New Balance targets NBA rookies

Cooper Flagg gave New Balance its clearest NBA rookie proof point yet when he won the 2025-26 Rookie of the Year award this week. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2) Flagg, the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft by the Dallas Mavericks, averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.2 steals in 70 games. He was the first rookie since Michael Jordan in 1984-85 to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2) The vote was close: Flagg beat Charlotte Hornets guard Kon Knueppel, his former Duke teammate, after receiving 56 first-place votes to Knueppel’s 44. Philadelphia 76ers guard VJ Edgecombe finished third. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2) For New Balance, the timing matters because Flagg was not a late NBA add. The company officially announced him as an ambassador in August 2024, before he played a college game at Duke and nearly a year before draft night. (forbes.com) (247sports.com) New Balance sold that pitch with geography as much as money. Flagg grew up in Newport, Maine, about 25 miles from the company’s factory in Skowhegan, and executives showed him a tribute video filmed there during their recruitment. (forbes.com) The brand’s basketball strategy is smaller than Nike’s or Adidas’s by design. New Balance global basketball marketing head Naveen Lokesh told Andscape the company takes a “fewer, bigger, better” approach to signings. (andscape.com) That roster already included Kawhi Leonard, Tyrese Maxey, Darius Garland, Zach LaVine, Dejounte Murray, Jamal Murray and Aaron Nesmith when Andscape profiled the division in February 2025. The same story said New Balance had seven NBA endorsers at that point. (andscape.com) Flagg gives that group a different kind of asset: a player New Balance identified before the draft, marketed around the draft and now can sell as an award-winning NBA rookie. The company rolled out a “Flagg Day” campaign around the June 25, 2025 draft and later released a Cooper Flagg player-exclusive Hesi Low v2 colorway. (si.com) (si.com) Nike still leads basketball by scale. Forbes reported New Balance generated $7.8 billion in revenue in 2024, versus Nike’s $51 billion and Adidas’s $26 billion, which shows how much smaller New Balance’s base remains even as it wins marquee athletes. (forbes.com) But Flagg’s Rookie of the Year season turns New Balance’s rookie hunt from a prospecting story into a results story. The brand signed the player early, stuck with him through the draft, and now has the league’s newest rookie award winner wearing its shoes. (nba.com) (forbes.com)