Chapter 494 The birth of a popular superstar!

Kobe's first signature sneaker hits the market.

In a sports journal in Los Angeles, a comment like this appeared quickly in the sneaker evaluation section:

Would I pay for a high school rookie player's signature sneakers? Of course not! Unless I'm an idiot! I don't think you're idiots either.

Although the style of this shoe looks very trendy, but the price is as high as 135 US dollars, the producer of the sneaker is really crazy about money!

Kobe Bryant is only a 13th overall pick. He has just been aggressive in the Lakers' rotation. Do you think he is 'Penny' Hardaway?

The media specifically mentioned Hardaway because in 1996, Nike's signature sneakers NIKE Air Penny for Hardaway sold for $135.

The price of sneakers has been skyrocketed by later generations of sneakers, but in fact, in the American market, the price of the star's signature shoes in the first year is not high.

The signature sneakers of perimeter players are relatively easy to sell, and the price is generally between 110 US dollars and 130 US dollars. For example, Payton's signature sneakers were sold for 110 US dollars when they went on the market. A few years later, LeBron James' first signature sneakers were sold for The price is $130.

Sneakers for inside players are not easy to sell, and the price may even fall below $100. Garnett's first signature sneakers cost just $95.

In 1996, a signature sneaker dared to sell for $135, basically at the price of a superstar. With Kobe's popularity and influence, it is obviously not worth such an expensive price. It is normal to be sprayed by the media.

And the sales results of sneakers, as James Bond said, are very bleak.

Many customers come to buy this shoe, not because it is Kobe's signature boots, but because the design of this sneaker is very fashionable.

Obviously, a player who is still struggling to get into the rotation has few fans willing to pay for him.

In a month, Kobe's first signature boots sold only more than 1,000 pairs, which was lower than that of ordinary sneakers, and the bonus of the star effect was completely invisible.

Part of the Los Angeles media has turned on taunting mode again.

But this time it is not Kobe who is mocking, but Leap!

It should be ridiculed for spending a lot of money to sign players and release signed sneakers, but the sales are very bleak.

Some sports commentators have already rated Kobe's signature sneakers as the most unsuccessful endorsement in NBA history!

...

Just after the lover in 1997, the eyes of the Americans gathered on the annual NBA All-Star Weekend.

Friday's Rookie Challenge was probably the most watched in recent years.

Because 1996 was a draft year.

The NBA rookies in previous years, when it came to the All-Star Game, just got used to the rhythm of the NBA game, barely able to have a stable appearance time in the rotation.

However, the rookies of the golden generation in 1996 were different. Iverson had become the boss of the 76ers, and people such as Marbury, Ray Allen, Raheem, Walker, etc., have also become the team's stable scoring Point, there is no problem with mixing up a starter.

In 1996, the rookie challenge was all participated by rookies, divided into east team and west team. In 2000, it was changed to rookie team vs. sophomore team.

On the Western side, Marbury did not play due to injury, and there were only three people left on the back line, namely Nash, Fisher and Kobe. Therefore, everyone felt that the Rookie Challenge would become Iverson's personal show.

However, to everyone's surprise, it was Kobe who really showed off!

In the rookie challenge, Kobe scored a game-high 31 points, and also picked up 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block. In the face of Iverson, Kobe was not inferior, but against the opponent. mark up.

Shooting, breaking through, and dunking, Kobe showed a variety of offensive methods.

Although the West lost to the East 91-96 in the end, and the MVP of the rookie game was also picked up by Iverson, this game made the United States know the young man Kobe Bryant.

After all, it was not the Internet era. Ordinary people depended on TV and newspapers to obtain information, and the limited space of TV and newspapers would definitely be reserved for those star players. News reports about ordinary players would only appear in local media.

A rookie player like Kobe who can barely enter the rotation, few people know about it outside Los Angeles.

The NBA All-Star Weekend is broadcast live across the United States, and you can perform well in the Rookie Challenge, which is equivalent to showing yourself in front of an audience across the United States.

Only at this time did the fans know that among this year's rookies, there is a young guy named Kobe who has very good personal ability and can actually compete with the No. 1 draft pick Iverson.

But this is just the beginning. Kobe's real highlight was in the slam dunk contest the next day.

...

In the second round of the dunk contest, Kobe was the first to appear.

The 31 players in the Rookie Challenge yesterday gave Kobe Bryant confidence. In the first round of the dunk contest, he didn't even take off his training uniform.

However, of the three dunk attempts in the first round, he only completed two, and the one-armed windmill of the second dunk failed. Fortunately, the opponent also made frequent mistakes, allowing Kobe to smoothly enter the second round.

By the second round, Kobe finally took off his training suit.

Originally, the audience thought that there must be some special weapons hidden in the training uniform, but it was just a simple Lakers uniform, which was somewhat disappointing to the audience.

