One of the primary problems with the treatment of the WNBA is that the brands have yet to really make a push for creating a story around the players. I thought with Nike taking over the sponsorship of the league from adidas that things would change. We would begin to see signature sneakers and Nike would help the league to create a narrative. The problem is neither the league or Nike has done a major video for YouTube and there really haven’t been any campaigns beyond the launch.
As I always state, this isn’t a basketball website, but I do have a keen interest in hoops because I was a head coach and a recruiter for years. My daughter has an interest in the game and at 5’4″ and a size 8 men’s shoe at 10 years old who knows where she could go if she keeps growing.
I run a sneaker website and I’ve been following the recent push by every brand to capture a share of the women’s athletic footwear and apparel market so I’ve had a front row seat to the lack of real connection and utilization of athletes in marketing campaigns. It’s like the notion that because a woman is playing ball she doesn’t actually were clothes off the court. Nike could have easily integrated all of their WNBA athletes into marketing for Just Do It or for Choose Go. The ladies of the league have to run and train and they could have easily been featured in the advertisement for Nike’s pants:
Nike Made 9 New Workout Pants For Their Women’s Fitness Category
In other words, when I visit the Nike Basketball YouTube page this is the number of NBA player videos from this past season: 6. The number of WNBA jerseys outside of the jersey reveal? 0
When I looked to find this information I thought I would see a lot more. The reality is Nike, and yes I lay a lot of the blame on Nike because they are now the sponsors and I really dug into adidas when they were the sponsors of the NBA/WNBA, has done what I hoped they wouldn’t do.
When Nike acquired the contract I had hopes they would put the Wieden + Kennedy ad machine behind the players and the league. The reality is the acquisition was expensive and Nike has allowed product placement visibility to be the calling card. It’s the same thing adidas did. The NBA has bigger names and stars so it makes sense. They also have signature athletes who all received some marketing on Nike. The WNBA lacks a signature athlete so there hasn’t been a Kyrie “Groove 101” video or Kobe and LeBron puppet “Burden” videos. There has only been the draft jersey reveal and that’s it. It’s unfortunate, but I can partially take the blame since I don’t write as much as I should about the league. If I can bring attention to the lack of diversity in footwear and make larger news outlets cover the problem, then I could spend a bit more time writing about the league and rubbing the execs and website people in the sneaker industry the wrong way forcing them to cover the lack of love shown to the WNBA.
Big shout out to The Sky Show CHI for putting this list together:
One of my favorite realization when looking at the #WNBAAllStar squads: the variety of sneaker deals on #TeamParker versus #TeamNike (a.k.a. #TeamDelleDonne)! pic.twitter.com/F9wc0I3BQ8
— The Sky Show CHI (@TheSkyShowCHI) July 20, 2018
@TheSkyShowCHI put together this list to show what brands the All Stars in the WNBA will be rocking. I’m adding the list below just in case you don’t know who or where the players went to school and how long they’ve been dropping dimes in the league:
I know I often say this phrase when I’m writing about the WNBA, this isn’t a hoops site. Everything that I wrote about here has to fit into the scope of how the sneaker industry can benefit and grow via the promotion of the women in the league.
Here is the link for a more detailed breakdown of each player on the squads:
Since there isn’t a signature shoe for each athlete under these brands, this is what could be done by each brand with an athlete, all via YouTube (since the format is indexed and searchable unlike an IG or Social post which disappears in 15 minutes. Every video needs to have a Google Ad run on them also:
- Take the time to show the background of each player. 22 videos of the player’s past.
- Videos of their dopest college highlights. 1 minute reels.
- Videos of their training regimen featuring the fitness apparel of each brand.
- Videos highlighting the travel and build up towards the game.
- Videos discussing why the game is important to each player.
- Videos that show the designer for the uniforms and the footwear for each player.
- A video that shows a dope fucking shoe. (Yep I cursed… get over it.) A training shoe and a hoops shoe.
- A limited release drop of the shoe that will be worn by the players. Only make 22 pair available for each player. With preference going to people attending the game and then only available via the player’s Twitter feed.
Or something like this. I just know that Nike and the WNBA really need to be more vocal about the league. While the ratings are up, they can be higher. All it takes is a little money and lot more love. Use the source links to check out The Sky Show CHI on Twitter and to read the updates on the All Star game at wnba.com.