There are a number of soon-to-be sneaker free agents on the market this fall, and there will be a bit more competition for the top players on the shoe market this year than in the recent past.
Nike, Jordan, adidas, and Under Armour have been the four major U.S. sneaker companies battling for NBA talent for the past few years since Reebok folded their NBA efforts. Jordan has never been especially aggressive in going after free agents, settling in with a consistent stable of players, and Under Armour has tended to take swings at incoming rookies rather than major, current NBA stars. However, this year Puma is back in the fold and made some big splash signings in the draft, but they aren’t alone.
According to ESPN’s Nick DePaula, New Balance is also getting back into the NBA sneaker game and want to go big game hunting this fall. Kawhi Leonard and Joel Embiid are the top free agents and New Balance will apparently look to meet with both of them, but there will be considerable competition from the usual suspects for those two.
Gordon Hayward, currently with Nike, will also have his contract run up this October and he is going to be the main target of New Balance’s efforts to get a top star to re-launch their hoops line, per DePaula.
One company with strong interest in Hayward is New Balance, which would look to re-launch its dormant basketball category with the Celtics star. The company’s commitment to re-engage in hoops isn’t entirely a secret, as it recently partnered with the Celtics on the team’s new 70,000-square-foot Auerbach Center, the franchise’s new state-of-the-art training facility.
As DePaula notes, New Balance already has a deal with the Celtics on their training facility so it makes sense that they would want to land one of Boston’s stars to headline their return to the hoops world. Hayward likely won’t get major offers from Nike, adidas, or the like, so to get a signature sneaker and a big deal he might need to look outside the box at a company like New Balance — whose hoops line died out when Matt Bonner left the league. DePaula says another contender for Hayward is Anta, the Chinese sneaker brand whose top client is Klay Thompson, as they could look to expand their footprint back to the east coast.
If Hayward does ink a deal with New Balance, it would be quite the get for the brand as he’s set to be a focal point for what most assume will be the best team in the East. Nike is already well represented in Boston with Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum, and Al Horford, so they might be fine letting Hayward go elsewhere.
