Puma Basketball
History
1973 was the year of the signature sneaker revolution in the NBA. Long before the dominance of Nike and Jordan, came Puma and the first player in Basketball history to get his own signature sneaker - Walt “Clyde” Frazier. The Puma Clydes are one of the most influential basketball shoes of all time and sparked a two-decade phase where the company worked with some of the biggest NBA stars at the time. Puma’s emphasis on marketing saw the company etched in the culture surrounding Basketball (College Hoops, Hip Hop culture, Outdoor Basketball, etc). However, the company’s ability to attract big names could not be matched from a product standpoint - design and durability problems saw the brand lose out to the biggest brands at that time (ie) Nike and Converse. With the entire company on the verge of bankruptcy, they exited the Basketball segment by 1993 and the priority was on building the Lifestyle segment.
Puma turned to a certain rookie by the name of Vince Carter to spearhead the revival of the Basketball brand in the year 1998. The number 5 pick in the 1998 draft signed a 10-year deal worth 50 million dollars and became the first player in 5 years to sign with the brand. A year into his contract, Carter terminated his agreement with the brand, thus ending Puma’s presence in basketball for almost two decades.
Re-Entry
In June of 2018, Puma announced their return to the Basketball category with the cultural icon Jay - Z signed on as Creative Director. In an interview with Forbes, Adam Petrick (Global Director, Brand, and Marketing) credits the appointment of CEO, Bjørn Gulden in 2013 for the company’s shift in mindset. He says the company was focused on exploring sneaker culture and the lifestyle segment in the 2000s, but the focus shifted to reminding consumers that Puma was primarily a sports performance brand. Petrick believes that:
The brand’s re-entry into the sports performance category is about understanding that the performance aspect of sport and the culture around sport go hand in hand.
The NBA is a culture creator - It is a melting pot of Arts, Culture, Fashion, Music, etc.
Understanding the culture around sport is not new to Puma and fits right into their philosophy.
During the initial years of the 2010s, Puma’s profits were shrinking while rivals Nike and Adidas were posting strong gains. In 2019, Forbes listed Puma as the sixth most valuable Sports business brand with a brand value of 4 Billion USD. During the first nine months of 2019, Puma’s share price rose 60%, to $79. Puma has been posting strong numbers after the change in strategy. Forbes released the following numbers in Jan 2020:
Reasons for Basketball Brand Turnaround:
Appointing Jay-Z as Creative Director for Puma Basketball was very important for the brand. The cultural icon is the perfect fit for what Puma is trying to do on and off the court. He plays a huge role in creative strategy, creative marketing, and product design. Additionally, he owns a Sports and Entertainment agency (Roc Nation) which gives Puma leverage with top athletes and cultural influencers.
After the re-entry announcement, Puma signed the two top draft picks in the 2018 NBA draft (DeAndre Ayton and Marvin Bagley) along with other first-round draft picks Zhaire Smith, Michael Porter Jr, and Kevin Knox. Following the same trend of signing top rookies, in 2019 Puma signed RJ Barret (Number 3 draft pick). Along with signing talented rookies, Puma signed a bunch of experienced NBA stars - Veterans Rudy Gay, Danny Green, and Demarcus Cousins are joined by Exciting Stars Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, and Kyle Kuzma. Puma looks to endorse players that echo their culture of being “more than just a basketball brand”. All the athletes in Puma’s roster are cultural influencers and have a say in fashion, music, gaming, etc.
Lamelo Ball
In October this year, Puma announced the addition of Lamelo Ball (Top 5 NBA Draft prospect) to their roster with a long term deal reportedly worth 100 Million USD. How does the signing of Lamelo Ball fit into the Puma Basketball narrative?
An important factor in growing the culture around basketball has been the rise of social media. The “Instagramification” of High School and College Basketball has seen an entire generation of Basketball players becoming celebrities before going pro. Amateur Basketball players leverage the virality of social media to amass a following and become cultural influencers. Some would argue that Lamelo himself was the catalyst behind this movement. In 2016, the then 13-year-old Lamelo (Youngest of the three Ball brothers) became a viral sensation on social media for scoring 92 points in a high school game for Chino Hills High School.
Lamelo currently has 7 million followers (Nov 2020) across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook without playing a single NBA game. To put that into perspective:
In the Puma Basketball roster, only Kyle Kuzma (7.4 Million) has more followers than Lamelo across all three platforms.
He has more Instagram followers than All-stars like Ben Simmons, Blake Griffin, Bradley Beal, Karl Anthony Towns, and Joel Embiid.
According to a recent Hookit and Sportspro Media study that examined brand promotion on Social and Digital channels from Aug 2019 to Aug 2020, Puma received 74 Million US Dollars in Brand Value and ranked 9th in Brands assessed. Puma will be hoping the addition of Lamelo Ball and his Gen Z audience will help bridge the gap between them and other apparel brands like Nike and Adidas.
Lamelo Ball is not your average NBA draft prospect. He was the first High School basketball player to have his own signature shoe with his family’s brand (Big Baller Brand). He stars in a reality TV show “Ball in the Family” that follows his basketball-playing brothers Lonzo Ball (NBA player), Liangelo Ball, and his parents’ on-court and off-court life. Due to his various commercial interests, Ball was not eligible to play College Basketball and was forced to take a different route to get to the NBA. He initially had a stint in Lithuania playing for a professional team and eventually moved to the Australian NBL to play for the Illawarra Hawks. It was in the NBL where his impact both on and off the court was truly felt:
He won the NBL rookie of the year award for the 2019/20 season.
The Illawarra Hawks broke NBL viewership and attendance records.
NBL signed streaming deals with Twitch and Facebook watch.
Slam magazine (American Basketball media company) signed a shirt sponsoring deal with Illawarra Hawks.
