National Basketball Association

Adidas brings 'Linsanity' to China

Published Feb. 22, 2012 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

China, get your game on: Adidas is bringing "Linsanity" to you very soon.

The German sports apparel company plans to roll out the New York Knicks phenom's jersey across its network of 6,700 stores in China and expects they will be a hot-selling item, Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer said in an interview published Wednesday.

Hainer, who called Jeremy Lin "no doubt a great athlete," said the company looks for fresh talent like his.

Lin's ascent to basketball stardom was so unexpected that there was little merchandise associated with him anywhere in the world. Big sportswear brands now are trying to catch up.

Adidas, the world's second-largest sports apparel company by revenue, has a licensing agreement with the NBA in China that allows it to capitalize on Lin's star power. It and its peers would surely develop even more, but Lin is still under contract with Nike for another year.

Last week, sneaker freaks and Lin fans were giddy over rumors that Nike was developing a new sneaker for the Chinese-American star, and photos circulated online of a blue-and-orange shoe with "Lin" on the back. The photos later proved to be false.

Nike brought Lin on a two-city promotional tour in Taiwan when the California native first turned pro in 2010. But the company said Tuesday that there were no product launches involving Lin to be announced at the time.

Hainer would not say if Adidas is in talks with Lin, either.

Meanwhile, back in the US, Lin jerseys and shirts have been a hit. Modell's Sporting Goods, a retailer based in New York, said it sold around 10,000 jerseys and T-shirts in the past week alone and has orders for more than 160,000 in the coming days.