Cooper Flagg trots around at Duke University as a once-in-a-decade talent. The 17-year-old isn’t the first five-star prospect and projected NBA star to arrive on campus with great fanfare. But he’s one of the first mega college basketball stars to take advantage of the evolving NIL landscape and sign deals that weren’t available in the past.
Before he ever stepped on a college court, the Duke freshman had several shoe companies vying for his marketing services. After a more than six-month process featuring elaborate pitches and brainstorming meetings, New Balance managed to secure Flagg, who picked the privately held sportswear brand over Nike and others.
“We know it takes a special and unique character to partner with a challenger brand like New Balance, especially when Nike and Adidas are within our industry,” New Balance chief marketing officer Chris Davis said in an interview. “These are the type of individuals who immediately know that they want to stand out from the crowd and do things differently. Cooper was definitely one of them.”
Flagg’s links to New Balance started in childhood. He grew up in Newport, Maine, about 30 miles from domestic manufacturing facilities for the company and a few hours away from its Boston headquarters. His mother, Kelly, would go to the New Balance tent sales in Maine to do back-to-school shopping for the family. Flagg’s connection to the brand was encapsulated during his announcement commercial, which features him shooting hoops in the driveway in his hometown.
“Obviously the other brands were interested in him as well, but I think he resonated with our fearlessly independent mindset and wanting to challenge the status quo and step away from the incumbents in basketball … At the end of the day, we view Cooper as a brand partner and secondarily as a basketball partner.”
Flagg is Duke basketball’s most hyped freshman since Zion Williamson’s memorable 2018-2019 season that led to him being selected first overall in the NBA draft. Williamson though was unable to cash in on the advent of the NIL era, which didn’t begin until 2021. Flagg meanwhile is making the most of his opportunity as he impresses stars like LeBron James, who he faced this summer during a scrimmage between the United States select team and the men’s national team.
Davis says Flagg will be showcased in upcoming New Balance global brand and lifestyle campaigns. The McDonald’s All-American will also get a chance to work with streetwear collaborators and promote other non-basketball product and consumer experiences, including potentially in golf, which he likes to play when he’s not on the hardwood.
Flagg’s New Balance deal is a prime example of how the NIL era has disrupted the institutionalized basketball marketing landscape. Previously, there was a strict focus on sponsoring elite players’ AAU teams and their universities to get them comfortable with a brand’s product before they turn pro. This transformative era, however, has enabled star college athletes like Flagg to connect with brands that best resonate with them.
Even if they can’t wear their product on-court during games.
Flagg can wear New Balance around campus, but he’s prohibited from sporting the company’s products inside athletic complexes or on official team business since Duke is a Nike school (though he can wear them for separate USA Basketball initiatives). This has become common in the NIL era. The Jordan Brand-sponsored Branch brothers, who play college football at USC, are experiencing similar restrictions. But New Balance doesn’t mind, Davis says, as it feels the limitation is for a small duration compared to the long-term relationship it plans to have with the projected top lottery pick in next year’s NBA draft.
Flagg is on a five-year deal, with the first year solely being NIL and the rest resembling a more standard endorsement deal that star pro athletes garner. New Balance, which first got into basketball with six-time All-Star Kawhi Leonard in 2018, is looking to push its brand to a more global level with help from select college athletes like former Stanford star and Los Angeles Sparks forward Cameron Brink, who was the brand’s first NIL deal in college basketball.
New Balance isn’t new to taking fliers on young basketball talent. In 2018, the company signed prospect Darius Bazley to a multimillion-dollar deal (with reportedly up to $14 million in performance incentives), and the the former top recruit ended up interning with the company in Boston instead of playing in the G-League like he originally intended. Bazley would later be drafted in the first round in 2019 but became more of an NBA journeyman, playing for four different teams.
Davis says the company has no regret about signing Bazley despite his limited NBA success since he represents the brand’s “fiercely independent” ethos and similar to Flagg aligns well based on his character. He says whether a New Balance athlete makes All-Star Game appearances or struggles to make team rosters is okay based on its intrinsic approach of partnering with individuals because of who they are as a person and their overall values.
“We never make the wrong decision because we’re so focused on who these athletes are as humans,” he said.
New Balance currently is building out its basketball roster which also includes NBA standouts Darius Garland, Jamal Murray, Tyrese Maxey, Zach Lavine and Dejounte Murray. It also is outfitting up-and-comers like five-star prospect Isiah Harwell and University of Miami guard Jalil Bethea through its Klutch Athletics sub-brand.
The basketball category is a peculiar space where brands outside of giants like Nike and Adidas see an opening and are looking to gain ground with players who are more interested in carving a less-trodden path. Sketchers, which has Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid on its roster, and Chinese company Anta, which sponsors Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving, are among the apparel companies looking to find their lane in a competitive space where the incumbents are being challenged.
With other footwear brands like Hoka emerging, the landscape shift comes at a time when Nike has watched a recent drop in sales while it undergoes executive changes (Elliot Hill replaced John Donahoe as CEO in September). The apparel giant still holds a market cap of about $117 billion and generated more than $50 billion in revenue last year compared to New Balance, which reeled in about $6.5 billion in sales.
New Balance, which takes a “fewer, bigger, better” approach to sports marketing, wants to take advantage of not being a publicly traded company where market share and profits are top priorities. Davis says the boutique brand wants to grow bottom line like any other for-profit company, especially as consumers eye more alternative options through new and distinct voices. But he reiterates that doesn’t shape the company’s approach when scouting potential athletes to join the family.
“The most important thing for us is to cultivate the right product with the right storytelling, using the right athlete roster to represent our brand in the best way it possibly can,” he added. “We’re not judging success in basketball by market share and revenue.”
