I am sure by now some of you have heard about the Ball family, father LaVar Ball first made basketball news when he said that his oldest son, Lonzo Ball is a better player than the likes of Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook, but the most controversial of his statements was that he would win on a one on one with Michael Jordan. You don't have to be a basketball fan to know that Jordan is royalty, and no one plays with his name without getting a backlash, which is what Ball got for his comment.
Ball then went on to say that if any of the big sports brands wanted an endorsement deal with his son, it would have to be for a billion, which he did not get, so as a response, he created his own sports brand to endorse his son, the Big Baller Brand, that sells Lonzo's signature shoes for somewhere around $494 and $695, and a special autographed model for $995 or $1.195.
Now I know that this prices are somehow normal in today's shoe industry enviroment, especially in the high end designer brands, such as Zanotti, Loubotin or Ferragamo, but for sports shoes, this is a first. Being a Marketeer myself, I know a bit about brad positioning and strategies, and all this looks like what we call a good publicity stunt.
I don't know how much of this shoes he is selling, but now we have heard that Ball raised his son's endorsement deal to three billion, causing another media frenzy, weather intentional or not, ball just tapped into the reality "stars" way of selling products based on controversy media frenzy, he managed to be a trending topic and fast created a way to profitize on the hype he well created around himself and his sons.
Let's just see how all this ends. My experience tells me that thanks to his son's talents, the Ball name will definitely become a household name in the NBA. As for the BBB brand, I have seen this in the past, with the Ewings, a brand created in the 90's around the legend of New York Knicks center, Patrick Ewing, at the time the brand managed to get some market share, but today it is no where close to where they were in the 90's.
Although it is very beautiful to see a father have so much confidence in his sons, and motivate them this way, there is no way a new guy comes into the sneaker game, shakes things up this way and win.
Benn!