The only sneaker Zach highlighted during his time with adidas was the Next Level (I refuse to spell it the way they spelled it right now). The sneaker introduced adidas’ new cushioning system Lightstrike. The shoe didn’t sell. During Zach’s time with adidas the company seemed to fall short of delivering a dope team concept to highlight the athletes signed to the brand in basketball. Towards the end of Lavine’s time with adidas, they made Jerry Lorenzo the head of adidas Basketball, and the sneaker world said, “Nike better watch out.” That was almost two years ago. We haven’t seen anything from Fear of God and adidas. To make things worse, two of adidas’ flagship athletes have been injured this NBA season (D Rose and D Lillard). Their latest signature athlete has underwhelmed (Trae Young). Their primary signature athlete switched teams again (James Harden), and their only basketball person with a championship trophy barely got one player exclusive (Candace Parker). Zach Lavine’s flat demeanor, undercuts his skill and excitement as a dunker and takes away from his critical role as part of the resurgence of the Chicago Bulls. adidas didn’t do anything with him, even as he fueled two of the greatest dunk contests in the history of the event.
In steps New Balance. Pair Kawhi and Lavine together and New Balance has the making of some very cool alliteration filled marketing concepts. The question is, will this drive more engagement for New Balance outside of this initial introduction? Consider that New Balance has taken the 550 to Nike Dunk levels of hype and Teddy Santis is the Kanye of New Balance and Lavine could be seen as Kawhi-squared, an oft injured All-Star with the emotional range of Ben Stein. No one is rocking New Balance because of Kawhi, or Dejounte Murray and no one will be rocking NB because of Lavine, or will they?
At 2.5 million followers on IG and an average engagement on every picture of 220,000, Lavine as a branding tool is valuable. New Balance Basketball as a brand on IG only has 137,000 followers with engagement hovering around 5,000 per post. New Balance’s IG is at 6.4 million followers. Lavine has almost 30% of the same following as a 4.4 billion dollar a year brand. Looking at these signings of athletes is no longer about what they can sell in basketball, it’s all about the number of people they can reach at any time and place. This is a good signing for New Balance simply based on the numbers, but don’t expect Lavine to lead a groundbreaking moment for New Balance in hoops. That will require some creative marketing that I haven’t seen from the brand yet.