I wanted to make the title a lot longer, but it’s bad for search. The title was going to be “Sneakerhead Night and Coverage of the NBA is emblematic of a serious issue for brands with signature athletes and for the NBA in general.” That is too damn long, so I’m going with this post from the Sacramento Kings who are hosting what looks to be a kinda cool event.
https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/1199411188049645568
NBA Viewership is down. It’s an issue shaping the entire league, but it’s also an issue that is represented in the sale of signature footwear by the NBA’s stars. I’ve been trying to explain that the NBA is becoming an older man’s viewing game, while the way the league is developed it’s a younger man’s actual game. This has created a dynamic that is being manifested in viewership and attendance. NBA tickets continue to rise. Young people don’t often have the disposable income to pay for it, 30-50 somethings do, but the league isn’t catered to them and the constant influx of new talent means that the more removed the customer is from college and the new players, the less likely they are to go to the games. This is a new situation.
The NBA is a relatively young league as it exists today. The modern NBA was born in the mid 80s at the same time that Hip-Hop was beginning to explode. The stars of the 80s and 90s didn’t have any competition so David Stern’s league grew and turned into a cultural movement that faced the problem of adapting to Hip-Hop in the 90s and 00s. Stern even implemented a Dress Code to offset the natural alignment of Iverson and Hip-Hop.
At the same time that the development of the league was happening, sneaker brands were mimicking the Nike and Jordan growth and investing in NBA talent by giving players million dollar shoe deals. While sneaker culture was born in the 70s, it exploded in the 90s, but the idea of a sneakerhead was arrived later. The culture around kicks revolved around basketball initially, crossed over into skate and transformed into what is seen as street culture in the early 00s.
What does this have to do with Sacramento’s sneakerhead night?
Inside the NBA has a “sneaker report” by Bleacher Report now. ESPN brought in longtime sneaker writer Nick DePaula to make the connection to the younger generation of sneaker culture enthusiasts. Longtime YouTuber Jacques Slade was also given a sneaker culture show on NBC online and the godfather of sneaker culture Bobbito Garcia’s show with ESPN was revived this year. Even the WNBA has a sneaker twitter account that gets busy @WNBAkicks.
The Sacramento Sneakerhead Night is bringing in the heavy hitters of sneaker coverage in Nick DePaula, Weartesters and Jacques Slade. The thing is those personalities in many ways are more important than the players on the floor for the Kings. Weartesters has 449,000 followers on YouTube. DeAaron Fox has 267,000.
As the reports on NBA viewership establish, viewing is down for multiple reasons. There isn’t one thing that contributes to the slow down in a business. There are always multiple factors. The thing that isn’t being connected is something I continue to bring up, signature NBA player kicks and performance basketball footwear sales are down and coincides with the slide in viewership which holds a larger issue.
A few weeks ago the internet was ablaze with comments on LeBron’s issue with travel basketball. I have been writing for years about the damage being done to players long term because of year around professionalization of the single sport athlete. When I see these “sneakerhead” nights it tells me a different story that it seems the marketing teams at brands and in the NBA don’t understand, the root of the issue with sports viewership is a symptom of a society with options that didn’t exist just ten years ago. NBA viewership is also dealing with an apathetic youth fanbase that has to be pushed to attend games or watch All Star Weekend.
It’s great that sneaker culture has garnered enough influence to inspire dedicated coverage. The issue is sneaker culture was born out of Hip-Hop and basketball and today to be a part of sneaker culture you don’t need basketball. You barely need Hip-Hop because the elements of the culture aren’t represented. The NBA and Hip-Hop remain linked because of Damian Lillard, but Reebok’s removal from the basketball landscape hurt. David Stern’s push to remove Hip-Hop from the game hurt. The professionalization of youth sports hurts. The lack of marketing to more than youth culture, hurts.
There is a bigger issue here and while one sneakerhead night at each arena is a welcomed event, it’s a 1 inch band-aid on a cut that has a serious infection beneath the surface.
Solution?
You know what would be a better band-aid… actually an antibiotic? I can’t dive into the youth sports thing here. I’ve already done so in the post above. I can however make a suggestion to the NBA and individual teams. When I attend Memphis Grizzlies games or hit up local sneaker events there is a guy who is always there: Fred Griffin. I can’t solve the problem for every NBA team, but in Memphis I can make a suggestion. This guy organizes events for the local Nike store and he works with the Grizzlies street team (I guess)
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4WCDuVpOm9/
He’s not a prominent player in either position, but I do know this guy is embedded in the sneaker culture in Memphis. NBA Sneakerhead night is one thing, but as I’ve written on this site countless times, consistent, dedicated content generates connection. One night produces one result. 42 nights produces familiarity and goals for sneakerheads to be discovered. Right now the Grizzlies do very little with sneaker culture, but they have the most exciting rookie in the league in Ja Morant. Right now you can scroll the Memphis Grizzlies twitter feed and not accidentally run across any sneaker coverage.
Every NBA team should have a dedicated sneaker reporter who travels with the team and interacts with brands to deliver content on a platform. If each team had this person they could provide unsigned sneaker free agents the ability to monetize themselves by aligning with a variety of brands. The brands would have a direct connection to teams and daily updates on kicks and designers could be featured on the sites. The NBA could literally create a sub-website on NBA.com that would feature interviews with designers, back stories on classic footwear and throwback coverage of sneakers through the decades. Yep I know I’m giving away a blueprint… but I don’t know anyone at the league except Fred… and he can’t even get me tickets, lol. I do know that my site is read by a lot of execs and this will undoubtedly hit the right person. So I will leave the Grizzlies with this, Fred would be perfect for this.
