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New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Cooper Flagg, a competitive apparel battle and the winning pitch: ‘Like a movie'
Four conference rooms. Three pitch meetings. All for one chance to land a future star. Rewind to May 20, 2024, the day three factions of rival apparel company executives descended on the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. The purpose of their one-day visit? Woo Cooper Flagg, the then-17-year-old wunderkind widely considered one of basketball's budding young stars. Advertisement In hindsight — especially after Wednesday night, when the Dallas Mavericks selected Flagg with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft — it feels foolish for anyone to have ever doubted Flagg's trajectory. But at the time, the 6-foot-8 forward had yet to play a minute of college basketball at Duke. His unofficial breakout at Team USA's pre-Olympic training camp — where he more than held his own against the likes of LeBron James and Steph Curry — wouldn't happen for another two months, either. Still, Flagg oozed such potential that high-profile apparel brands were lining up to work with him when he was just a high school junior. In the fall of 2023, when the Newport, Maine, native opted to reclassify and enroll at Duke a year early — effectively skipping his senior season of high school — NIL (name, image and likeness) offers came fast and furious. Chief among them were major shoe companies like Nike, Adidas and New Balance, all wanting to sign Flagg to their star-studded rosters. Flagg, his family and his representation wanted that major decision settled before he arrived on campus in Durham, N.C., so he could focus on hoops. That meant devising a solution: They'd hear pitches from three select companies, all on the same day, and then pick their future partner once the meetings concluded. 'Like a movie,' said Naveen Lokesh, New Balance's global marketing director of basketball and football, who also spearheaded the company's pitch to Flagg. 'Almost like 'Air.'' On pitch day, the groups of executives huddled in their Four Seasons conference rooms for final rehearsals. Quietly, New Balance was confident in its pitch — particularly with one secret component, which it hoped would make all the difference. Lokesh and his team entered a separate conference room where Flagg, his family and his Creative Artists Agency (CAA) team waited to be wowed. Lokesh wasted no time playing the high notes. He reminded the Flaggs how every summer they used to attend a tent sale every summer at New Balance's factory in Skowhegan, Maine — a half-hour drive from Flagg's hometown — and pick out sneakers for the upcoming school year. (Kelly, Flagg's mother, even remembers doing the same when she was a little girl.) Lokesh stressed how important New England was to New Balance, which is based in Boston, as well as the Flagg family. They discussed philanthropy opportunities and product possibilities, and they reiterated that the privately owned brand was not looking to sign Flagg as one of a number of new athletes. Advertisement Rather, New Balance only wanted him. An all-in bet. 'If he goes to another brand,' Lokesh remembered saying, 'they're going to do great storytelling, and they're gonna have great products. Great marketing, big campaigns. All the things we can do.' Pause. Secret weapon time. 'There's one more thing we want to show you,' Lokesh continued, 'that nobody else can show you or give you. It's a small message.' Suddenly, a video started playing of the Skowhegan factory, countless assembly lines within it and the process of a custom pair of basketball shoes being made. At one point, the father of one of Flagg's former grassroots teammates — who still works at the facility — made an appearance. Then another worker shortly thereafter, proudly proclaiming that, 'Cooper Flagg being from Maine and being the basketball prodigy that he is, it just gives you that sense of pride.' Eventually, the 53-second clip ended with a still shot of the gray shoes, with 'FLAGG' stitched directly onto the tongue. As the lights came up inside the Four Seasons conference room, Lokesh pulled out his grand finale: The pair of custom shoes from the video, straight from Maine, still the only pair of Cooper Flagg New Balances in existence. 'It was pretty cool to see that video and the Maine shoes and some familiar faces,' Flagg told The Athletic. 'That meeting, going through their plans and kind of the future they saw for me, it just aligned really well with the future that I saw for myself.' In December 2023, two months after Flagg committed to Duke, Lokesh was sitting in New Balance's Boston headquarters when chief marketing officer Chris Davis swung by his desk and plopped down a magazine. It was a copy of SLAM magazine — the edition with Flagg on the cover celebrating his commitment. 'Go get him,' Davis told Lokesh. 