Two decades have passed with Puma sitting on the NBA sidelines as Nike, Adidas, and more recently Under Armour jockeyed for a larger slice of the market.Īfter Bagley signed his deal, a contract followed for the No. It feels quaint in retrospect, but Puma’s 1998 agreement with Vince Carter-in the penultimate Vinsanity years-ended in a lawsuit, and the then-Raptors star went with Nike right after Y2K turned out to be overwrought hysteria. 2 pick in the NBA Draft, to the largest rookie sneaker deal in over a decade.įor some perspective, the last time the German-based company signed an NBA player, the Y2K bug had America shook. Midway through June, Puma shocked the basketball world when it inked Marvin Bagley III, the No. But there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface of a splashy signing. It’s the most obvious reason for the recent splurge by Puma in the basketball space. The senior sports advisor for The NPD Group isn’t being sarcastic.
“If you want to be a performance basketball brand, you gotta have NBA players playing in your shoes,” Matt Powell says matter-of-factly.
