Source: NEW BALANCE AND KAWHI LEONARD LAUNCH FIRST COLORWAY OF THE KAWHI
There are recent reports of NBA viewership being down and it’s being blamed on the proactive stance of the NBA on social justice issues. That could be a factor, but to be honest I don’t think it is. The NBA has been growing internationally, but not in the U.S. That’s because the life-cycle of all things ebbs and flows. The NBA is a product that reached its peak with Michael Jordan in the 90s and captured the perfect storm of innovation in footwear and unfractured marketing attention. Sneaker culture was in its early teens and the desire to be like athletes and entertainers was at its peak. The U.S. was basketball and basketball was the U.S. Then the 2000s hit and the U.S. won bronze in basketball. The shine was off and something really bad happened and it continues now… I’ve discussed this before.
In an article on the LeBron 15 written in 2017 I explained in detail why basketball sales are low. I don’t want to repeat this in regard to the Kawhi. What I’d like to do here is explain why New Balance has a chance to really “change the game”, but probably won’t.
In the sneaker industry the people who operate in different divisions at every brand all tend to be familiar with one another. It’s not like other areas of industry. Car designers don’t all know each other. Marketing people aren’t moved from agency to agency like in sportswear. Brands rely heavily on the experience of people from other brands and New Balance isn’t immune to this. The reason for this is because the sneaker industry basically operates out of two cities: Boston and Portland. This means the employees are in those areas. The problem is when people work with brands and those people in basketball are all insiders who know each other, the same strategies take place. Grassroots basketball is a brotherhood. Basketball at brands is like a brotherhood. It’s understandable. Nike is the foundation and everything springs from the tree of basketball life out of Nike and Nike’s tree is no longer producing fruit for other brands.
What do I mean here and how can New Balance and the Kawhi actually change the game?
- New Balance can’t make a lot of these shoes.
- Sales will be limited and controlled which will give the appearance of demand, but ultimately will inflate prices on the grey market because of scarcity. This won’t do anything for New Balance…
- But that scarcity will give it a dialogue in the echo chamber of sneaker resale, but resale doesn’t build a brand. It does give a brand a plank.
- The unfortunate thing is that plank has to become a bridge and it’s hard to build a bridge by nailing a plank onto a plank while you’re standing on it.
How does New Balance do what Nike hasn’t been able to? How does New Balance reignite the fire in the U.S. They have the anti-athlete in Kawhi. The footwear and apparel around the basketball drops is eye-catching, but who is it built for?
Maybe the question should be, does New Balance care about the U.S. at all with their basketball play?
I don’t think they are trying to capitalize on Kawhi in the U.S. I think the slow rollout in the U.S. is simply to amplify Kawhi which will inspire the Chinese market. According to “Search4Stores” website there are 68 New Balance stores in the U.S. In China the brand has 3000 stores. Here lies the difficulty in “changing the game” in the U.S. The emphasis can’t be on a market that isn’t really looking at basketball in the same way it once did. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a market here for the Kawhi and New Balance. New Balance has an opportunity, but it lies in doing anti work once Covid-19 winds down (at least I hope it does, wear a mask and social distance).
In a recent interview I explained in detail how a new brand could capture a small segment of a market. New Balance has the player and they have the product, but if they follow the grassroots pattern of Nike (as adidas has all of these years and Under Armour has done with their Association), they will fail. New Balance in its slowness has an opportunity, once again I’ve said this before but it was in regard to Q4. I’m sharing that again below. Take a moment to use the source link to visit the press release for the Kawhi. The collection is dope:
Q4 Sports Basketball Should Be the Leading Hoops Recruitment Website in the Country | Case Study