The Arrival: Cooper Flagg – SLAM 258

With great talent on the court comes great opportunity off the court.

Before even playing in an official NBA regular-season game, Flagg has already captured a collection of landmark endorsement deals, leading to one of the League’s largest portfolios of brand partners.

“It’s pretty cool,” he says humbly. “I’m learning a lot, and I got really educated about it at an earlier age than people have previously, with the whole NIL thing.”

While Cooper was at Montverde, the state of Florida hadn’t yet allowed amateur players to sign NIL deals, which Kelly now calls a “blessing in disguise.”

“All of those guys got to just go hoop and worry about basketball,” she says. “Which is what we wanted.”

Once he committed to Duke and signed with Austin Brown, Co-Head of CAA Sports, though, the endorsement offers were never-ending. While the Fanatics, Gatorade and AT&T partner deals all eventually came together, the biggest brand decision to sort out was the sneaker deal.

Even though Cooper had worn Nike throughout high school, the family had a unique connection to New Balance, the privately-owned company also hailing from the Northeast. Known for its “Made in USA Collection” and web of factories throughout the region, New Balance had a manufacturing facility in Skowhegan, just a 25-minute drive from Newport. Kelly would often take the boys to the annual tent sale to buy them shoes for the new school year.

With Flagg playing just a couple of hours from New Balance’s Boston headquarters, the company’s president, Chris Davis, and head of basketball sports marketing, Naveen Lokesh, remember having him on their radar early. As they tracked his progress at Montverde, SLAM’s issue No. 247 soon landed on Davis’ desk in the fall of 2023, announcing Cooper’s commitment to Duke and laying out the timeline of his earned rise through the ranks.

Davis walked across the office and threw the issue onto Lokesh’s desk, declaring, “Cooper has to be a New Balance guy.”

“The SLAM cover story was validation of everything that we had been thinking, learning and ideating,” Davis says now. “Sometimes, everything that you think is going to come true is right in front of you. It was the cherry on top and the ultimate validator.”

“New Balance feels like a family and not a giant corporate machine, even though they’re a big company,” describes Kelly. “They’re family owned and they’re accessible. Whenever he needs anything, he can just reach out. It has a very close-knit feel to it.”

Of course, Chris Davis remembers exactly where he was when he got the official update. It was June 24th at Fenway Park, with the Red Sox taking on the Blue Jays, and Davis was seated in a suite with Boston execs. He noticed his phone begin to flash.

“If you don’t have someone’s number,” begins Davis, “you know how it says, Maybe…? It said Maybe: Cooper Flagg.’”

He picked it up.

“He’s a really polite kid,” Davis thought in the moment. “He’s calling to tell me he’s going to a different brand.”

“Hey Mr. Davis…”

“Just call me Chris. Mr. Davis is my dad.”

Cooper got right to it and let him know that he wanted to join New Balance.

“I got off the phone and I had chills,” reflects Davis.

Flagg knew it’d be the biggest brand decision of his young career. “It was a process—a long process,” says Cooper. “Meeting with different brands and seeing the vision that they had for me and my brand. New Balance being a New England brand was definitely a big part of it, and the vision and the culture that they have.”

Right away, even while at Duke, he was featured in the brand’s national campaign touting its lineup of top basketball athletes. New Balance declared June 25th as “Flagg Day,” launching a capsule collection of “Made in USA” apparel to celebrate the draft. Cooper is expected to headline the Hesi Low model to start his rookie season, with eventual PE editions expected to release, and maybe one day, even his own signature sneaker.

“It does take a unique individual and a unique personality to partner with a challenger brand,” adds Davis. “Especially for the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft and one of the most touted prospects in recent history. To not go with one of the industry incumbents, you have to have a fearlessly independent mindset.”

As he and New Balance get going to build out his marketing plans and future vision, Flagg feels his story can relate to anyone and make an impact.

“I think the way that I represent myself on the court,” he says. “Just playing hard all the time and always being about winning first and team first is something that can send a good message to a lot of people.”