Lakers F Kyle Kuzma earlier this month signed a five-year footwear and apparel endorsement deal with Puma, and he said the "biggest thing" that sold him on joining the company was "flexibility," according to Rohan Nadkarni of SI.com. Speaking after his Puma launch event, Kuzma said ever since going into the meeting with company, it has been "more about me than the brand." Kuzma: "For me, having creative control, having my input matter, those little things persuaded me." Asked why he believes NBAers his age are more comfortable not signing with the bigger brands, Kuzma said it "goes back to the age that we live in." Kuzma: "We're the age of -- everybody wants to be different, everybody wants to be their own type of person. Growing up, everybody wanted to wear Nikes. That was it. If you wore something else, you kind of got laughed at. Nowadays, you can really wear whatever, and feel the freedom of having swag or doing something different." Kuzma said one of the reasons he joined Puma was because the "potential was there for the brand to be even crazier because of the lifestyle and what they are off the court" (SI.com, 10/11).
SWOOSH IS STILL KING: BUSINESS INSIDER's Bethany Biron noted Nike secured the "top spot for both favorite apparel and footwear brand in the latest report on teen shopping habits from Piper Jaffray." The brand also "scored highly among men and women alike in the favorite e-commerce site category, coming in second only to Amazon." The report "collected responses from 9,500 shoppers in 42 states" (BUSINESSINSIDER.com, 10/12).
