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Sonny Vaccaro, Who Helped Shoe Companies Dominate Basketball, Shoots for Redemption
The man who made a career out of commercializing basketball is trying to dial it back.
Sonny Vaccaro, a veteran consultant to the likes of Nike, Adidas and Reebok, is leading something of a campaign to rehabilitate his image in youth basketball, as criticism of corporate involvement in the sport continues to mount. A documentary on Mr. Vaccaro’s career — an ESPN Films “30 for 30” production called “Sole Man” — debuts this month, detailing his evolution from shoe company pitchman to outspoken critic of the NCAA.
The film, executive produced by Jamie Patricof and directed by Jon Weinbach and Dan Marks, comes as March Madness is hitting its peak. Media rights to the annual NCAA championship tournament, which concludes this weekend, are worth billions, and virtually every square inch of the tournament has a sponsor. (There is even an official ladder supplier.)
That money machine owes a debt to Mr. Vaccaro. The 75 year old is best known for his role in recruiting a young Michael Jordan to sign an endorsement deal with Nike in 1984, a move which significantly accelerated the company’s growth and role in sponsorship. His legacy extends beyond that deal to his influence in bringing sneaker money into so-called amateur basketball, in turn changing the way up-and-coming stars are recruited.
In the film, he is credited with pioneering a form of grassroots marketing still used by major sportswear companies today: offering contracts to both college and youth athletics programs, who in turn offer shoes to players.
Mr. Vaccaro saw no harm in pitching shoe deals to college coaches and universities, as well as to youth programs. His camps for up-and-coming players — notably the ABCD Camp that produced the likes of eventual NBA stars Alonzo Mourning, Joakim Noah and Kobe Bryant — served as breeding ground for kids to become acquainted with shoe companies and their executives. But he accepts no fault in how they associated with the brands.
“I don’t influence kids. I don’t think anyone should be involved in the recruiting process except parents and kids,” Mr. Vaccaro is credited with saying in the film. “If things happen subconsciously, like in ‘The Manchurian Candidate,’ brainwashing, well, I can’t control that.”
Today, shoe companies are cognizant of the symbiotic relationship between youth leagues and their own revenues. All three of the top sportswear companies in the U.S. — Nike, Under Armour and Adidas — have extensive grassroots marketing campaigns in youth basketball. Adidas, in its efforts to rejuvenate lagging U.S. sales, has highlighted its grassroots basketball efforts as a key area for future improvement.
A spokeswoman for the NCAA wrote in an email that the league has not been provided with an advance copy of the film. In the past, the league has vigorously defended its model of compensating athletes with scholarships.
Meanwhile, professional influence in youth leagues and recruitment has come under fire. In 2005, then-NBA commissioner David Stern told the Associated Press that part of the rationale for instituting an age minimum for incoming players was in part to keep recruiters out of high school gyms. “Their presence there is unseemly in my view,” he said at the time.
Rick Pitino, head coach of the perennially elite University of Louisville men’s basketball team, complained last fall that shoe companies have too much influence on the college recruitment process, which he believes should be regulated by the NCAA.
Mr. Weinbach, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who first met Mr. Vaccaro while reporting a story about a young rapper earning a college basketball scholarship, said of his subject, “Whatever your perspective, he either created or corrupted the business of basketball. We leave that up to the viewer, but one thing that’s undeniable is this guy has a really singular place in the story of the modern sports business.”
The film will debut in full at 9 p.m. EDT April 16 on ESPN, but chapters of the documentary will premiere in six installments on ESPN’s sports and culture site Grantland beginning Monday.
For the past eight years, Mr. Vaccaro said he has lived off savings while making speaking appearances at universities, criticizing the college sports-industrial complex he’s helped create.
“It was time for me to stand up, since I was an intricate part of the industry. I watched this morph into a billion-dollar industry,” he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Asked what prompted him to speak out, Mr. Vaccaro said, “Because I was always the demon.”
The man who made a career out of commercializing basketball is trying to dial it back.
Sonny Vaccaro, a veteran consultant to the likes of Nike, Adidas and Reebok, is leading something of a campaign to rehabilitate his image in youth basketball, as criticism of corporate involvement in the sport continues to mount. A documentary on Mr. Vaccaro’s career — an ESPN Films “30 for 30” production called “Sole Man” — debuts this month, detailing his evolution from shoe company pitchman to outspoken critic of the NCAA.
The film, executive produced by Jamie Patricof and directed by Jon Weinbach and Dan Marks, comes as March Madness is hitting its peak. Media rights to the annual NCAA championship tournament, which concludes this weekend, are worth billions, and virtually every square inch of the tournament has a sponsor. (There is even an official ladder supplier.)
That money machine owes a debt to Mr. Vaccaro. The 75 year old is best known for his role in recruiting a young Michael Jordan to sign an endorsement deal with Nike in 1984, a move which significantly accelerated the company’s growth and role in sponsorship. His legacy extends beyond that deal to his influence in bringing sneaker money into so-called amateur basketball, in turn changing the way up-and-coming stars are recruited.
In the film, he is credited with pioneering a form of grassroots marketing still used by major sportswear companies today: offering contracts to both college and youth athletics programs, who in turn offer shoes to players.
Mr. Vaccaro saw no harm in pitching shoe deals to college coaches and universities, as well as to youth programs. His camps for up-and-coming players — notably the ABCD Camp that produced the likes of eventual NBA stars Alonzo Mourning, Joakim Noah and Kobe Bryant — served as breeding ground for kids to become acquainted with shoe companies and their executives. But he accepts no fault in how they associated with the brands.
“I don’t influence kids. I don’t think anyone should be involved in the recruiting process except parents and kids,” Mr. Vaccaro is credited with saying in the film. “If things happen subconsciously, like in ‘The Manchurian Candidate,’ brainwashing, well, I can’t control that.”
Today, shoe companies are cognizant of the symbiotic relationship between youth leagues and their own revenues. All three of the top sportswear companies in the U.S. — Nike, Under Armour and Adidas — have extensive grassroots marketing campaigns in youth basketball. Adidas, in its efforts to rejuvenate lagging U.S. sales, has highlighted its grassroots basketball efforts as a key area for future improvement.
A spokeswoman for the NCAA wrote in an email that the league has not been provided with an advance copy of the film. In the past, the league has vigorously defended its model of compensating athletes with scholarships.
Meanwhile, professional influence in youth leagues and recruitment has come under fire. In 2005, then-NBA commissioner David Stern told the Associated Press that part of the rationale for instituting an age minimum for incoming players was in part to keep recruiters out of high school gyms. “Their presence there is unseemly in my view,” he said at the time.
Rick Pitino, head coach of the perennially elite University of Louisville men’s basketball team, complained last fall that shoe companies have too much influence on the college recruitment process, which he believes should be regulated by the NCAA.
Mr. Weinbach, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who first met Mr. Vaccaro while reporting a story about a young rapper earning a college basketball scholarship, said of his subject, “Whatever your perspective, he either created or corrupted the business of basketball. We leave that up to the viewer, but one thing that’s undeniable is this guy has a really singular place in the story of the modern sports business.”
The film will debut in full at 9 p.m. EDT April 16 on ESPN, but chapters of the documentary will premiere in six installments on ESPN’s sports and culture site Grantland beginning Monday.
For the past eight years, Mr. Vaccaro said he has lived off savings while making speaking appearances at universities, criticizing the college sports-industrial complex he’s helped create.
“It was time for me to stand up, since I was an intricate part of the industry. I watched this morph into a billion-dollar industry,” he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Asked what prompted him to speak out, Mr. Vaccaro said, “Because I was always the demon.”