As executive of Adidas, Candace Parker Alinea Passion and Purpose
The former WNBA star is connecting with young players at work with Adidas, which has made her very happy in her first year.
Tampa, Florida – During a basketball skills clinic conducted for secondary school players in the area during the Final Four Women Candace Parkerwho was coanfitriona of the event as Adidas Women’s Basketball President.
The participant had reached the camp with a boot to walk after fracturing the foot.
With the desire to participate in the clinic, part of the “You Got This” campaign of Adidas aimed at combating negative behaviors outside the court towards young athletes, the campist tried to run along the court with the other campers, ignoring the orthopedic device that hindered it.
Parker decided to intervene.
“I said, ‘I love you, but no, honey,” Parker said.
Parker was no stranger to injuries during his career in basketball, including the breakage of the anterior cross ligament during his last year of high school.
“Being in a camp with all of us and wanting to demonstrate what you are worth, it must be difficult to be a little marginalized. I know what it feels like,” said Parker. “I hope I have inspired her a bit to move forward.”
The weekend, properly, was the first time that Parker was in Tampa during a Fur Four since she won a national championship with the Tennessee Lady Vols In 2008.
Parker’s return to the city of Florida Central, after a career as a winning player of multiple championships and worthy of the Hall of Fame, placed it as a brand executive, in charge of marking the beginning of the next era of the Adidas Women’s Basketball Division since he assumed the presidency in May 2024.
For Parker, His first year as an executive has passed flyingfull of both expected and unexpected lessons, while continuing to adapt to his new position and establishing his vision.
“I have learned a lot and I have supported myself in many people, but I am excited about what we are doing and with our plans for the next 11 months,” said Parker. “When you do something that you are passionate about and you are surrounded by people who are already passionate about the one you love, and eager to win, it inspires me every day.”
Last year, Parker signed two athletes for his Adidas squad.
In January, Parker signed the star of the Phoenix Mercury, Satou Saballyfor the brand. Sabally, who had previously been in Jordan Brand, joined the Adidas female basketball staff, which includes players like Chelsea Gray, Aliyah Boston and Nneka Ogwumike.
“We want basketball players, but we also want excellent people,” Parker said about Sabally signing. “In general, here we have the same purpose and intention to surround ourselves with passionate people, excellent people, who are excellent in their trade.”
When evaluating the talent now as an executive, Parker said that he does not see the game or the players differently as he saw it when I was a player.
“You teach how you learn and see the game, as they taught you to see it,” said Parker. “I think it’s now more about relying on others to find the best way to do it, because my experience was very different from today.”
In addition to evaluating the university and professional ranges for possible additions to its adidas campus, the scope of Parker also includes the ranges of the high school, where the individual industry of NIL has experienced a boom in recent years.
Parker has been part of Adidas since the age of 15, when his high school team was sponsored by the brand, which allowed him to understand the importance of connecting with an athlete from the beginning. However, with the possibility of paying each athlete individually, the panorama has changed.
“Now it is even more important to get them before. That is, we have to do it,” said Parker. “You put your shoes at age 13 or 14. You choose to play in certain tournaments for your affiliation to a brand. You go to certain schools for your affiliation to a brand.
“I don’t know if the panorama has changed, because I think it has always been so. You can simply be paid individually to each athlete and highlight it, and it is about finding different ways that they fall in love with our brand and see if they fit perfectly.”
Parker’s first signing was in the women’s basketball sector. Last November, Adidas announced the signing of the promising Kalena Smitha 16 -year base of Ontario, California. Smith, currently No. 1 of Class 2027, is the company’s first signing in the women’s high school basketball sector.
As one of the most visible and powerful interested parties of female basketball, Parker is excited about the State and the direction that the game is taking, from the growth of sport in general and the skills of the players to the growing visibility.
“I think it is due to the growth of the opportunity,” said Parker. “When I left the university, it was like … probably a handful of players got sports shoes contracts, and it was between Adidas and Nike. Now, look, there are so many other brands, collaborations and sponsorships, and I love it.”
In 2010, Parker became the ninth player in the history of the WNBA in launching exclusive sports shoes when Adidas launched the first of his “Ace” line. In this way, Parker became the seventh black woman in having her own exclusive basketball shoe.
She would be the last black woman to do it until last spring, when it was announced that the star of Las Vegas Aces, A’JA Wilsonwould launch its own characteristic shoe, the A’ONE, through Nike.
Parker celebrates Wilson, a former teammate with whom Parker won his third championship in 2023, while joining an elite group of players who present their own exclusive footwear.
However, when it comes to the recognition of Wilson’s achievement through the race lens, Parker wants to see a change in conversation.
“We are in 2025; we should not be in the first seconds of anything,” said Parker. “I think it is something we should talk about, because, like women they have to demonstrate their worth, I think that other demographic groups also have to do it again and again. So, obviously, I think it is a conversation that must be taken into account, but simply … you are tired of having to continue justifying your place at the table.”
Now that he has a place at the table as an executive of an important brand, Parker hopes to play a role in the reconstruction of the dialogue.
She continued: “I still want to talk about it because I think it is super important, but I also understand the power of, for example, to see someone who looks like what you love being in a league that is predominantly 80% African -American, do you know?
“It is also a question of determining, from a visionary perspective, how to change what we consider to be recommended or promotable. It is about thinking: what do other young people think? They want to see others that resemble them. How do we get to those communities? How do we get to those young women so that they continue to inspire, regardless of how we see each other?
“So that is my mission.”