'He's perfect.' Lokesh understood the challenge in doing so. Landing Flagg would represent New Balance's biggest basketball acquisition since 2018, when it signed likely Hall of Famer Kawhi Leonard away from Jordan Brand. That move reignited a basketball line that had been dormant since the 1980s, back when James Worthy was still New Balance's signature basketball athlete. And while New Balance had complemented Leonard with other top NBA players over the last seven years — including Jamal Murray, Dejounte Murray and Tyrese Maxey — it still looked for another top-line star. Advertisement New Balance's basketball division saw that person in Flagg. He was someone, depending on how his career broke, who could carry the larger mantle alongside brand's other worldwide faces: tennis star Coco Gauff, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani and Arsenal midfielder Bukayo Saka. From December until May, Lokesh and his team researched what it would take to make the landscape-altering signing. They dove into Flagg's humble origins and came to appreciate someone who preferred a tight-knit circle over mass exposure. Their priority on keeping jobs in New England aligned with Flagg's overwhelming support for his home region. Perhaps most importantly, New Balance's private 'boutique' approach meant they could sell Flagg on being a centerpiece rather than just another face in the crowd. That last piece appealed to Flagg and his family in a major way. In fact, it was one of the deciding reasons they eventually chose New Balance over other apparel companies — including Nike, which sponsored the EYBL grassroots circuit Flagg played and starred in. 'It was just the way that they were willing to believe in Cooper and invest in him early on and say, 'He's our guy,'' Kelly Flagg said. 'They had a very clear strategic plan of how they were going to implement him into their space, and there was a clear path to him potentially getting his own shoes or his own things — where some of the other companies were playing it maybe a little more safe and saying, 'You know what, we'll see how he does,' and kind of put it on the shelf.' After the Four Seasons meeting, New Balance was firmly in the driver's seat to land Flagg, but it still needed to seal the deal. Lokesh wanted to arrange for the entire family to fly to Boston to meet with Davis, someone they'd be working with directly on many of Flagg's future endeavors. But it was already June 2024, and the Flaggs had scattered: Cooper was on Duke's campus; his twin brother, Ace, was back in Maine training with former Boston Celtics center Brian Scalabrine; and his parents were in the process of moving to Greensboro, N.C., where they stayed all of last season to be close to both boys. In the days leading up to the Boston meeting, Lokesh overheard Kelly lamenting how she hadn't seen Ace in a while because of the chaos. So when Davis eventually booked Cooper's and his parents' flights to Beantown, he also scheduled a car service to drive Ace down for the day. Not for any business reasons. Just to show what New Balance was about. 'We're not signing Ace, but come on. Your mom's here,' Lokesh said. 'This is how a family brand works.' There was only one major hiccup in Flagg signing with New Balance. Duke was a Nike school. Per the university's Nike agreement — which is standard across college athletics — Flagg would only be allowed to play in Nike apparel during his time in Durham. New Balance could still sign him to a personal, long-term brand deal … but for a year, as Flagg was exploding on the college basketball scene, the company would have to watch him in a rival's apparel. It was an unforeseen complication in the NIL era, especially amid one of the most lucrative individual apparel deals a college athlete has signed to date. Advertisement No wonder that back in the Four Seasons conference room, one of Kelly's first questions was, 'How would we handle this?' 'We're in it for the long term,' Lokesh told the Flaggs. 'One year of him wearing a direct competitor's product will not upset us or ruin something we know is great down the road.' Instead, Duke and New Balance were proactive to work around the situation. Between Duke's two summer school sessions, for example, Flagg flew home to Maine and shot the advertising campaign New Balance used to announce his signing in October 2024. The company also outfitted Flagg — and his family, which had accrued a healthy amount of rival apparel during Flagg's grassroots career — in more New Balance gear than they could fit in their closets. Flagg and Duke coach Jon Scheyer even had a 'friendly conversation,' in Scheyer's words, during the preseason about how they'd manage the arrangement. 'If anything, in 2025,' Scheyer said, 'the player has the power to do whatever they want.' But Flagg never forced the issue, understanding the terms of the dual contracts he was bound by — although he did still bust Scheyer's chops a time or two about wanting to wear New Balances in a game. 