Fansided

PUMA strikes footwear sponsorship deal with the WNBA

By Brendon Kleen

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - JULY 28: Liz Cambage, Skylar Diggins-Smith,Candace Parker and Chiney Ogwumike of Team Parker poses for a portrait prior to the Verizon WNBA All-Star Game at the Target Center on July 28, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - JULY 28: Liz Cambage, Skylar Diggins-Smith,Candace Parker and Chiney Ogwumike of Team Parker poses for a portrait prior to the Verizon WNBA All-Star Game at the Target Center on July 28, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The shoe and apparel company PUMA signed a league-wide footwear sponsorship with the WNBA, its first deal with a professional sports league.

PUMA is back.

The sportswear company, fresh off deals with 2018 draftees Marvin Bagley III, Deandre Ayton and Zhaire Smith as well as Celtics guard Terry Rozier, announced Friday a deal with the WNBA as its official footwear partner.

Dallas Wings guard Skylar Diggins-Smith will be a PUMA Women brand ambassador as part of the agreement. She will wear PUMAs for the rest of the league’s calendar after Saturday’s WNBA All-Star game, during which Diggins-Smith wore a pair of Clyde Court Disrupts.

PUMA decided to get back into the pro basketball arena shortly after hiring musical artist Jay-Z to help with its basketball division in June. The company announced a 15-percent sales increase in the second quarter of 2018.

“We got very positive feedback to our plans of re-entering the Basketball category and both — the announcements of our new NBA players and the revelation of the product,” said CEO Bjorn Gulden in a statement.

The PUMA partnership comes on the heels of more positive news for the WNBA, which announced its early-season viewership on ESPN2 was up 58 percent from last year and the best since 2013. Then, it set a record on June 28 that stood since 2011 for the most-watched WNBA game to air on ESPN2.

Coverage for the league is exploding.

Next. Courtney Paris is a WNBA No-Stats All-Star. dark

The new NBA Live 19 video game, continuing to develop its representation of women’s basketball, will feature men playing against women and allow users to create female characters in the game’s create-a-player mode.

The PUMA deal is another arrow in the quiver of the WNBA, which continues to build toward greater legitimacy in the mainstream sports landscape.

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