World record-holder Greene switches shoe companies
Gene Cherry
World 100-metre record-holder Maurice Greene has switched shoe companies and will now wear Adidas, his agent and Adidas officials said on Tuesday.
Adidas global sport marketing manager for track and field and running Spencer Nel said the American had signed "the biggest track and field contract we at Adidas have ever entered into.
"It's like the cherry on top of the cake," Nel said of the signing of Greene in a telephone interview from his Amsterdam home.
The incentive-laden agreement puts Greene, who previously had represented Nike, under contract through 2005.
Emanuel Hudson, Greene's agent, said the world and Olympic champion made the switch because Adidas offered to design and market a Maurice Greene shoe.
"Adidas was able to provide him with assurances of certain things that Nike, for one reason or another, wasn't willing to do," Hudson said via telephone from his Irvine, California, office.
Hudson said Greene had also been offered the possibility of a clothing line by Adidas.
Hudson said although Greene owns both the world record of 9.79 seconds and the most sub-10 second 100 metres ever, "Carl Lewis is still the man," and it was hoped the new contract would help boost Greene's stature in the athletics world.
"If Maurice is ever going to have a chance to getting at that stage, the next four years are critical for him to do that," Hudson said.
"And he just wanted to be sure he was in a place that was going to support that ultimately and totally. So he decided he was going to be with the three stripes (Adidas' international symbol)."
Greene was out of the country and neither he nor Nike was available for immediate comment.