'I mentioned it a couple of times,' Flagg said, grinning, 'but it was always just jokes.' Lokesh and several other New Balance figureheads were in Durham for Flagg's first regular-season college game, a blowout win over Maine in which he posted 18 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. But that was one of only two times Lokesh said he saw Flagg between June 2024 and the end of Flagg's freshman season, which culminated with Duke losing to Houston in the NCAA Final Four. Instead of suffocating its new signee throughout the season, New Balance sent a basic message to Flagg. 'Enjoy college. Don't feel like you've got to go do an appearance at the New Balance store because you're in North Carolina,' Lokesh explained. 'We strategically set out the pitch that said if we do this long-term deal … then we don't have to worry about one year at Duke.' Advertisement That didn't prevent New Balance from celebrating Flagg from afar, though. The company posted billboards in various ACC cities celebrating Flagg's standout campaign, and another round after he was named ACC Player of the Year. Once Duke made it to San Antonio for the Final Four, New Balance made sure to pepper the airport with more promotional materials celebrating the teenager, who by that point had been named the consensus national player of the year. And now? With Flagg officially in Dallas as the face of the franchise's future? Now comes the fun stuff. That began with a draft party this week at Flagg's hometown high school in Maine, Nokomis Regional, where he won a state championship his freshman season alongside brothers Ace and Hunter. (New Balance is even making Nokomis new basketball uniforms as part of Flagg's deal.) The brand also worked with Maine's state legislature to officially declare June 25, the first day of the NBA Draft, as 'Flagg Day.' But what's next is what everyone, Flagg included, has been waiting for: shoes. During his lone season at Duke, the Blue Devils would open their facility late at night so Flagg could 'stress-test' different pairs of New Balances, in anticipation of a limited-edition Canvas Series colorway set to launch in the lead-up to his Dallas debut. Flagg recently chose the colors and shot a promotional campaign for the shoes back in — of all places — Los Angeles, where he spent most of his pre-draft prep time. 'We're not gonna do a signature shoe (yet),' Lokesh said, 'but we'll do a small run of stuff that will be accessible to people all around the world: to have a piece of Cooper at this really pivotal moment.' A post shared by New Balance (@newbalance) That'll be as welcome for the Flagg family as it is for any of Cooper's fans. 'Everybody has been crazy bugging us from the state of Maine: When is he going to have something? There's the Kawhi (shoe); when is the Cooper shoe coming in?' Kelly joked. 'I don't know how many people there are in Maine, but I imagine that they're gonna sell out pretty quickly.' Advertisement Back when Flagg was a kid, getting a new pair of shoes every summer at the Skowhegan tent sale, he never could have imagined that one day, shoes bearing his favorite colors might be sold at the same place. Now that he's on the precipice of that reality, it's only underscored that he and his inner circle made the right choice 13 months ago. 'That was never really a thought, or anything I thought would be reality,' Flagg said. 'But definitely going through it now, it's really cool to just be in the position of seeing how it all works and being given these opportunities.'
New Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Dole for jobless will be given this year: Minister Lokesh
VIJAYAWADA: Minister for HRD and IT and TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh has announced that the unemployment allowance to youth will be extended this year itself. Addressing the TDP rank and file of Machilipatnam constituency as part of his visit to Krishna district on Wednesday, Lokesh said recruitment of more than 16,000 teachers through Mega DSC is going on. 'We are also attracting investments, and establishing industries to generate employment on a large scale. We will commence the payment of unemployment allowance this year,' Lokesh said. In a big push to reach out to the TDP rank and file, Lokesh said, 'From now onwards, party chief Chandrababu Naidu, and I will talk to 5 activists everyday, and take feedback on the implementation of government programmes, and internal issues of the party. 'Some problems are arising due to the communication gap. No activist who works hard for the party, will be ignored. Their services will be duly recognised,' he said. The achievements of the coalition government should be taken to every household by party activists from July 2 as part of 'Suparipalanalo Tholi Adugu' programme, he said. Lokesh urged the TDP rank and file to give up arrogance, and be polite, and available to the people always to resolve their issues.
