Kicks Analysis 2017 #1: Shoe Sponsorship

The first kicks analysis of every Big Dance is the overall makeup of the dancing shoes, specifically who makes’em. My first kicks examination failed for several teams – North Dakota, Middle Tennessee, Dayton, NC Central, Vermont, Iona, and the play-in matchups. Obviously, I’ll have to update my charts after the first round when I get another look at the teams. So far, the 2017 breakdown looks like this.

Nike’s numbers are significantly down from 2016, going from 62% to 53%, and Adidas took a five-point hit dropping behind Under Armour. Looks like Under Armour rode the success of the Curry line and sponsored more teams who found their way to the Dance. Again, things are going to be different after my info is finalized and that remaining 11% is properly allocated.

The annual sponsorship chart doesn’t show a favorable trend for Nike, losing ground the past two years.

Adidas surprisingly has been relatively flat. With their latest shoe successes, future trends should definitely show an uptick, probably at the cost to Under Armour. Since the successes of the Curry 1 and 2 models, attraction to the Curry 3 has been mild, and with Steph himself having an off-year, the hype for UA shoes just isn’t the same.

Update

Here are the updated charts, and Nike and Adidas picked up more teams with UA staying even.