“We were sort of playing Scorsese, casting for a movie.”
That’s how Andrew McGarty, New Balance’s director of sports marketing for global football, described his company’s early steps into the world of soccer endorsements.
Despite being 119 years old, the American sportswear company, founded in Boston, is a relative start-up in the endorsement world. It was only in 2019 that it took a major step into the NBA, partnering with Toronto Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard shortly before they won the Championship. He’s now a two-time NBA finals MVP and one of the most recognisable faces in the sport.
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New Balance wants to eat and Kawhi Leonard is its meal ticket
New Balance added another global talent to its roster in January 2023, when Japanese MLB star Shohei Ohtani joined. After being named MLB MVP twice with the Los Angeles Angels, he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers on a 10-year contract worth $700million — the largest contract in sports history at the time — and has since won the World Series.
Four-time Olympic gold medallist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the sprinter and hurdler, is a New Balance athlete. While in 2023, the Los Angeles Sparks’ Cameron Brink became the brand’s first female basketball athlete while she was still playing in the college game.
Its first…