Hans India
3 days ago
- Business
- Hans India
Cognizant's investment will fuel regional growth: Lokesh
Vijayawada: Information Technology Minister Nara Lokesh on Wednesday said that IT major Cognizant would establish a major campus in Visakhapatnam with an investment of Rs 1,500 crore. This investment will accelerate regional growth, he added. The company, which will develop its campus on a 22-acre site at Kapuluppada IT Hills in three phases, is expected to generate 8,000 jobs. Lokesh said the government approved the project to position Andhra Pradesh as a global technology hub and promote digital skilling in tier-2 cities. "We welcome Cognizant to Vizag. This investment will accelerate regional growth and future-ready workforce development," the IT Minister said. Cognizant's presence is expected to boost the regional digital economy, enhance tech skills, and benefit from Andhra Pradesh's infrastructure, business-friendly policies, and IT and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS) sectors' support, he added. Cognizant will begin operations by early 2026 from a temporary facility for 800 staff until Phase-I of the permanent campus is ready by early 2029. "We are proud to expand in the port city and thank the government for its progressive support," said Cognizant CEO S Ravi Kumar in a statement. Kumar said the city offers abundant talent and strong infrastructure, fitting into the firm's broader strategy of investing in high-potential regional locations. The campus aims to build an inclusive, innovation-driven digital workforce and support Cognizant's global transformation delivery capabilities, he added.
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
New Balance bets its basketball future on Cooper Flagg
Executives are trying to grow closely held New Balance into a top-three athletic-wear brand globally after much larger incumbents Nike and Adidas AG. To accomplish that, the company must leapfrog German rival Puma SE. New Balance's revenue hit $7.8 billion in 2024, short of Puma's $9.5 billion. New Balance needs a strong basketball business to achieve that goal and plans to invest more in the sport, said Naveen Lokesh, the brand's director of global basketball and football sports marketing. Advertisement 'He'll be the only player that we have in this year's draft,' said Lokesh. 'That was on purpose. We didn't find anybody that aligned as much as Cooper.' The Dallas Mavericks have the top pick and need help after a disastrous season in which the franchise traded away star player Luka Doncic and also sustained multiple injuries. Flagg will enter the league after an electric freshman season. He won multiple player-of-the-year awards and led Duke to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament. He has a much higher profile than recent top picks, who either played overseas or didn't have the same on-court success. (New Balance declined to make Flagg available for an interview for this story.) Advertisement NBA superstar LeBron James recently praised Flagg on his podcast, touting his athleticism and versatility. 'I think he's going to be amazing,' said James. New Balance emerged as an unlikely winner in the courtship of Flagg. Nike, Adidas and at least one Chinese sportswear brand pitched Flagg and his family, according to a person familiar with the matter. Nike and Adidas didn't respond to requests for comment. Financial terms of his deal haven't been disclosed. The company's executives began considering Flagg in late 2023, after the top high school star in the country announced on the cover of Slam magazine that he would play for Duke. Flagg, who's from a small town in Maine close to a New Balance factory, was immediately appealing to the Boston-based brand. Flagg joined a roster led by two-time NBA champion Kawhi Leonard, who has a line of signature basketball shoes. Other endorsers include Jamal Murray, Darius Garland and Tyrese Maxey. The brand may one day develop a signature shoe for Flagg as well, said Lokesh. It's been a complicated road for Flagg's New Balance deal so far. Flagg wore Nike sneakers throughout his college career because the brand has an agreement with Duke, and only started wearing New Balance on the court at the NBA Draft Combine in May. Executives aren't discouraged by those complications. As part of the brand's basketball push, they plan to bring on more top young college basketball stars through name, image and likeness deals and try to identify future top picks. Advertisement 'Cooper had his picking of all the major brands,' said Lokesh. 'We want to be known as the definitive choice for landing and having the best youth athletes in the world.' Sign up for Bloomberg's Business of Sports newsletter for the context you need on the collision of power, money and sports, from the latest deals to the newest stakeholders.