In last year's Slam Dunk Contest, Brent Barry also wore his training uniform for the first round of dunks, and then took off his jacket in the second round to reveal a T-shirt that read white people can fly inside. .

So the audience also expects that there are some gimmicks in Kobe's jacket.

Although there were no small surprises in the jacket, which disappointed the audience, Kobe's performance did not disappoint the audience.

I saw Kobe accelerate near the 45-degree three-point line on the left, cut into the penalty area, and then take off, pass the ball around his crotch with his left hand, and dunk with one hand after catching the ball with his right hand.

A perfect crotch changer for a big windmill dunk! Instantly caused the audience to scream.

In the slam dunk contest of later generations, this kind of windmill changing hands under the crotch may not make people feel very amazing, but in 1997, such a dunk will definitely get a full house.

Sure enough, the referee gave a high score of 49 points.

This dunk can be described as a very popular fan, and it is the champion of this dunk contest that made Kobe from obscurity to a player everyone knows.

At least when the name Kobe Bryant is mentioned, fans will think of the young man who changed hands in the slam dunk contest.

In front of the TV, James Bond looked dumbfounded as he watched Kobe pick up the slam dunk contest trophy.

The next second, he immediately picked up the phone on the table and dialed a number.

Hey, I'm James Bond, Kobe's signature sneakers. I'll have enough stock for me as soon as I go to work tomorrow!

...

The next day, the front pages of major sports media in the United States were all news of Kobe's slam dunk contest, and some even added a picture of the dunk with a big windmill under the crotch.

Those Los Angeles media who were not optimistic about Kobe were beaten in the face one after another.

However, the media is also the most fickle. Three months ago, what they said about Kobe was worthless, but now they seem to have forgotten what they said back then, and they all touted Kobe to the sky.

The slam dunk contest is obviously the most watched event on the second day of the All-Star Weekend, and some fans may even think that the slam dunk contest is the most watched event throughout the All-Star Weekend.

Therefore, the annual slam dunk contest champion is often the focus of the media.

Kobe has also attracted a large number of fans because of this, and his signature sneakers are finally no longer a product that no one cares about.

In Los Angeles, there was once again a long queue in front of the Feiyue flagship store, and the picture from the Kobe Slam Dunk Contest, together with the picture of Kobe's signature sneakers, has been made into a huge poster and hung in front of the store.

Passers-by don't need to ask, they can tell at a glance that Kobe's signature sneakers are sold here.

James Bond stood at the door of the store, smiling at the people who came in and out.

I didn't expect that the boss won the bet again! Bond sighed, and then said to himself: But the sales of 300,000 pairs is still a bit difficult. If you don't lose, you can earn it!

Thanks to Kobe's fame, the sales of Kobe's signature sneakers finally have a look.

But wanting to sell 300,000 pairs is an impossible task.

But Li Weidong is not in a hurry. He thinks that even if there are more than 200,000 pairs of sneakers that cannot be sold, they can all be sealed up. After Kobe becomes popular, they will be regarded as out-of-print sneakers, and a limited number of two or three thousand pairs will be released every year. You have to pay extra to get it.

With Kobe's huge fan base, more than 200,000 pairs of signed sneakers are still very easy to sell. If it doesn't work, you can take it back to China and sell it to the shoe group, which will definitely make a lot of money.

Kobe Bryant was a player who became popular first and then had strength.

In 1998, Kobe Bryant had not yet entered the starting lineup for the Lakers, but he was voted by the fans abruptly, and he made the starting lineup of the All-Star team and faced Jordan.

That is to say, Kobe, who entered the second year of the NBA, already has the popularity of a superstar.

When selling signed sneakers, it is not the data of the star talent manufacturers, but the popularity of the stars. As long as the popularity is high enough, the sneakers can be sold.

As long as Kobe's popularity rises, no one will worry about sneakers.

Historically, Adidas decided to let Kobe Bryant endorse basketball shoes, also before and after the dunk contest.

It's just that Adidas has not paid much attention to Kobe. At first, Kobe was only allowed to endorse the tepid TOP10 series under Adidas.

Later, Adidas released a so-called KB8 basketball shoe, which was the pair Kobe wore when he was selected for his first All-Star appearance.

But this shoe is actually a remodel of the Adidas EQT series. It was not originally designed for Kobe. It is said that Adidas saw that Kobe had a huge advantage in the All-Star voting, so he hurriedly pushed this shoe.

Strictly speaking, the KB8 is not Kobe's signature sneaker.

In the eyes of sneaker collectors, this shoe also has the nickname of hard dog, because this shoe is special from the upper to the sole.

Because this shoe has many defects, the sales at that time were relatively general.

Later, Kobe became a superstar, and Adidas improved the defects of the sneakers and re-engraved the KB8 sneakers, but at that time Kobe had already switched to the Nike camp, so Adidas could not use the name KB8 and could only change the name of the sneakers to Crazy8 for sale.

