The selling power of star athletes

New York

WITH only four months left before the start of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, marketing executives are well along in their hunt for the next big stars in sports - and in advertising.

History has proved that athletes can sell products and, perhaps even more important, create the connections between brand and consumer that contemporary companies consider crucial.

At Wimbledon last summer, Novak Djokovic, after losing a tiebreaker to Roger Federer in the men's final, tried (and failed) to rip off his shirt. For most of those watching, it engendered great amusement, but for Uniqlo, the Japanese brand that made the outfit, it was marketing gold.

"It was an incredible moment where the athlete was trying to express himself and Uniqlo's quality almost gets in the way," said Justin Kerr, chief merchandising officer and co-marketing director of Uniqlo USA. "We couldn't have planned it." Uniqlo also counts among its brand ambassadors the tennis player Kei Nishikori, the wheelchair tennis champion Shingo Kunieda and the golf pro Adam Scott. Their match-day cloth…