00:00 Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Friday, January 12th.
00:05 Today on Forbes, a whole new shoe game for women.
00:11 Reigning WNBA MVP, Brianna Stewart, can splash threes like Kevin Durant, attack the rim like
00:17 LeBron James, and hit turnaround jumpers with Michael Jordan-esque grace.
00:23 So it's fitting that, growing up in Syracuse, New York, she wanted to wear their signature
00:27 shoes, but she really didn't have much choice.
00:30 Stewart, the 29-year-old forward for the New York Liberty, says, "I don't think women's
00:36 basketball sneakers were available to me.
00:38 The ones that were available were just the basic team shoes.
00:41 There was nothing special to it, nothing that would catch the attention of a kid's eye."
00:47 It's a common story for female ballers of a certain age.
00:50 Stewart's 26-year-old Liberty teammate, Sabrina Ionescu, says it wasn't until her college days
00:56 at Oregon that she, quote, "started to realize that there isn't any in the market at all,
01:00 especially for young girls."
01:03 Chicago Sky guard, Kahlia Copper, who's 29 years old, remembers, quote, "going straight
01:09 to the men's section and making it work."
01:12 But now, big brands are capitalizing on the surging popularity of women's basketball,
01:17 and the landscape has changed.
01:19 Stewart has her own signature shoe with Puma.
01:22 Ionescu and Washington Mystics forward Elena Della Dunn each have sneakers with Nike.
01:28 And Las Vegas Aces forward Candace Parker, a two-time MVP, has a longtime shoe deal with
01:34 Adidas.
01:36 Last year, the U.S. basketball sneaker market was valued at roughly $1.38 billion, according
01:42 to a report from Cognitive Market Research.
01:46 While the men's side dominated with a 71 percent market share, the women's game is, quote,
01:51 "expected to grow rapidly in the coming years."
01:54 Some analysts and industry insiders believe those marks could eventually reach a 50/50
01:59 split.
02:00 Max Stager, Puma's global head of basketball, says, quote, "We're kind of in a moment here
02:06 where, for whatever reason, more and more eyes are on women's basketball.
02:10 That's directly translating to the interest in products that are associated with everything
02:14 that comes with that, which is great to see."
02:18 Research on the women's side has punctuated Puma's re-entry to the basketball business.
02:22 The brand returned to hoops in 2018 after shuttering the division in the early 2000s.
02:27 The strategy, Stager notes, was to capture the attention of as many basketball fans as
02:32 possible, regardless of gender.
02:35 Three years later, Puma landed Stewart in sneaker-free agency with a big promise — a
02:40 signature shoe.
02:42 The multi-year agreement, which Forbes estimates earned Stewart a guarantee of around $500,000
02:47 annually, was a milestone for the former University of Connecticut superstar.
02:51 A signature shoe has long been a status symbol, identifying the most prominent basketball
02:56 players and a bellwether for the types of consumers that brands are trying to reach.
03:00 In each NBA season, dozens of stars — including Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and
03:07 Russell Westbrook — all sport shoes bearing their names, and the paydays can be enormous.
03:13 LeBron James and Kevin Durant each collect an estimated $30 million or so annually from
03:17 their Nike deals, and Curry's lifetime packed with Under Armour could reportedly cross $1
03:23 billion at full value.
03:25 Those deals are considerably smaller and far less common in the WNBA, where only 12 players
03:31 in the league's 27-year history have received namesake sneakers.
03:36 Stewart says, "It's a bittersweet feeling because there's not that many, but also exciting
03:41 because companies are getting on board and wanting to make sure that there's a space
03:45 for us in the market."
03:46 For full coverage, check out Justin Birnbaum's piece on Forbes.com.
03:53 This is Ciarán Meadows from Forbes.
03:55 Thanks for tuning in.
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