Michael Ballack Joins Team Skechers
Legendary German Professional Footballer Set to Appear in Skechers Marketing Campaigns
to appear in Skechers marketing campaigns. Photo credit: Eikaetschja
Dietzenbach, Germany – June 8, 2021 – One of Germany’s top-scoring midfielders of all time will be back on the pitch for Skechers when a campaign starring popular footballer Michael Ballack launches in Germany and throughout Europe this year. The three-time German Footballer of the Year with four national championship wins has joined Team Skechers and will appear in multi-platform marketing initiatives in support of the brand’s performance and lifestyle collections.
“I became familiar with Skechers seeing their ads in stadiums over the years, and I’ve enjoyed wearing their shoes from the first time I tried on a pair,” said Michael Ballack. “It is important to me that my footwear not only looks good, but is also comfortable and can be worn in many different ways. I feel great in Skechers and was overwhelmed by the versatility of the collections. This is a global brand I can wear everyday no matter what my plans are.”
“The energy and enthusiasm for Skechers in Germany these last few years has exceeded anything that I have seen in the more than two decades that we have been here. There is a real buzz for the brand, and Michael Ballack reflects what defines Skechers: style, quality and the cornerstone of comfort,” said Christoph Wilkens, managing director of Skechers Germany. “As a player, he made history in Germany and, with his personable nature and extensive fanbase, is ideal for Skechers. It’s a natural collaboration that we believe will further build awareness of our already popular men’s product offering, and for Skechers Germany, a proud moment to see a local hero in our store windows, as well as campaigns across Europe.”
“Germany is an important market for Skechers, and Europe is one of our strongest performing regions,” said David Weinberg, chief operating officer of Skechers. “Creating a campaign featuring Michael Ballack represents a smart investment in growing our men’s business in this key market, and we expect he will generate excitement and interest in our collections not only in Germany, but across all of Europe as well.”
Considered to be one of the most versatile midfielders of his generation, German footballer Michael Ballack began his career at his local team Chemnitzer FC and made his professional debut in 1995. He played for 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Bayer 04 Leverkusen before moving to FC Bayern Munich where he was involved in the German championship title. He then celebrated great success at Chelsea and returned to 1. FC Kaiserslautern before retirement. Throughout his career and always wearing shirt number 13, Ballack won four national championships and made 98 international games over 11 years. As team captain, he took part in two world championships and three European championships from 2004 and is ranked eighth on the German national team all-time goals list with 42. Ballack has received numerous accolades throughout his career including German Footballer of the Year three times (2002, 2003, 2005), and FIFA named him on their 100 Greatest Footballers of the 20th Century list in 2004 and World Cup All-Star Team in 2002 and 2006. He also won the Silver Shoe at the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2005. In addition to other projects, the former player is still active today as a football expert, including for the European Championship.
Ballack is now part of a team of Skechers athletes and sports icons, which currently includes former English footballer and broadcaster Jamie Redknapp, ace Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, former quarterback and broadcaster Tony Romo, former defensive end and broadcaster Howie Long, Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden, boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, as well as golfers Brooke Henderson, Matt Kuchar, Colin Montgomerie and Billy Andrade.
Through the years, Skechers has utilized sports icons when advertising its men’s collection with an alumni list featuring names like Joe Montana, Pete Rose, Mariano Rivera, David Ortiz, Ozzie Smith, Joe Namath, Ronnie Lott, Karl Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Rick Fox, Wayne Gretzky, and the late Tommy Lasorda.
The range of Skechers men’s footwear and apparel collections are available in Skechers retail stores as well as skechers.com, plus department stores and footwear retailers around the globe.
About Skechers USA Deutschland GmbH and SKECHERS USA, Inc.
Skechers USA Deutschland GmbH is a subsidiary of Skechers USA, Inc. (NYSE:SKX), a comfort technology company based in Southern California. Skechers designs, develops and markets a diverse range of lifestyle and performance footwear, apparel and accessories for men, women and children. The Company’s collections are available in the United States and over 170 countries and territories via department and specialty stores, and direct to consumers through 3,989 Company- and third-party-owned retail stores and e-commerce websites. The Company manages its international business through a network of global distributors, joint venture partners in Asia, Israel and Mexico, and wholly-owned subsidiaries in Canada, Japan, India, Europe and Latin America. For more information, please visit about.skechers.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, Skechers’ future domestic and international growth, financial results and operations including expected net sales and earnings, its development of new products, future demand for its products, its planned domestic and international expansion, opening of new stores and additional expenditures, and advertising and marketing initiatives. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking language such as “believe,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “project,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will result,” “could,” “may,” “might,” or any variations of such words with similar meanings. Any such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause or contribute to such differences include the disruption of business and operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic; international economic, political and market conditions including the challenging consumer retail markets in the United States; sustaining, managing and forecasting costs and proper inventory levels; losing any significant customers; decreased demand by industry retailers and cancellation of order commitments due to the lack of popularity of particular designs and/or categories of products; maintaining brand image and intense competition among sellers of footwear for consumers, especially in the highly competitive performance footwear market; anticipating, identifying, interpreting or forecasting changes in fashion trends, consumer demand for the products and the various market factors described above; sales levels during the spring, back-to-school and holiday selling seasons; and other factors referenced or incorporated by reference in Skechers’ annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2021. More specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic has had and is currently having a significant impact on Skechers’ business, financial conditions, cash flow and results of operations. Forward-looking statements with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic include, without limitation, Skechers’ plans in response to this pandemic. At this time, there is significant uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic, including without limitation, (i) the duration and extent of the impact of the pandemic, (ii) governmental responses to the pandemic, including how such responses could impact Skechers’ business and operations, as well as the operations of its factories and other business partners, (iii) the effectiveness of Skechers’ actions taken in response to these risks, and (iv) Skechers’ ability to effectively and timely adjust its plans in response to the rapidly changing retail and economic environment. Taking these and other risk factors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic into consideration, the dynamic nature of these circumstances means that what is stated in this press release could change at any time, and as a result, actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. The risks included here are not exhaustive. Skechers operates in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time and we cannot predict all such risk factors, nor can we assess the impact of all such risk factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. Moreover, reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance.
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Released Jun 8, 2021 • 3:00 am EDT