Why Cooper Flagg will be a key athlete for New Balance

As expected, Cooper Flagg has been selected with the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and is now a player for the Dallas Mavericks. The Texas franchise, against all odds, won the lottery on May 12th despite having only a 1.8% chance, and thanks to this stroke of luck, they managed to calm the fury of fans after the trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. That’s because Flagg has been almost universally described as a generational player, a talent rarely seen. This opinion is shared by journalists and players, as well as brands. For example, Hugo Boss appointed him as the US brand ambassador and provided him with an outfit for one of the most important evenings of his life: a navy blue suit, black tie and white shirt. He's just a rookier but from the moment he first steps onto an NBA court, all eyes will be on him. As of today, a likely if not highly probable scenario is that Flagg will become the face of the league, alongside other generational talents like Victor Wembanyama. That’s what Mavs fans are hoping for, and it’s what New Balance is counting on, having surprisingly signed Flagg in 2024.

Let’s not beat around the bush: thanks to Cooper Flagg, New Balance is ready to carve out a leading role in the NBA. The American brand is already present in the world’s top basketball league with established players like Kawhi Leonard and Jamal Murray, both of whom were wearing New Balance sneakers the day they won their respective NBA titles with the Toronto Raptors and the Denver Nuggets. Add to this the partnership with Klutch Athletics, the fashion brand founded by Rich Paul as an offshoot of Klutch Sports Group, the most influential agency in the NBA, also founded by Rich Paul and representing, among others, LeBron James. However, the deal with Flagg enters a different dimension, one where New Balance, for the first time, finds itself in a position of strength in the NBA, with a realistic outlook to play a major role over the next 5 to 10 years. No other league offers global exposure like the NBA: Flagg’s popularity is set to grow exponentially and, consequently, so is awareness around New Balance. It’s only a matter of time before we see signature shoes and collections dedicated to America’s new basketball hope.

Let’s be clear, unlike what happened with the Mavericks, this is not a lucky break. New Balance is following a precise strategy: decisively investing in athletes who represent the present but especially the future of their sport. Flagg (18 years old) was destined to be the first overall pick even before playing a single NCAA game. It wasn’t a given that he would snub other brands like Nike, especially since during his only season with the Duke Blue Devils he was required to wear Swoosh-branded shoes due to Nike’s exclusive deal with the university. But staying in basketball, New Balance has also made a strong bet on Cameron Brink (23 years old), one of the players leading the aesthetic revolution of the WNBA. In tennis, their strongest bond is with Coco Gauff (21 years old), winner of the 2025 Roland Garros and face of the collection created in collaboration with Miu Miu. In football, beyond the highly anticipated collaborations with Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta, New Balance has tied itself to Bukayo Saka (23 years old) and most notably beat the competition to sign Endrick, the Brazilian prodigy born in 2006, awaiting his breakout moment with Real Madrid to become the next global football sensation. The only exception to this strategy lies in MLB, but it's more than justified given that New Balance's marquee athlete is Shohei Ohtani (30 years old), the most famous baseball player in the world and holder of one of the richest contracts in the league’s history.

This generation of athletes, born in 2000 and beyond, perfectly embodies New Balance’s new vision for its motto “We Got Now”. These athletes don’t want to wait. They want it all, and they want it now. They know they have talent and have no intention of hiding their personality. They’re bold, but also humble. They’re aware of the bright future ahead, but they don’t want to waste time waiting for the right opportunity to prove themselves. They want to fulfill their destiny, and they want to do it now. New Balance has embraced this audacity and turned it into its strength, without changing its communication style. The tone remains light, with most ads showing smiling athletes, not weighed down by pressure, exhaustion, or sacrifice.

This is because New Balance, as a company philosophy, has chosen to focus on a small number of athletes, maximizing the attention each one receives. A kind of family business. And this approach is becoming a key factor in negotiations, attracting athletes and agents with the promise of a brand ready to give them all the attention they need. In the specific case of the NBA, this meant having seven endorsers on the court during the 2024/25 season. All of them were enthusiastic about the sneakers made available to them, from the Hesi Low v2s to the Fresh Foam BB v2, and the Kawhi 4, Kawhi Leonard’s signature shoe. According to direct player feedback, these shoes made a decisive difference in their performance. Now, it will be up to Cooper Flagg to take New Balance to a whole new level, making its sneakers truly cool.