with the logo of their favorite player.
While Rafael Nadal remained loyal to NIKE, Federer signed with Uniqlo, the brand Djokovic left for La Costa. Unlike Federer though, Djokovic managed to hold on to his logo through all of the transfers.
Originating in Japan, Uniqlo is predominantly an Asian brand. In November 1998, they opened their first urban Uniqlo store in Tokyo’s trendy Harajuku district, but in 2001 the company decided to begin positioning their brand globally. A new company was created in China – Fast Retailing (Jiangsu) Apparel Co., Ltd., which become a central Uniqlo distribution hub for outlets across the globe.
The company recorded sales of over 5 trillion yen ($61.2 billion) worldwide, aiming to double its income in the years to come.