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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Baseline!

We’re covering the latest across basketball culture for:

💡 Brand Insights

♟️ Marketing Strategy

🧰 Creator Tools

📚 Business resources

Let’s jump right into it…

MARKETING BLUEPRINT

The Indiana Fever’s merch team just disrespected the entire league with one line of text on a t-shirt.

Because by now you know, #22 is one of the league’s biggest stars.

So here’s how the Indiana Fever can turn a season kickoff campaign into the WNBA’s best selling t-shirt ever.

During the WNBA’s pre-season, they dropped their Every Game Is A Home Game t-shirt with a sold out stamp over their entire away game schedule.

Because the Caitlin Clark effect not only sells out arenas but also forces teams to relocate to larger venues to accommodate the increased demand and larger crowds.

But here’s how the Fever can take this statement tee and turn it into a league-wide marketing takeover for the entire season:

🏙️ Poster that shirt design around every opposing city with a QR code that reveals a personalized Caitlin Clark video message.

🚌 That video reveals the location to a game day Fever fan fest powered by The Hoop Bus.

💰 This experiential moment is a pre-game meet up for fans but also hosts a retail pop-up for their t-shirt.

Now every road game literally becomes a Fever “home game” that drives merch revenue, produces viral UGC content, and creates a literal arena t-shirt takeover.

FREE THROWS

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

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FAST BREAK

Here’s what you missed this week:

🏀 Jordan Brand announced the signing of Napheesa Collier right before the WNBA season started as they continue to grow their women’s basketball roster.

🎟️ Tyrese Haliburton and Pat McAfee surprised the Pacers fan who was harassed after the Knicks' victory over the Celtics with courtside tickets to Game 4 in Indiana.

🃏 adidas Basketball took a subtle shot at Nikola Jokic with their celebration post for Jalen Williams and also debuted his new signature logo.

🗽 New York Liberty had their 2024 WNBA Championship rings designed in collaboration with Jason of Beverly Hills and Brooklyn based designers @dynastyogun and @l_enchanteur.

🐍 Nike created a Rookie of The Year Kobe 5 PE for Caitlin Clark’s WNBA season opener, and she also revealed that LeBron is her GOAT.

👟 Dick’s Sporting Goods is acquiring Foot Locker in a $2.3 billion agreement that will bring together two of the industry’s biggest sports and sneaker retailers under one company.

📲 Giannis hopped on Twitter/X to host a spontaneous fan Q&A where he shared his favorite athletes, food and which NBA players he’s taking with him to fight the gorilla.

🎬 Kyrie Irving took to TikTok to share his new trailer to Life of Kai, a behind the scenes series of his ACL rehab.

🧴 Savannah James launches her own skincare line called Reframe Beauty in partnership with Howard University’s College of Medicine.

🎙️ Paul Rivera, creator of The Shop and long-time business partner of LeBron James, is launching a new video podcast network called "Homecoming" that will share sports and business storytelling content.

📺 iShowSpeed is partnering with Dick’s Sporting Goods to launch a six-part YouTube Series “Speed Goes Pro” to challenge some of the world’s top athletes like Kevin Durant and Tom Brady.

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POST-GAME

Thanks for reading—I’ll see you back here next week!

And if you enjoyed reading today’s newsletter, please share it with one friend.

- Jeff Chen | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