The Boston Celtics have started this season right where they left off last year: among the NBA's best. One of the key pieces of their championship roster is Jaylen Brown, a multi-time All-Star and All-NBA member who earned Finals MVP and is in the first season of a five-year, $304 million contract. Brown has plenty to live up to on the court, but shortly before this season started, he launched a new performance brand company called 741.
The first pairs of his debut signature shoe, the Rover, are starting to ship now, with pre-sale orders going for $200 in adult shoes and $70 in kids sizes.
Brown launched 741 because he was dissatisfied with the state of the shoe market for professional athletes. He had previously been with Adidas but declined to extend the partnership, even though he would have made around $50 million. He felt more like an endorser rather than a true partner. And he's had beef with Nike for several years, tweeting at them about ethics and questioning their role in why he was left off the Team USA Olympic roster this summer.
So, instead, Brown is willing to take on the giants to get a bite of the apparel and shoe industry—as long as he can do it on his terms.
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Brown has always had an innate curiosity to try new things. He attended college at the University of California at Berkeley because it's close to Silicon Valley, taking financial literacy courses to prep for the business side of basketball. He's also fascinated by outer space, regularly plays chess, and is currently learning Arabic in addition to his already fluent Spanish. He runs the 7uice Foundation to offer educational and socioeconomic opportunities to underserved communities and the XChange, a nonprofit aiming to build $5 billion of generational wealth in those communities.
The Celtics star is diving into shoes as his next endeavor. As the 741 website says: "In numerology, the number 7 represents spiritual awakening, wisdom and understanding, while 4 symbolizes hard work, stability and practicality. The number 1 stands for new beginnings, creativity and independence."
He wants full creative control of the design, which also comes with a bigger piece of the pie. Brown is the only athlete on the 741 roster for now, though the company suggested future players would receive something more like a 25% ownership in any signature shoe, far more than the 2% to 5% stake the larger companies offer.
Brown also hopes to reinvest money from these shoes back into the community. For now, he's only selling the shoes online and at boutique stores, not national retailers. The buzz of supporting local businesses could provide a nice boost in sales—both in his shoes and for the shop owners.
To this point, Brown has only invested less than $1 million in his company, but he's aiming higher than that for sales. The company believes if 741 sells 50,000 pairs of shoes, it would be a success. If all those pairs are adult shoes, that's $10 million in revenue. All kids' shoes would be $3.5 million; the realistic dollar amount is somewhere in between.
Brown certainly has his work cut out for him. Other players have tried to launch their own shoe brands, and it often hasn't ended well. Patrick Ewing launched Ewing Athletics and made 20 sneakers across seven seasons before fizzling out due to distribution issues. Shaquille O'Neal's Dunk.net shoes were only sold online—in 2000, before people used the internet to buy everything. Stephon Marbury introduced his Starbury shoes—a $15 alternative to more expensive signature shoes, but the brand faded a few years later.
Still, Brown remains undeterred. He loves taking on challenges on the basketball court, and this is another opportunity for him to shine. At the very least, he'll learn a lot. And if all goes well, he can revolutionize the sneaker game.
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