Harry Kane and Skechers: Inside the England captain’s ‘unexpected’ deal
As Tottenham Hotspur, Bayern Munich and Harry Kane wrestled out the final details of the England captain’s £86million ($108 million) transfer to Germany, U.S. footwear brand Skechers was waiting and watching in the wings.
The big announcement — a lifetime, multi-million-pound boot deal with the striker — was boxed up and ready to go, but the company needed to be patient before pushing the button and going public. Skechers had done deals with Snoop Dogg, Sugar Ray Leonard and Tony Romo, and sponsored regular Super Bowl slots, but this was a situation with different pitfalls.
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“It presented some unique challenges but that’s all part of the footballer life,” Greg Smith — Skechers’ vice president of product development and merchandising — tells The Athletic. “Because Harry had so much interest from clubs in multiple countries, and really not knowing until the last moment where he would end up, we had a series of contingencies and constantly evolving plans in each country.”
Kane’s boot deal with Nike — which he had been with virtually his entire career — expired in August 2022. He continued wearing Nike’s boots, including at the Qatar World Cup, but it was an open secret in the industry that one of the sharpest shooters in the game, with a record 58 goals for England and 213 in the Premier League (ranked second since the league was reformed in 1992) was open to offers. An extension with Nike was discussed, Puma was keeping track of the situation, but Skechers made a strong play and timed its run to perfection.
Kane’s representatives, headed up by brother Charlie, were courted by the U.S. company just after the release of Air — the film telling the story of how basketball legend Michael Jordan’s link with Nike was conceived in the 1980s. All parties saw it and were on the same page when it came to something similar, just this time in a new market.
One of the biggest names associated with Nike, along with Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe, Kane — a huge fan of U.S. sports and known by Americans outside the soccer bubble for his appearances on shows like The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon — was keen to blaze a trail with a new brand on his own and be the main man.
Meanwhile, Skechers had spent the previous 18 months developing its first-ever football boot and set its sights on a big gun. Their stars aligned.
“They showed us what they wanted to do and how they wanted to get into football and the football boot space. I was blown away by them and what they’ve got planned in the future. I’m really excited and already feel part of the family and I’m looking forward to hopefully many years of success,” says Kane.
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Initial contact in the UK led to Kane’s representatives heading to Skechers HQ in Los Angeles for two days in April to meet with the company’s executive management team, including Robert and Michael Greenberg, who founded the company in 1992. It’s now worth £6billion ($7.5bn).
Their presentation to Kane’s team hit the mark and the wheels were set in motion. Kane visited Skechers’ New York showroom during the summer as the relationship gathered pace behind the scenes. A U.S.-focused marketing strategy, with one eye on the World Cup in 2026 and his post-playing career, has seen four of his six most recent commercial deals forged with U.S. companies.
Pre-season saw Kane’s transition from Nike to Skechers played out in public but with the cat kept in the bag. Against West Ham United in Perth, Australia, Kane — who is a size 8.5 UK or 9.5 U.S. — wore his white Nike boots. Then came the new Skechers, but blacked out. First against Lion City Sailors (from Singapore) when he scored a penalty in a 5-1 win, then back at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium when he scored four against Shakhtar Donetsk, his last goals in a Tottenham shirt.
“They were Skechers all along. Yeah, I was excited to get them on. Of course, as the Skechers guys know, black boots ain’t my favourite boots to wear in the world, so I was biding my time with them,” says Kane.
Bayern announced the 30-year-old’s arrival on August 12, the day he made his debut — a 28-minute substitute appearance — in the 3-0 German Super Cup defeat to RB Leipzig. With so much attention on him wearing his new Bayern No 9 shirt, it went under the radar that he revealed a little more Skechers detail by wearing unbranded white editions.
The boots heightened the interest and had roots in the “blind feedback” phase of development, where a variety of players at different levels were given Skechers to try out. “The plan originated from all the testing we were doing in the early rounds of the boots. We test our boots in all black with no logos so that players don’t have any bias based on the brand or colour,” Smith, from Skechers, explains. “For Harry, it worked out perfectly because his blacked-out boots generated mystery and discussion along with the intrigue of his team status.”
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On August 15, Skechers finally broke cover to reveal the partnership with the new blue SKX_01 boots. The photoshoot to accompany the launch had taken place a few weeks earlier when Kane was still a Tottenham player, just 10 minutes down the road from the club’s training ground at Waltham Abbey FC of England’s eighth tier. The publicity day saw Kane pose in the stand and on the pitch at the 550-capacity Capershotts ground.
The Southern League Division One side were sworn to secrecy about their high-profile visitor and simply opened and closed the ground, while the shoot took place strictly behind closed doors to keep it under wraps.
