Well, now this is interesting: looks
like adidas is going to pull out of the summer camp business - and Nike and
Reebok may follow. The idea is to focus more on developing basketball and
life skills rather than simply having a meat market.
This is going to put keen pressure on Sonny Vaccaro, who has his own plans,
and with adidas getting out of the business the Pump twins, who ran that show,
will have to find other things to do. They're clever boys, though, and they've
already diversified to some extent, doing things like matchmaking for collegiate
games and so forth.
Vaccaro is a different story. Having already worked for Nike, where he
invented the basic outline of the shoe business as it interacts with college
basketball players (goal: find and retain the next Jordan), and adidas if we
remember correctly, he currently toils for Reebok, now owned by adidas.
Vaccaro has his own plans, which include a "basketball academy,"
but it's entirely possible he may get squeezed out entirely.
In the long view, this is good news, because a) Vaccaro has been pretty
destructive for college basketball, and b) it'll help focus kids on building
blocks they'll need, whether they play basketball beyond college or not.