That has nothing to do with BBB, they aren't selling discount footwear.
Shaq's shoe line wasn't independent also he had several corporate partners.
Starbury debuted in 2006 and by 2007 sales slumped and by 2009 they were discontinued. You wouldn't call that a success for BBB.....
This is a misnomer on this board. Having corporate partners is not a bad thing. Having minority owners who are corporate does not make you less independent. Independence is about control, not having 100% ownership, and using corporate partners is the proper way to build something on the magnitude they wanted. The main issue is they underestimated everything, but especially the logistics that move in the background of the clothing industry. Shaq owns and controls his imprint, but uses Walmart/Reebok as a scale/distribution partner. Starbury used...I can't remember off the top of my head, but I know he made millions off of those shoes and they were reintroduced last year. If Lonzo made millions off BBB then I would call that a successful business venture even if he went back to Nike. The problem is I don't think he's made anywhere near millions, and he used his own money to bankroll this thing, which is a HORRIBLE idea. Get a loan. Find an investor. Do a gofundme. Do not put your personal capital at risk for any giant venture especially involving your family.
- This article did a breakdown on the numbers we heard from them and suggested he would only get 445k this year and this is before we found out this guy was stealing money from them.
In my opinion here's how they should've done it:
1. Take that initial Nike contract (5 years/15~20 million) and do not announce you're breaking away.
2. Spend those 5 years letting Nike's machine build you into a bigger brand.
3. Spend those 5 years meeting with people who know/understand the apparel industry and make contacts
4. In year 3 of the deal start discussions with the contacts you trust about breaking off into your separate/independent brand
5. In year 4 of the deal start getting designs and procuring partnerships to handle the production and delivery logistics
5. In year 5 of the deal start the roll out and announce you're breaking away.
As for the discount footwear part of this, that's fine if they don't want to create shoes for less than $50, but pricing them at $500 is even more dumb. It makes a marketing impact, but that's not a price 99% of consumers will pay. IG/YouTube people will buy them for clout, but not even a small minority of the shoe buying market is doing that.
EDIT:
I just read an article that the actual idea of forgoing the sneaker contract was Alan Foster's idea. If this is true, what we all saw with BBB was an elaborate hustle by a scammer. He painted a picture of a dream and took the money when they weren't looking.
https://deadspin.com/report-big-baller-brand-co-founder-alan-foster-ousted-1833506926