“Although there weren’t any club officials inside on the day, it’s nice to think that we had England’s best-ever striker banging in some goals on our pitch,” Simon Casey — Waltham Abbey FC’s operations manager — tells The Athletic. “Hopefully some of his stardust can rub off on our strikers this season.”
Part of the shoot included Kane recording a video call with former Tottenham and Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp, who has been a Skechers brand ambassador since 2020. Former England international Redknapp is linked to the lifestyle side of the brand, which is likely to be a longer-term element of the Kane deal. The lifetime agreement has many opportunities to evolve, which makes it hard to cap the earning potential.
Kane laced up his new blue boots for the first time at Werder Bremen’s Weserstadion on August 18. He started and within four minutes, supplied the assist for Leroy Sane’s opener. Kane then scored a debut goal with his right boot (the second in a 4-0 win) to get the partnership off to the perfect start.
“Harry Kane’s first Bundesliga game was the perfect platform to reveal that we were entering the football boot market with one of the hottest players on the pitch wearing Skechers,” says Smith. And Kane is aiming to provide plenty more big moments.
“I feel like I’ve got seven, eight, nine years left of my career,” says Kane. “I’m really excited to be working with a team with the same vision — we both know where we want to go in this space and it’s an exciting challenge.”
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The dream start continued nine days later with two goals — one from the penalty spot, the second an impudent dink with his right boot — in a 3-0 win over Augsburg on Kane’s home debut at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
Nothing but positive attention on the striker and his new blue boots, even though the brand he had partnered with may have caught people by surprise.
It was even flagged by Skechers’ in-house interviewer when he sat down with Kane at Waltham Abbey. The first question highlighted the “big” moment for the brand to enter the market with such an established name, but acknowledged that “some would say (it was) unexpected”. Kane explained that he admired Skechers who, like him, had “proved people wrong along the way”.
Smith says the deal required an “extraordinary degree of meticulous planning, design work and many rounds of product development” and getting Kane’s insight was a huge benefit. It gave the brand the “legitimacy” it needed in a competitive market. The opening phase of Kane’s relationship with Skechers publicly went to plan before an international break where he would wear Skechers as an England player for the first time.
This was the realisation of an idea that first surfaced in 2021 and led to multiple rounds of testing and adjustment, so by the time the U.S. company engaged with Kane, they felt they had a solid prototype to show him. “For Harry, as would be the case for any footballer, his boots are the most important piece of equipment, so he was very interested to see and try our prototype,” explains Smith.
Skechers then went into the “input and feedback” phase of the process, which allowed Kane to help shape the boot. “That got us through the final 10 to 15 per cent of refinement to ensure that the first Skechers football boot would be perfect for him and all elite footballers,” says Smith. Kane was also able to work with some former Nike employees who had made the move across to Skechers on the design.
The sell to Kane was based on what the Skechers brand is built on, their trademark “Comfort Technology”. The concept of “comfort that performs” was their key point of differentiation. “That required us to start from the very beginning — creating a new last (foot-shaped form) based on all our experience developing innovative comfort technologies and then modifying and reworking it to be perfect for football,” says Smith. “As soon as we got the last developed, we brought in key innovation technologies like HyperBurst Pro cushioning and P.S.C, which is Precise Strike Control, to provide enhanced touch and feel on the ball.”
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The science and design translates to one thing for Kane: “I work closely with the guys at Skechers to try to get the boot as perfect as possible with comfort. My feet are getting worn out every day, so the aim is to try to make the little details and aspects of the boot right so that I’m able to perform day in, day out.
“The boots are great, really comfortable. Comfort is the number one thing any footballer will want in a football boot. We play so many games, we train every day, so making sure your feet are in a good place is really important.”
Kane’s history of ankle injuries — missing 187 days or 43 games for club and country dating back to the 2016-17 season according to Transfermarkt — wasn’t of great concern to the designers because it wasn’t an issue for the striker. Last season, he was ever-present in the Premier League for the first time since 2015-16 and scored 30 goals, equalling his best tally from the 2017-18 season. “We try to make a boot that works for everyone, but we know that with elite players like Harry, you might have injuries or issues you have to work around. Fortunately, Harry is unique in that he’s very strong and didn’t require any special elements to the boot to account for previous injuries,” says Smith.
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The only modification made to the boot is to accommodate Kane’s specific foot shape. “It has a slight customisation to account for his preferred fit, which is standard practice for elite players,” says Smith. On the open market, it’s also possible to buy a higher sock fitting around the ankle, but Kane wears the traditional low-cut design.
“We are just getting started and have plans in place for both the near-term and long-term in football,” says Smith. “Skechers football is here to stay.”
Additional reporting: Laurie Whitwell
(Top photos: Getty Images, Skechers)
