Having watched Lonzo Ball play several times at Chino Hills High School and then at UCLA, I’m fascinated by his NBA Summer League performance and the basketball shoe drama. I look forward to seeing how this turns out – it may become a Harvard Business School case study some day!
If you haven’t followed along, Lonzo Ball was the #2 NBA draft pick of the Los Angeles Lakers after a one-and-done year at UCLA. Lavar Ball, Lonzo’s father, has become a sports media darling or nightmare, depending on your perspective, and has put a shoe deal price of $1 billion for all three of his basketball-playing sons. Yes, that’s right, $1 billion. Since there were no takers, he announced he would move forward with his Big Baller Brand and sell Lonzo shoes for $495 a pair.
The first two games of the NBA Summer League, Lonzo wore his signature Big Baller Brand shoes. Much to the surprise of many, Lonzo sported Nike Kobe shoes on the fourth game of Summer League (he was sidelined with an injury for game 3). That became the big story of the NBA Summer League – bigger than his performance that night which included 36 points, 11 assists and 8 rebounds. The shoes have continued to be the big story as he has since worn Steph Curry shoes from Under Armour, James Harden shoes from Adidas and then Jordans from Nike. In the process, social media and sports media has gone nuts over it.
Some think he should be wearing his Big Baller Brand exclusively. It’s unheard of to wear anything other than your shoes. Is this old school? Here’s why it works. We’re in the sharing economy. In this case, share the promotion, share the sales. Many thought Amazon was nuts to promote other stores and create a marketplace. Where is Amazon now? I know, it’s not exactly the same. But guess what? No one has talked about Nike Kobes, Under Armour Currys, Adidas Hardens and Jordans like they have this past week. Lonzo is promoting those shoes.
There’s more to it, of course. Lonzo is showing those brands that he can promote their shoes. Who wants in? Who’s going to give him that shoe deal?
And, if they still don’t want in after seeing what he did this week, the message to the consumer is: “Hey, you don’t have to just wear Kobes or Currys or Hardens. You can wear Big Baller Brand too.”
Either way, I think it’s brilliant. Was it a well-crafted strategy? Who knows, but I will be staying tuned to see how it turns out.
