He was wearing Mizuno at the Chinese champs. Sux for him.
He was wearing Mizuno at the Chinese champs. Sux for him.
Dropping the #1 (or at worst #2) sports hero of a nation of more than 1 billion which is largely an untapped market for shoes would kind of be silly
I guess that you have never been to China....
Liu Xiang is the poster boy of Nike in China and is a huge celebrity (tell me when another T&F athlete's face is on every can of Coke, on every Post Office, etc, etc)
In the National Games he must wear the uniform from his provincial team (Shanghai), but look at the shoes... they are Nike..
The entire Chinese federation is with Nike. Everyone has the same sponsor.
At the National Games, you wear the uniform of your province which has it's own deal, apart from the individual federations.
See the photos from the last National Games in 2005:
http://www.photorun.net/images_L/2005/TF/Nanjing_Chinese_Games/Liu_Xiang-R-Nanjing05.jpg
more on Liu Xiang's status in China
(5000USD for a piece of his ripped shirt...)
from todays' paper
Oct 29, 2009
Liu Xiang madness has returned to China, with fans auctioning ripped-up pieces of the track star's clothes that he tossed into the crowd after winning his third national 110-metre hurdles title.
Internet chatrooms on the mainland have been abuzz over Liu's post-race stripteases at the National Games on Sunday in Jinan, Shandong, according to press reports.
The 2004 Athens Olympic champion was left wearing only his shorts after throwing his shirt into the crowd during a victory lap around the Olympic Sports Centre in Jinan, the Yangcheng Evening News reported.
Liu (pictured) again stripped after the gold medal ceremony, this time shedding his track suit and tossing it to his fans, who ripped it to shreds fighting over it, the newspaper said.
"The starting price for those who want to buy a piece of Liu Xiang's track suit is 30,000 yuan [HK$34,000]," the paper said, citing a posting on an internet auction site. Liu's win on Sunday was his first since coming back from surgery on an Achilles tendon that kept him from running at last year's Beijing Olympics.
The win and his post-surgery best race time of 13.15 seconds has further raised hopes that Liu can return to top form. Liu, whose star power pulled in a sell-out crowd of nearly 60,000 fans on Sunday, has become one of China's richest athletes and enjoys lucrative sponsorships with US shoe giant Nike and beverage maker Coca-Cola.
LX would never leave Nike, owned by China, with main offices in Shanghai. The shadow HQ in Europe and America are for export markets only.
