Before starting the 1996–97 season, Bryant signed a six-year contract with Adidas that was worth approximately $48 million. His first signature shoe was the Equipment KB 8. Bryant's other, earlier endorsements included deals with The Coca-Cola Company to endorse their Sprite soft drink, appearing in advertisements for McDonald's, promoting Spalding's new NBA Infusion Ball, Upper Deck, Italian chocolate company Ferrero SpA's brand Nutella, Russell Corporation, and appearing on his own series of video games by Nintendo. Many companies like McDonald's and Ferrero SpA terminated his contracts when rape allegations against him became public. A notable exception was Nike, Inc., who had signed him to a five-year, $40–45 million contract just before the incident. However, they refused to use his image or market a new shoe of his for the year but eventually did start promoting Bryant once his image recovered two years later. He has since resumed endorsement deals with The Coca-Cola Company, through their subsidiary Energy Brands, to promote their Vitamin Water brand of drinks. Bryant was also the cover athlete for "NBA '07: Featuring the Life Vol. 2" and appeared in commercials for the video games "Guitar Hero World Tour" (with Tony Hawk, Michael Phelps, and Alex Rodriguez) in 2008 and "" (alongside Jimmy Kimmel) in 2010.