In the sports world, trends in performance, fashion, and behavior occur every few years, impacting the conventional patterns of players and teams. Moses Malone became one of the first high school basketball players to be drafted straight by the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1974. His highly successful career, including the receipt of three Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, paved the way for an entire generation of high school basketball players, including LeBron James and Kevin Garnett, to make the same transition to the NBA. The University of Michigan teams of the early 1990s featuring the ‘Fab Five’ recruiting class wore baggy shorts during games instead of the shorter default, promoting an institutional uniform change. In 2007 Brandon Jennings signed a professional contract with Italian basketball club Lottomatica Roma instead of the University of Arizona. As the first American basketball player to skip college to play professionally in the Euroleague, his decision was a departure from the conventional route of playing college basketball before pursuing a career in the NBA. The next trendsetter in basketball is the Ball family, lead by patriarch Lavar Ball and his three sons Lonzo, LiAngelo, and LaMelo, who may have sparked an independence movement in the relationship between professional athletes and shoe companies.

When the Ball family is mentioned in sports media, the public has expressed mixed reactions. Lavar Ball is known for his flashy words, and his sons are known for their superior play. The Los Angeles Lakers recently drafted Lonzo, the oldest Ball brother, second overall in the 2017 NBA Draft. As his first year in the NBA is set to begin, one of the more interesting things about Lonzo’s career is the independence he already enjoys as a representative of Big Baller Brand, Lavar Ball’s clothing and sneaker brand inspired by his sons.

The first contract signed by an athlete for a shoe brand was signed on June 14, 1923, between Converse Rubber Shoe Company and Chuck Taylor. Since then, and particularly after Michael Jordan rose to fame with his signature Jordan brand imprint through Nike, the sneaker industry has deep ties with professional sports. Traditionally when an athlete is endorsed by a particular brand, the contract dictates that the player will only play in sneakers made by the company they are signed to for the duration of the contract. The same logic applies to High School and Collegiate programs, whose players will wear the sneakers and apparel of the company their team is affiliated with.

Punishments are usually severe for athletes that violate a sneaker endorsement contract. In 2016 Nike warned their National Football League (NFL) athletes not to customize Nike cleats with third-party organizations and promised contract termination for further violation. In 2009, Adidas terminated their contract with the University of Central Florida (UCF) because basketball player Marcus Jordan, son of Michael Jordan, wanted to wear his father’s Jordan brand shoes.

Lonzo Ball is not subject to these same restrictions. Although he is a Big Baller Brand athlete, in NBA Summer League play, he wore five different shoe brands. These include Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, Jordan Brand, and his signature Big Baller Brand shoe.  This departure from the norms of professional athlete sneaker protocols has drawn nearly the same amount of attention as Lonzo’s superior play. Although he was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the NBA Summer League, the sports world is buzzing over the independence that Lonzo is enjoying from the sneaker world.

One way shoe companies may attempt to compensate for an increase in desire for independence by professional athletes may include incentivized contracts. Contracts of this form could compensate the athlete for wearing a specific shoe for a particular amount of games, specific games of high importance (NBA All Star Game, NBA Finals, etc.), or for promoting a particular shoe. This change in contractual agreements gives the professional athlete more independence over in-game footwear while also benefitting shoe companies by raising the visibility of certain shoe models during particular parts of the NBA season. It can also be argued that the change in contracts could shorten the time period of fashionability of shoes, motivating shoe companies to push newer models of shoes out at a faster pace.

Regardless of the outcome of Lonzo Ball’s basketball career, he may have sparked a revolutionary change in the relationship between the shoe world and professional athletes. Due to ‘sneakerhead’ sites such as Sole Collector and KicksOnFire, the elaborate sneaker collections of many professional athletes is well documented. The success of Lonzo Ball may cause other athletes to seek similar levels of independence, so that they may display their sneaker collections on the field of play, and not just for social media. Although Lavar Ball has a mixed relationship with the media, his early promise that he and his sons will change the basketball world looks more like truth every day.