Again on December fifteenth, Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg turned the youngest participant in NBA historical past to attain greater than 40 factors in a sport. It was additionally simply the third time a teen had 40 factors, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists within the league’s 79-year historical past.
The one different two gamers to realize that final stat line had been LeBron James and Kevin Durant. On condition that elevated firm, and the truth that James, Durant, and about 65% of the NBA wear Nike shoes, it’s nonetheless a little bit of a shock to see Flagg donning New Steadiness.
The privately-owned, Massachusetts-based shoemaker has regularly constructed a relatively small, however elite roster of athlete ambassadors over the previous decade. Regardless of its dimension—New Steadiness’s 2024 gross sales had been about $7.8 billion, in comparison with Nike’s $51.4B—Flagg shares the shoe model with reigning NFL MVP Josh Allen, and Main League Baseball MVP Shohei Ohtani. To not point out WNBA standout Cameron Brink, in addition to fellow NBA stars Tyrese Maxey, Kawhi Leonard, Jamal Murray, Darius Garland, and Zack Levine. Many star within the model’s latest advert that dropped on January fifth.
CMO Chris Davis says the aim is to not be the most important, however to be one of the best, most boutique sports activities marketing model on the planet. “We needed to discover that core part of our identification that enabled us to succeed for the primary 110 years of our existence,” says Davis. “And it was rooted within the thought of being the final word challenger model. We all the time say internally that we’re a model with heritage, not a heritage model. A heritage model purely depends on its previous. A model with heritage honors its previous, however is obsessive about innovating into the longer term.”
That mentality has fueled New Steadiness because it’s disrupted streetwear, trend, and sports activities. However as its enterprise has grown by 20% or extra in every of the previous 5 years, the problem now’s sustaining that boutique challenger standing amid the numerous progress.
Pushing ahead with new design
As Flagg, Ohtani, and Allen are scoring in sports activities, New Steadiness can be capable of preserve and construct on its streetwear and trend bonafides with modern appears to be like just like the new Gator Run (a flat fashion coach), and of course the snoafer (aka 1906L). In the meantime, the Abzorb 2000 and SC Elite V5 have been named among the many best sneakers of 2025.
Davis says that the unique seeds for its present star-studded athlete roster had been its heritage in operating mixed with its ties to streetwear and sneaker tradition.
“In these early levels, it was definitely about resonating with our ascension, notably within the streetwear house,” he says. “After which after all, it was concerning the trusted improvements that we’ve been placing forth in operating for many years.”
Now, the driving drive is the model’s dedication to its independence and what that affords them in how they work with athletes and different collaborators.
“The truth that we’re privately owned definitely facilitates a singular mindset,” says Davis. “And the truth that we don’t need to make choices primarily based on Wall Road or quarterly earnings experiences, it allows us to take a long-term imaginative and prescient, construct a robust basis, and primarily to do issues as a result of we consider that they’re the fitting factor to do, the fitting factor for the model, the fitting factor for our individuals internally and the fitting factor for all our companions.”
The evolving model of New Steadiness
He credit the model’s unbiased identification with attracting the primary in its wave of recent athletes over the previous decade. However one other pillar to Davis’ athlete technique is partnership over sponsorship. Athletes aren’t silo’d in a single sports activities class of basketball or tennis, however a part of the model as a complete. That is embodied in launches like the recent collab between fashion label Miu Miu and Gauff.
“We work collaboratively on the whole lot that our main athletes contact,” he says. “So we co-author our storytelling, we co-author our product, and we co-author our enterprise methods collectively. They’ve a large enter on how we’re coming to market collectively. That not solely enhances their sphere of affect, however it makes them extra related to our model.”
As 2026 kicks off, the problem dealing with Davies is identical because it was 12 months in the past: Continued progress with out sacrificing the tradition that obtained it right here. However New Steadiness acknowledges that notion of its model has modified, and that’s helpd their momentum. Years in the past, it was New Steadiness pitching athletes and different companions to crew up, now the corporate turns down about 99% of inbound requests.
“The most effective indication of future conduct is previous conduct, and success breeds success,” says Davis. “On the finish of the day, being one of the best model of ourselves is certainly one of our main objectives. However, I don’t suppose it’s gotten simpler as a result of our expectations have gotten larger.”