As a result, because Kobe has many fans, the sales of this shoe are still very hot. The season Derrick Rose won the MVP, he wore this re-enactment of the Crazy8.

In fact, for sports brands, the signature sneakers of the vast majority of stars cannot be repaid. Signing a star can easily cost tens of millions of dollars, and if there are more, it will cost hundreds of millions. If you sell signed sneakers, how many pairs will you have to sell to make a return?

All but a few top superstars are losing money on their signature sneakers.

What sports brands really value is the influence of stars.

There are many examples of the rise of the entire brand because of a star.

The most well-known is that Nike signed Jordan.

At that time, Nike was facing the siege of several time-honored sports brands such as Converse, Reebok, and Adidas in the US market. The hegemon, this is also the most successful commercial endorsement in history.

In addition, for example, AND1, with Carter, once overwhelmed Adidas and rushed to the position of the second NBA sports brand; Anta successfully entered the American market with the most conscience spokesperson Thompson; Curry let Street brand Under Armour has become a high-end brand.

From this perspective, the signing of Bryant by Feiyue Sports is a sure-fire business. With Bryant's influence, it is enough to give Feiyue a place in the North American market.

Li Weidong never thought of making Feiyue a giant like Nike and Adidas, and he could bring Feiyue into the ranks of first-tier brands. Li Weidong is content!

...

The NBA All-Star Game is being held in the United States, and Li Weidong is in Beijing, attending a meeting of the agricultural machinery system.

As the meeting progressed and the numbers were announced one by one, all those who attended the meeting looked solemn.

In the 1990s, a large number of domestic enterprises fell into difficulties, especially in the mid-1990s, when the situation was the most serious.

And this wave of difficulties has also spread to the agricultural machinery industry.

Large-scale state-owned agricultural machinery enterprises are better, and can survive with orders from state-owned farms, while small and medium-sized agricultural machinery enterprises are really struggling. Many businesses have gone bankrupt in the past year.

Small and medium-sized agricultural machinery enterprises have a weak technical foundation and relatively backward products, but there are still many such enterprises, and they have produced a large number of low-end agricultural machinery.

The products are low-end, the output is still large, and the market can't digest it at all. The result can be imagined. Everyone lays on the board and buried the mountain.

In fact, not only the agricultural machinery industry, but other domestic machinery companies are also facing the same problem.

Small and medium-sized enterprises cannot adapt to the competition in the market economy in terms of management, technology, hardware and other aspects, and the number of such small and medium-sized enterprises is very large.

Therefore, the state has adopted the reform strategy of grasping the big and letting go of the small, hitting the power to improve the national economy and people's livelihood and a few key enterprises that cannot be controlled by the state.

At the same time, the state-owned enterprises in other general production fields will be released, and under the action of market laws, they will continue to regroup with the fluctuations and changes of the market structure, so as to rationally flow resource elements, shorten the structural imbalance, and realize the survival of the fittest.

The production of agricultural machinery is related to the country's agriculture, and it is also directly related to whether the people can fill their stomachs. The leading enterprises in this industry naturally belong to the enterprises of the national economy and people's livelihood, and they will be caught big.

Other small and medium-sized agricultural machinery enterprises will survive the fittest under the influence of market laws.

Agricultural machinery is an industry that relies heavily on subsidies, and the more accustomed to eating subsidies, the more difficult it will be to adapt to competition in a market economy.

There is no doubt that very few domestic small and medium-sized agricultural machinery enterprises can survive if they enter the market competition.

This meeting basically revealed such a meaning. For those high-quality agricultural machinery enterprises, the state will give help, and the agricultural machinery research department will also give technical support to help enterprises to upgrade technology and industries, so that enterprises can accumulate in the market. survive the competition.

Those who can come to the conference are also the agricultural machinery industries with comparative advantages or potential in China. Some are large-scale, some have strong technical reserves, and some are good at a certain field of agricultural machinery.

These enterprises have the opportunity to receive technical support from the agricultural machinery research department.

Simply put, it's a pie. The state will come up with a piece of the pie and distribute it to enterprises to help them survive.

It’s just that the country’s resources are limited. In the end, a bowl of meat or a bowl of soup depends on the company’s own efforts. If you don’t work hard, you just want to eat the pie that fell from the sky, and maybe you won’t even be able to drink soup.

Therefore, this meeting is more like a pre-war mobilization meeting, so that these potential companies will pay attention.

After the meeting, Li Weidong walked out of the conference room and looked at his colleagues around him.

These are all competitors. The pie is so big. If someone else eats one more bite, wouldn’t it mean that he would eat one less bite!

Thinking of this, Li Weidong's eyes showed a wolfish breath: Fukang Agricultural Machinery must adjust its strategic direction!