Sonny Vaccaro Net Worth
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- What Is Sonny Vaccaro’s Net Worth?
- Early Life
- Career
- O’Bannon Vs. NCAA
- Legacy
- Personal Life
What Is Sonny Vaccaro’s Net Worth?
Sonny Vaccaro is an American businessman and former sports marketing executive who has a net worth of $5 million. Sonny Vaccaro is best known for his tenure with Nike, in which he signed Michael Jordan to his first shoe deal. After working at Nike, Vaccaro moved on to work for Adidas and then Reebok. He was also responsible for getting Kobe Bryant to sign with Adidas.
Early Life
John Paul Vincent “Sonny” Vaccaro was born on September 23, 1939, in Trafford, Pennsylvania. Sonny started his career as a school teacher before becoming a high school all-star game organizer throughout the 1970s. Vaccaro co-founded the first national high school All-Star Game in 1965.
Career
Sonny Vaccaro’s vast array of college basketball connections helped him land his gig at Nike. At the time, Nike was a running shoe company trying to get into the world of basketball. Vaccaro pioneered the idea of paying college coaches bigger salaries and giving them free sneakers in exchange for their players wearing the sneakers during games. Sonny went after coaching heavyweights such as John Thompson , Jerry Tarkanian, Lefty Driesell, and Jim Valvano, and all of a sudden, a team expense was eliminated from the budget, and new personal revenue streams were created. With March Madness becoming a TV sensation and Vaccaro making his signature move of getting Michael Jordan to partner with Nike in 1984 , the basketball sneaker business blew up and took the industry by storm.
After working at Nike, Vaccaro moved on to work for Adidas and then Reebok. He was also responsible for getting Kobe Bryant to sign with Adidas. Sonny founded the ABCD All America Camp, which showcased high school basketball players from 1984 to 2007. The camp featured players such as LeBron James , Kobe Bryant, Sebastian Telfair , and Dwight Howard . The Dapper Dan Roundball Classic has featured players such as Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber , Kevin Garnett , Alonzo Mourning , Patrick Ewing , Vince Carter , Rasheed Wallace , and Tracy McGrady .
(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
O’Bannon vs. NCAA
In the later part of his career, Vaccaro spoke out against the treatment of college kids by the NCAA and advocated for their fair share. He helped recruit Ed O’Bannon for what became the O’Bannon vs. NCAA lawsuit that would allow the players to be compensated. Sonny placed the blame at the top, saying that the universities and shoe companies were the start of the whole problem.
Legacy
Vaccaro was the subject of an ESPN “30 for 30” documentary titled “Sole Man,” which aired in April of 2015 and focused on the corrosive effects of pouring so much marketing money into the college game.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon produced the 2023 film “Air” about Nike signing Michael Jordan. Sonny was played by Damon, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance.
Personal Life
Sonny and his wife, Pam, currently reside in Calabasas, California.
Basketball coach George Raveling was the best man at the Vaccaro wedding before the two had a falling out in the years to come. The two were always close friends but butted heads when Raveling took issue with the business of summer high school basketball camps run by Vaccaro. Raveling went on to become Vaccaro’s competitor in the same position with Nike.
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Next Season Kevin Durant Will Make WAY More Money Wearing Shoes Than Playing Basketball…
ByBrian Warneron August 20, 2014inArticles›Celebrity News
When Kevin Durant was a rookie, he had two competing companies desperately vying to sign the future super star to a shoe contract. As you might have guessed, those two companies were Nike and Adidas . Amazingly, Kevin opted to go with Nike despite the fact that their contract would pay $22 million LESS than than the one offered by Adidas. He must have been a big Nike fan! Even after you take out $22 million, Kevin’s rookie deal was still very lucrative. Nike paid him $60 million over seven seasons, roughly $8.5 million per year. That Nike deal is about to expire, so Kevin once again finds himself accepting offers as a shoe free agent. So, is Adidas gonna pony up the dough to finally get their man? Or is Nike gonna cough up a truck-load of cash to keep one of the league’s most popular and talented players? Actually, believe it or not, neither of these sportswear giants are even in the running for Kevin Durant this time around…
Kevin Durant / Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
If the reports are true, Kevin Durant is on the verge of signing an absolutely ginormous shoe deal with… Under Armour . Under Armour will reportedly pay Durant $30 million per year for the entire length of the contract, which is believed to be seven years. That’s $210 million , by the way. As you may have guessed from the title of this article, $30 million is WAY more money than Kevin will earn on the court next season. During the 2014-2015 season, the Oklahoma City Thunder are on track to pay Kevin $19 million . During the 2015-2016 season, he will earn $20 million . At that point, Kevin becomes a free agent. Oh, and by the way, Adidas did make a run at trying to sign Kevin this time around, but once the bidding got up to $20 million per year, they bowed out.
Under Armour may seem like an odd choice considering the fact that the company isn’t really known at all for their basketball shoes. In fact, out of Under Armour’s $683 million total 2013 revenues, only around $6 million came from selling basketball shoes. That’s a little bit less than 1% . It may also interest you to know that Under Armour’s annual marketing budget is roughly $300 million , so by the power of math, if this deal goes through, 10% of their 2014 budget will be spent on this one deal. Kind of a big gamble.
If Lebron’s rookie shoe deal with Nike was worth $90 million and Durant’s was worth $60 million (and could have been $82 million if he had gone with Adidas), surely today’s rookies must be raking in the cash, right? I mean, even John Wall made $25 million over five years with Reebok, when signed with them four years ago. Well, for whatever reason, the value of rookie shoe contracts has plummeted over the last few years. Maybe Nike and Adidas have been burned a few too many times by top heavy contracts with players who don’t end up panning out.
Andrew Wiggins was the #1 draft pick this year. He recently signed a contract with Adidas that will pay him… $2 million per year over five years. That’s $10 million for those of you who are bad at math. LeBron made more off Nike in his first year, when you include his signing bonus.
It’s a trend happening around the league. Many companies just aren’t willing to risk throwing so much money at an unproven rookie nowadays. As a lot of the athletes coming out now only play one year in college, there isn’t even really a lot of collegiate footage to rely on. Also keep in mind that Nike did not earn a profit off their deal with Lebron until 2012, almost a full decade into his NBA career. Nike has reportedly not broken even yet on their deal with Durant, so they probably wont ever at this point.
It’s unclear yet whether or not this deal with Kevin Durant will payoff for Under Armour. Let me remind everyone that back in 2012, Dwyane Wade ditched his $10 million Nike contract to sign with a Chinese shoe company called Li-Ning . No one in the US had ever heard of Li-Ning back then, and I dont think much has changed in the last two years. So this is clearly a very risky move for Under Armour. Only time will tell how this will turn out.
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