Together with

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Baseline!

This is your weekly blueprint for basketball culture: brand insights, marketing strategy, creator tools, and business resources.

Let’s get right into it…

MARKETING BLUEPRINT

The adidas x Haribo collab campaign with Donovan Mitchell is flying under the marketing industry’s radar.

Both colorways sold out in almost every size within their launch week on adidas' DTC channels, proving that their strategy is working.

Here’s a breakdown of their Marketing Blueprint:

🎁 They started with traditional media and influencer seeding, offering early pairs of the shoes in exchange for unboxing content and sneaker reviews.

🏀 The brand then ensured that their basketball partners—Louisville MBB and WBB, Prolific Prep, and OTE—all received pairs for some of the most elite high school and college basketball players across the country.

🤳 Cam Wilder and Nelson Neumann, two of the biggest TikTokers in basketball, co-starred in the campaign commercial and social media assets to help give Donovan Mitchell the creator co-sign.

🏟️ Spida debuted the D.O.N. Issue #6 x HARIBO with a pop-up shop at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse with the help of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

🧸 Donovan and the Haribo Goldbear shared a tunnel moment together, wearing a custom Haribo jacket designed by Jeff Hamilton.

The entire product concept and campaign was inspired from an insight from one of Donovan’s past GQ interviews:

Also a nice detail with the collaboration—Haribo gifted Donovan with 2,500 bags of “Spider’s Picks” Goldbears which feature a mix his favorite flavors.

💡 Now here’s a free concept to sell out the remaining sizes:

Shoot the Haribo Goldbear a quick text—and have him jump in on the latest viral trend:

🐻🏀 I Understand It Now

A quick TikTok search and scroll will show you that every basketball creator is making Lethal Shooter impersonation skits or trying the Haribo shooting challenge themselves.

Yes, I know Lethal Shooter works closely with Nike Basketball and Jordan Brand, but the challenge isn’t brand-associated yet, and this could be a fun, social-first tactic for Adidas to continue its "sneaker wars."

FREE THROWS

Sharing the tools and resources that I’m using this week:

🔘 The Creative Act - A mentee of mine recommended Rick Rubin's bestselling book, which helps people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity. I never got into audiobooks, so I just ordered the hardcover to read.

🎨 Figma Community - One of my hidden creative gems is this Figma Community hack I use when I'm looking for new (and free!) graphic templates to help with my pitch decks or social media assets.

🏀 Thirty Ink Newsletter - When the greatest shooter in the world starts a newsletter, you subscribe. Stephen Curry understands that owning your audience is crucial, especially as social media platforms increasingly limit access to our audience’s data.

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FAST BREAK

Here’s what you missed this week:

🏀 Jerry Lorenzo’s Fear of God Athletics, in partnership with adidas Basketball, announced the official OTE Fear of God Athletics basketball team.

🆙 Nike Basketball and Foot Locker partnered to launch the Ja 2 at “The Get Up,” a series of community initiatives in Memphis, including sneaker drops, a basketball showcase, and a block party.

📺 NBC and Peacock announced "On the Rise: JuJu Watkins," a new docuseries airing on November 23, featuring USC Women's Basketball star JuJu Watkins.

🐶 LaMelo Ball is partnering with The Humane Society to donate 250 meals of pet food for every point he scores this season as part of the nonprofit's new campaign, More Than a Pet.

🦊 De'Aaron Fox took a few subliminal shots at the other NBA athletes with signature sneakers during the announcement of his own sneaker release with Curry Brand.

🎤 University of Oregon’s Women's Basketball player Deja Kelly has the NIL college story of the year—after a near triple-double performance, she then served as the Big Ten Network’s sideline reporter for the Oregon Men’s Basketball game, all in the same day!

🎟️ Bronny James' first G League home game with the South Bay Lakers sold out in minutes, an impressive feat considering the team averaged 441 fans per game last season.

♾️ Two of the younger stars on Adidas Basketball’s roster, Jalen Green and Jalen Williams, co-starred (along with creator and model Giovanna Ramos) in the brand’s new campaign to launch their IIINFINITY series of shoes.

POST-GAME

That’s all for today.

Hope you enjoyed reading The Baseline.

If you found something interesting, share today’s newsletter with a friend who would find it helpful!

- Jeff Chen | 💡👨🏻‍💻 Marketer and Dadprenuer, Building Sports Startups 🏀