This summer is probably the strangest of NBA's off-season.

Despite all kinds of news about the decline in sales of basketball shoes (mainly Nike), in just two months, a lot of non traditional basketball shoe companies suddenly revealed interest in the market in addition to the shocking Lebron James's spanfer to the Lakers.

The latest news is that in July 27th, Puma announced an agreement with WNBA (the US women's Professional Basketball League) to become an official footwear sponsor of the league. This is the first professional sports league spanaction that Puma has returned to the basketball court since 6 this month.

As an official sponsor, Puma will be able to use the logo of the alliance and the image of WNBA players. This is basically in line with the positioning of Puma in the past few years.

Since the official announcement in June, Puma has signed NBA four rookie Deandre Ayton, Marvin Bagley III, Zhaire Smith, Terry and Terry, one of which is ranked first. In addition, the brand also found the NBA legendary player, Walt Frazier Clydes Clydes, signing the lifelong endorsement contract, and announced that hip-hop singer Jay-Z will be the creative consultant of Puma's new basketball business.

Basketball market share of more than 90% cents is in Nike's hands. Most of the players -- from James to a new star who you may not pay much attention to -- are signed with Nike. The rest of the market is left to Adidas and Under Armour. In 2017, sales of basketball shoes in the United States dropped by 13% over the peak of 2015. In the coming season, there are still too many free signing players on the pitch.

Nike's basketball shoe business (excluding Jordan brand) has been declining in the past few quarters, basically equivalent to the overall stagnation of the basketball market. However, under such circumstances, some strange characters began to appear, including the Big Baller Brand, which was dubbed into the Stadium last summer and was dubbed "big mouth Daddy". The Losangeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball founded its own sneakers brand, because it was particularly expensive (495 US dollars) and the amount of fans on the social network was amazing. industry Concern.

At the same time, Adidas is still trying to link basketball with the street trend. Following this spring's NBA All-Star weekend, the brand of the casual shoes Crazy BYW, inspired by basketball shoes, was launched after the match between the east coast and the Rapper coast.

Another basketball related clue is a Twitter:7 28 month. Kanye West released a hand-painted draft, which is a new series of Yeezy 2019 year old sketches, with adding basketball (plus basketball).

What kind of market changes this Twitter will eventually cause is unknown. But from past experience, Kanye's prediction is always Adidas's will. To some extent, heavy. Basketball shoes There is a similar resemblance to the shoes that are very popular nowadays, but the Sneaker collection market represented by Jordan has nothing to do with those sneakers launched by luxury brands, and Yeezy's next season may want to break this line.

As for Under Armour, although the fifth generation of curi was released on schedule Signature shoes But the brand was quiet in the summer and did not sign any promising draft players.

Eric Tracy, an analyst at Buckingham Research Institute, thinks Puma will enter basketball at this point. market It is true that we must face the monopoly of giants. But from the brand preference to Jay-Z and retro (legendary players) endorsement, Puma may be able to affect the sales of Jordan brand during the replacement period. The latest WNBA contracts can also bring the influence of the female market to them.

Basketball market rekindled concerns and perhaps leisure. Running shoes The competition is more and more intense. For example, Puma players who relied on retro running shoes to refire are seeking new growth points.

However, the report that New Balance may enter the stadium will be somewhat puzzling. After all, New Balance has never been the main player in basketball field, and has little history. It has done well in football matches in the past year, thanks to its cooperation with Liverpool. According to the sports illustrated, New Balance is currently interested in signing the Gordon Hayward of Boston Celtics, who had previously worked with China's PEAK.