There’s also Cameron Brink, the second-year rising WNBA star of the Los Angeles Sparks who, in 2023, became the first woman to join New Balance’s basketball roster. And last year, the brand even landed Duke University freshman Cooper Flagg, the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, who grew up 25 miles from New Balance’s Skowhegan, Maine factory. “We take an approach of ‘fewer, bigger, better’ with signing athletes,” Naveen Lokesh, New Balance’s global head of basketball marketing, told Andscape. “We aim to sign fewer partnerships, but market athletes in a bigger way, by telling better stories.”