Shoe Companies Dumping All-American Camps

If you were a big shoe company 15 years ago there was pressure to get in the business of running high school all-american camps.  Now the trend is to get out of that business.  Reebok pulled its name from the camps this past summer. Adidas announced a few weeks ago that they were no longer going to run their camp.  It is expected that Nike will make the announcement that it no longer going to run its camp.  These camps use to signal the start of the summer evaluation period for college coaches.  While coaches are unable to make contact with there target players during these camps, it is a chance for the coaches to evaluate talent.  At the Nike camp in 1996 a guy named Tracy McGrady came out of nowhere to gain recognition amd eventually a first round draft pick out of high school the following draft.  These camps use to be like this, every year there was one guy would come from nowhere to make a name fo themself.  These camps also allowed the shoe companies to get an advantage in the race to sign players.  While the shoe companies couldn’t sign players because they were still in high school, the camps competed to get the best players, because the camps were all held the same week.  Being able to land a big high school talent at your camp meant you were the company he was going to be exposed to and were seen as the frontrunner if the kid went pro.  Now league rules prevent high schoolers from entering the draft, this may be one reason the companies have decided to get out of this business. Another reason is because most of the big name players have already made commitments to colleges before the camps and not many players have come from nowhere to dominate.  Both Nike and adidas plan on running smaller instuctional camps for high school players but the recruiting camps are going to have to find other sponsors.