Jay-Z just added another title to his already extensive portfolio. The rapper, record producer, Founder of Roc Nation and co-owner of global streaming service TIDAL has been named as PUMA’s President of Basketball Operations.
His appointment comes after PUMA signed potential No. 1 overall picks in the 2018 NBA Draft DeAndre Ayton, Marvin Bagley III and Zhaire Smith to multiyear endorsement deals, with Ayton poised to be named number one overall. The endorsement deals is the brand’s first NBA rookie deals in two decades since PUMA signed Vince Carter in 1998. The brand also struck a lifetime deal with the shoe’s first-ever endorser Walter “Clyde” Frazier.
The new role will see the rapper assisting the brand in terms of creative direction and product along with recruitment of basketball players and artists to PUMA.
“It’s clear that we’re looking at basketball through the lens of culture, and thinking about the fashion of basketball, the music of basketball — all the aspects of culture around basketball, all the aspects of culture around basketball as much as the on-court presence that we will have,” said Adam Petrick, the brand’s global director of brand and marketing to Complex.
Source: ESPN & Getty Images
