Source: Omar Rawlings / Getty
New Balance basketball sneakers? Sounds weird, right? Well according to reports the company best known for its running sneakers and your dad’s favorite pair of grilling kicks wants to take another stab at the basketball market.
That’s right basketball sneaker aficionados, New Balance wants your money, and according to ESPN.com’s Nick DePaula, the company is actively considering signing Celtics All-Star forward Gordon Hayward to be the face to help “re-launch its dormant basketball category.”
DePaula points out in his report that Hayward will be able to engage in talks with sneaker brands when his Nike contract ends in August. As of now if you head over to New Balance’s website, there are no basketball sneakers listed on it.
Hayward has never had his own signature sneaker to call his own and balled in Kobe Bryant’s signature line throughout his NBA career. If he is indeed looking to have a signature shoe, New Balance seems very interested in giving him what all NBA ballers want. New Balance and Hayward’s current team the Celtics already have a good relationship, the brand is one of the sponsors of the teams new training facility that opened in June. So this would be a perfect fit [pun intended].
Hayward is looking to make a splash this season coming off the gruesome leg injury he suffered that ended his debut season as a Celtic.
Now with LeBron James joining the Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors looking a bit shaky, some analysts feel the NBA’s Eastern Conference belongs to the Boston Celtics. This could be Hayward’s time to shine and show he is indeed one of the NBA’s biggest stars and he is deserving to have his own Air Haywards or whatever catchy name his kicks will get. We are interested to see what New Balance cooks up in their sneaker labs.
