New Balance sneakers popularity has increased during Kawhi Leonard's NBA Playoffs run.
Kawhi Leonard became a two-time NBA Champion and two-time NBA Finals MVP on Thursday after leading the Toronto Raptors to a Game 6 win over the Golden State Warriors. While Toronto’s new darling is soaking in the adoration from global basketball fans happy to see him return from injury and dethrone the champions, New Balance, his footwear partner, is also receiving more love.
New Balance signed Leonard to a multiyear endorsement deal in November much to the surprise of many fans, who took opportunity to send jokes on Twitter. The Boston-based footwear company released on May 7 Leonard’s signature sneakers, OMN1s and 997 Sport, as a double pack, which sold out immediately. The second act was the June 7 launch of branded T-shirts that read “Fun Guy” as a nod to Leonard’s introductory press conference for the Toronto Raptors in October.
His performance also impacted the secondary market. At The RealReal, New Balance as a whole saw an 105 percent increase in Obsessions, an internal gauge of when a shopper clicks a “heart” icon next to a product to add it to their personal obsessions page. Under Armour, which has a collection with Warriors superstar Stephen Curry who faced off against Leonard in the NBA Finals, saw an 131 percent increase.
According to Einhorn, New Balance sales increased about 50 percent, and the average order value for New Balance sales increased by 20 percent. Prior to the NBA Finals, the New Balance 997S Kawhi Leonard 2-Way was reselling for an average price of $256 and jumped 63 percent to $417 during the Finals, and in the same time period, the New Balance OMN1s Kawhi Leonard 2-Way, which was reselling for $530 on average, jumped 61 percent to $855.
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