For decades, New Balance has been known as the brand of shoes your dad wears on trips to Home Depot because his sciatica is acting up. But the sneaker company was on the big stage last night, outfitting basketball prodigy Cooper Flagg, who was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks.
New Balance has just a fraction of the market share that huge brands like Nike and Adidas have, but it’s hoping Flagg can help propel it into sports relevancy. Sometimes it pays off to be the underdog:
Flagg grew up in a small Maine town, which happened to be near one of New Balance’s factories.
Naveen Lokesh, the brand’s director of global marketing for its basketball and football division, pitched Flagg on partnering with the company with a tribute video from the workers at the Skowhegan, ME, facility.
The company’s sports push is a hard pivot from its 1990s “Endorsed by No One” campaign, but it seems to be working. In the last few years, the iconic dad shoe maker has steadily built its army of ambassadors, signing deals with NBA players like Kawhi Leonard, Jamal Murray, and Darius Garland.
Big picture: New Balance’s investment into team sports comes as Nike is slowly losing market share in other sports categories, like running.—MM
