It’s been seven years since a team took the court in the men’s basketball tournament wearing jerseys that weren’t Nike, Under Armour or Adidas. That streak will end on Friday night.
Bryant has worn New Balance uniforms for the last few seasons, one of a handful of Division I schools whose basketball teams sport the Boston company’s logo. The Bulldogs earned a No. 15 seed in the March Madness South Region and are heavy underdogs against No. 2 Michigan State.
What may appear like a milestone for New Balance, however, is not a major marketing opportunity. There are no New Balance social media posts celebrating the Bulldogs’ success, for example. You also won’t find Bryant gear on New Balance’s website, like you would Maryland gear at Under Armour’s shop, or Duke jerseys at Nike’s store.
Bryant’s relationship with New Balance runs through an intermediary, BSN Sports, which helps schools purchase discounted jerseys, shoes and other apparel. The official Bryant shop also has no New Balance apparel but does have shirts from Under Armour and hats from Adidas. Bulldogs apparel at Fanatics is largely lesser-known manufacturers.
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Bryant’s appearance in the NCAA Tournament is more of a footnote in a large push into basketball for New Balance over the past few years. The company, which made its name largely in track and field and marathons, moved back into hoops in 2018 via a surprise endorsement deal with NBA All-Star Kawhi Leonard. It launched Leonard’s first signature shoe two years later, and now it has deals with a handful of NBA and WNBA stars, including Nuggets guard Jamal Murray and Sparks forward Cameron Brink.
More important than Bryant for the company: Duke star freshman Cooper Flagg, the likely No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft, is the first player with a New Balance NIL deal to appear in March Madness. Flagg, however, won’t be wearing New Balance shoes on the court this month, as Duke is a Nike school. Bryant’s players will.
Of the 68 teams in this year’s men’s tournament, 33 wear the Nike swoosh, while another eight are with Nike’s Jordan brand, according to data compiled by Apex Marketing Group. Under Armour has 14 teams and Adidas has 12.
The last company beyond those three to have its jerseys in the NCAA Tournament was Russell Athletic, in 2018, with Texas Southern. The market is clearly dominated by Nike, which has also expanded its Jordan Brand into college across the past decade. That’s come as Under Armour deprioritized many of its college clients.
While apparel deals can be worth millions annually for college sports’ biggest athletic departments, they aren’t typically revenue drivers for smaller schools like Bryant. The Bulldogs—who play in the America East Conference and have never played in the D-I men’s basketball tournament—reported spending $2.6 million on men’s basketball in fiscal 2024. Their first-round opponent, Michigan State, by contrast, reported a budget of $16.4 million.
For smaller schools, apparel contracts are often product-only, and often, the gear is simply purchased through an intermediary. Bryant’s New Balance uniforms and sneakers run through BSN, a school spokesman confirmed. Other D-I programs that wear New Balance include Maine and Boston College, the company’s lone FBS program.
BSN’s deals vary by school of course, with different tiers of product discounts and free allotments depending on the apparel provider and the university. They also often have spending commitments for each school. (As an example, here is the BSN contract with Marshall.)
New Balance’s basketball history is longer than many likely realize. In the early 1980s, as the company’s first basketball shoe was coming to market, New Balance gave rookie James Worthy the first $1 million sneaker contract in NBA history. By the 1990s however, New Balance had made a point of barely utilizing athletes at all. It even used “Endorsed By No One” as a marketing slogan.
That stance loosened about 15 years ago, primarily in baseball. The deal with Leonard, signed in late 2018, marked a more formal return to basketball. The company’s professional basketball endorsers now include, along with Murray and Brink, Tyrese Maxey, Zach LaVine, Dejounte Murray, Darius Garland, Aaron Nesmith and Darius Bazley, who in 2018 eschewed both the NCAA and the G League to sign $1 million shoe deal/internship with New Balance.
Beyond basketball, athletes have become an increasingly large part of the New Balance marketing approach. Its other deals include Shohei Ohtani, Coco Gauff, Bukayo Saka and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, and you’ll often see them featured in New Balance commercials.
The company, which is privately held, had $7.8 billion in sales in 2024, up 20% from 2023, according to Yahoo Finance. As a comparison, Under Armour reported annual sales of $5.7 billion for its most recent completed fiscal year; Nike reported $51.4 billion.