Why Women’s Basketball Stars Are Finally Getting Big Sneaker Deals

Earlier this month, A’ja Wilson of WNBA team Las Vegas Aces walked into an arena ahead of an exhibition game wearing a cropped hoodie with the message, “Of course I have a shoe dot com” underneath a Nike swoosh.

On the website is a formal announcement from Nike about the launch of A’One, a signature sneaker designed in collaboration with Wilson to hit shelves in 2025.

“You thought we’d sleep on an SEC champion, national champion, #1 draft pick, five-time All-Star, US Olympic gold winner?” the statement said, with a list of accolades that go on. “Of course, A’ja’s got a shoe.”

It was a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of a question that basketball fans have long wondered: Why hasn’t Nike given a sneaker deal to Wilson, one of the most high-profile WNBA players and who’s widely considered the league’s standout talent?

It turns out that Nike and Wilson had been working together for well over a year on the launch of her sneaker. Both parties agreed on the decision to remain silent until after the design phase. But Nike, it seems, took the criticism personally. On X, formerly Twitter, the Nike Basketball account even went back to reply to weeks-old tweets from users who questioned Wilson’s lack of a signature sneaker, responding with just the URL: “OfCourseSheHasAShoe.com.”

The brand’s defensiveness spoke volumes: Even though the deal was more than a year in the making, it was nevertheless long overdue. Sportswear companies have traditionally under-indexed on endorsing female basketball stars because lower viewership in the WNBA made sneaker deals less commercially viable.

But women’s basketball has entered a new era in recent months, reaching new heights in viewership and cultural stature. In April, the WNBA draft recorded the highest ever audience on a single broadcast event in the league’s history, and the NCAA women’s basketball competition final was the most-watched basketball game — men’s or women’s, collegiate or professional — since 2019.

It’s not just Nike looking to capitalise on the newfound appeal: Last week, Adidas announced it created a new leadership position for WNBA legend Candace Parker, who was named president of women’s basketball. In October, Reebok named Angel Reese — who shot to fame as a college basketball standout at Louisiana State University last season — as a signature athlete and the face of the brand’s newly relaunched basketball category under Shaquille O’Neil.

For brands, tying their image to the game’s stars like Clark, Wilson, Reese and Parker, above all else, is simply smart business.

“These women are coming into a league with a spotlight that we’ve never seen before,” said Michael Sykes, a sneaker industry and basketball expert who founded The Kicks You Wear newsletter. “Brands have to strike while the iron is hot — and it’s blazing hot right now.”

Why are these deals suddenly happening now?

Traditionally, hype around women’s basketball at the college level failed to translate into viewership and commercial interest. The lack of eyeballs gave brands and the media an excuse to stay away — but the soaring popularity of women’s basketball can no longer be ignored.

The NCAA women’s basketball competition final in April drew a TV audience of over 24 million viewers, according to ESPN — not only outperforming the men’s equivalent match but also breaking recent viewership records overall.

It also helps that women’s basketball stars at collegiate level could not make money from their name, image or likeness (NIL) until this policy changed in 2021. University of Southern California player Juju Watkins was one of the first athletes to sign an NIL deal with Nike, along with other brands like Estée Lauder.

In fact, Nike and Adidas are hardly early movers on the sponsorship opportunities that have emerged in recent years. They’re now competing with beauty and luxury labels too for a chance to work with the likes of Wilson and Reese. Reese, for instance, is also an ambassador for Mielle Organics and Good American. Prada dressed Clark for WNBA draft night — the first time the brand had ever dressed a basketball player, male or female.

And earlier this week, Skims kicked off its partnership with the WNBA with a campaign featuring veterans such as Parker, Cameron Brink and Kelsey Plum.

“There’s just so much talent right now and so many young stars that I think are going to carry these brands forward well into the future,” said Sykes.

Why are signature deals in particular so important in women’s basketball?

A signature deal is one of the biggest investments a brand can make in a star athlete. Save for granting an athlete equity, it’s the highest level of endorsement that brands offer, where an athlete is no longer simply paid to wear a brand’s gear but get to co-create a line of sneakers and apparel with their name (and sometimes their own logo) alongside the brand’s. It’s the blueprint set by Michael Jordan’s landmark signature sneaker deal with Nike in 1984, which has since grown into the $6 billion Air Jordan brand.

But female athletes are significantly underrepresented when it comes to these deals. There are just three active WNBA players with signature sneakers on the market today: Breanna Stewart (Stewie 1, Puma), Elena Delle Donne (Air Deldon 1, Nike) and Sabrina Ionescu, whose Sabrina 2 sneaker will launch next month. The NBA, on the other hand, counts over 30 signature athletes. Before Delle Donne, the last WNBA player with a signature shoe release was Candace Parker, back in 2012.

In women’s sports, these deals play a crucial role in compensation. Even top female players have basic salaries that are nowhere near that of their male counterparts. For example, Clark’s $28 million Nike deal over eight years dwarfs her modest WNBA annual salary of $76,535.

Signature deals are also an important bargaining chip for brands battling each other to sign the next generation of basketball stars to their rosters. Granting Caitlin Clark her own signature shoe deal is partly what helped the Swoosh seal the deal in April after an intense bidding war involving Adidas, Puma and Under Armour. It also helped Shaquille O’Neil close Angel Reese for Reebok.

“I want people wearing my shoes,” Reese told her fans on TikTok in May. “I like how they’re letting me be the creator behind everything I want to do.”

For brands, what’s ahead as they continue to sign these deals?

The growing mainstream popularity of women’s basketball presents an opportunity to market more specifically to female consumers, said Eric Wise, global GM of Adidas basketball.

An important mandate of Candace Parker’s newly created role as the brand’s head of women’s basketball will be overseeing the creation of more footwear options that are designed specifically for female athletes.

Parker will build the brand’s women’s basketball category around the rising stars in its roster such as Canadian forward Aaliyah Edwards and Aliyah Boston, the 2023 WNBA rookie of the year, said Wise.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg for what’s to come in the Adidas basketball category,” he said.