Former Tennessee and WNBA superstar Candace Parker has been named the President of Adidas women’s basketball moving forward, first reported by AJ Hess of Fast Company. The former league champion announced her retirement from the WNBA on Apr. 28, 2024.
Parker’s relationship with Adidas dates back more than a decade, signing with the shoe/sporting brand after her rookie WNBA season back in 2008. According to Hess, though, Parker’s relationship with the company (and the shoes) dates back even further.
While winning back-to-back National Championships under Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee, Parker donned the three-striped brand on the court.
Parker’s relationship with Adidas only continued to flourish as she became a rising superstar in the professional league. Parker was the first woman to debut a signature shoe with Adidas in 2010, and while discontinued now, it opened up the door for a budding relationship. Parker and Adidas worked to create three collections during her time as a player, including on-court, pre-, and post-game footwear.
While Parker has been active with Adidas during the later years of her career (most notably becoming a mentor for Hailey Van Lith, Adidas’s first NIL-sponsored athlete), the former Lady Vol star will be broadening her scope as the president of Adidas women’s basketball brand.
“Parker’s now taking on an even bigger role, helping the brand with everything from new product development and branding to deciding which athletes it signs,” Hess wrote in his exclusive for Fast Company. “As Parker says, she’ll be ‘overseeing pretty much everything.’”
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The growth of the women’s game at the college level is directly impacting the market for brands to link up with the rising stars of tomorrow. For instance, Caitlin Clark signed with Nike this spring while Angel Reese inked a deal with Reebok. Adidas understandably doesn’t want to fall behind with the athletes and wants a legitimate and respected figure as the person running the show; enter Candace Parker.
Parker is a 3x WNBA champion, a one-time WNBA Finals MVP, a 2x WNBA MVP, a 7x WNBA All-Star, a 2x NCAA Tournament champion, and a 2x Olympics gold medalist – and that’s not even denting her long list of career accomplishments and accolades, just highlighting a few of the best.
While her WNBA career was still in progress in 2018, Parker opted to add another feather to her cap by joining the NBA on TNT crew as an analyst and commentator. Parker has been a staple for NBA coverage, WNBA coverage, and NCAA tournament coverage on television over the past few years.
Now, though, Parker will take aim at one of the tougher challenges of her career as the President of Adidas women’s basketball moving forward. But Parker hasn’t backed down from a challenge once during her career and looks like a slam dunk for the Adidas brand.
