Tim Henman to appear in 3m Adidas ads

Britain’s newest, indeed only, tennis star Tim Henman will appear in a new series of advertisements for sportswear firm Adidas.

Henman will promote Adidas’ new generation of sports shoes, backed by the company’s biggest advertising spend of the year, understood to be 3m.

The range is called Foot You Wear and the shoes, along with the advertising, will appear at the beginning of next month. The advertising, through Leagas Delaney, will span press and TV.

Henman will initially appear in the press ads but the company hopes he will appear in TV executions later in the year.

The company claims the brand has less cushioning than ordinary shoes and therefore allows greater ease of movement. The tagline for the ads will read: “The foot works, we copied it.”

Adidas’ advertising strategy plays on the long heritage of differentiating itself from its strong rivals Reebok and Nike, though it has used sporting celebrities before including champion boxer Prince Naseem and footballer Paul Gascoigne.