How Leaving Nike Made Roger Federer $600 Million Richer

Roger Federer has joined Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in earning more than $1 billion while still active.

But only about $130 million of Federer’s earnings have come from official prize money (a figure that puts him second on the all-time list in tennis, after Novak Djokovic’s $152 million), according to The New York Times. The rest of the Swiss tennis star’s career earnings have come through sponsorships, endorsements and appearance fees at events and tournaments.

And amazingly enough, a huge amount of those earnings have come after the 40-year-old left behind a $10 million annual sponsorship deal with Nike. How did that happen? Joe Pompliano of the Huddle Up newsletter explains.

2) Nike had a loaded roster of tennis players:

• Serena Williams
• Rafael Nadal
• Maria Sharapova
• Nick Kyrgios

And there is an unwritten rule in the world of sponsorships — you don't spend over 10% of overall revenue on athlete sponsorship deals.

So what would Nike do?
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) September 29, 2021

4) Roger Federer's $300 million deal with Uniqlo included two unique stipulations:

First, the agreement didn't have a retirement clause, meaning Federer would earn $30 million at age 46 even if he retired 5 years prior.

Even better?

The deal only covered apparel, not shoes.
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) September 29, 2021

6) Including his initial investment & marketing fees, Roger Federer reportedly owns about 3% of the brand.

The craziest part?

Just two years later, On Running has gone public & the business is valued at $10 billion.

That means Federer's stake is now worth about $300 million.
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) September 29, 2021

8) Roger Federer has built one of the most impressive brands in sports history.

He only played in one event last year but still brought home $90 million, making him the 7th highest-paid athlete globally.

Yet only $300k of the $90M came from tennis events.

Now that's wild. pic.twitter.com/A9dPFIPptv
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) September 29, 2021

For the time being, Federer’s wild story is not over, as he is still, at least technically, active. But retirement could be coming soon for the all-time great.

“When, like any athlete, you will just know when the time is right,” Federer recently told GQ. “I am not going to be the one that’s just going to stick around because I want to stick around. You know, I still want to play exhibitions down the road and have fun and go to markets in places I’ve never been before. The fans mean a lot to me, but I do not want to abuse my body. I still want to run around with my kids and ski … So I think you just know.”