The Print
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
With praise for ‘Bhai Lokesh', how Modi is cultivating ties with TDP scion in bid to strengthen NDA
But in Andhra Pradesh, the PM's acknowledgement of minister Lokesh's organisational competence comes amidst a growing chorus in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the party-dominated state cabinet to further elevate Naidu's son, the heir apparent, in both roles. Lately, Modi is seen warming up to the next generation leadership of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies—for example, calling Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's son and Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde ' Bhau '. Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonstrative affection toward Nara Lokesh—referring to him as 'Bhai' —while praising him profusely for the success of the 'Yog Andhra' initiative has set the political circles abuzz in Andhra Pradesh. Modi's adulation is being seen by Lokesh's supporters as validation of the demand. 'I want to make a special mention, appreciation of Lokesh efforts over the past one-and-a-half months, turning Yoga into a social celebration, including the people from all sections of society in the exercise,' Modi said at the International Day of Yoga (21 June) event in Visakhapatnam. 'Bhai Lokesh deserves plentiful congratulations. How bhai Lokesh made Yog Andhra a social movement should serve as a model. The spirit of such public participation is the basis for Viksit Bharat (developed India),' Modi said, noting that more than two crore people participated in the month-long exercise conducted across Andhra Pradesh. The unexpected public display of affection by the prime minister has Lokesh overwhelmed, says a close associate. Public this time, but the show of affection is not one-off. Lokesh met with PM Modi in New Delhi on 17 May and they held an affable conversation. Accompanied by his wife Brahmani and son Devansh, Lokesh also had a leisurely dinner with the prime minister at his official residence. The meeting, party sources said, came after the PM teasingly complained to Lokesh during the Amaravati capital project reinauguration event 2 May that the Andhra minister does not come to meet him. 'Unbelievable as it appears, Lokesh says he is privileged to be receiving such warmth from the PM,' says the associate. 'Lokesh, the TDP's heir apparent and a political leader, administrator with merit, is humbled by the PM's gestures.' Lokesh, 42, a first-term MLA from Mangalagiri, is a second-time minister in his father Chandrababu Naidu's cabinet, looking after the important human resources development; IT electronics & communication; and real time governance. During the TDP's previous term, Lokesh, elected an MLC in 2017, was the minister for IT, panchayati raj and rural development. A Stanford MBA, he is also the party's powerful general secretary. 'To keep Kalyan in check?' Earlier this year, several TDP leaders and ministers publicly demanded that Lokesh be made the second deputy chief minister, a proposition that would have diluted incumbent Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan's position. Kalyan, the Jana Sena Party (JSP) chief, is the coalition partner in the Naidu-led NDA government. Though settling to work under Naidu's leadership this tenure, Kalyan's ambitions to assume the CM chair in the future are well known. He had parted ways with the TDP and contested, rather unsuccessfully in 2019, in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Left. A senior BJP leader suggested to ThePrint that Modi's geniality could be to keep Pawan Kalyan in check, 'in line with the agenda to merge the JSP with the BJP, eventually.' 'Modi insisted on Lokesh visiting him and also hosted dinner for his family. We know Modi-Pawan bonding is also like 'bade bhai-chhote bhai', but did the PM extend such gestures for the JSP chief lately?' queried the BJP leader. 'If I was in Kalyan's place, I'd be troubled by this Modi-Lokesh closeness lately,' says Chakravarthy Nalamotu, chairperson of civil society platform AP Tomorrow. But noted political observer D.A.R Subramanyam, the chairman of Guntur-based Navyandhra Intellectual Forum, differs. 'I don't think Modi will be, nor there is any need to be, mean to Kalyan. The JSP chief has been a loyal partner, and the BJP has big plans to put the actor-turned Hindutva supportive politician's charisma to good use in the south, beginning with the Tamil Nadu elections next year,' says Subrahmanyam. While a TDP functionary said Modi's praise for Lokesh has left Kalyan, also present on the Vizag event, 'red faced', a senior JSP leader rubbished all such talk as absurd. 'Kalyan is not an insecure leader. His equation with the PM remains strong and intact.' JSP leaders assert that Kalyan regards Modi as his elder brother and Guru and that the PM reciprocates the respect. Meanwhile, Modi's adoration for his son, TDP insiders told ThePrint, has made Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu 'very glad'. Following the growing chorus to make Lokesh the deputy CM, there was a barrage of petitions to Naidu last month, during the TDP annual conclave Mahanadu to elevate him as the party's working president. Naidu, 75, and vastly experienced in politics, more so in steering coalitions, deterred, and shelved the promotion for now. Political observers see Modi's interactions with Lokesh as part of the prime minister's pattern to strengthen the NDA by actively involving the scions, nurturing their abilities and ambitions, while boosting his popularity among the next generation leaders. Some say Modi might be looking at Lokesh as his point person in the TDP, the biggest NDA ally after the BJP. 'The TDP-BJP alliance was renewed last year, but given the nasty 2018-19 parting, rancorous exchanges and political accusations, I don't think the Modi-Naidu equation is very great. Probably, Modi sees Lokesh as different from Naidu, feeling comfortable interacting with him, while knowing his importance in the TDP in future. It is a smart move,' says Nalamotu. (Edited by Ajeet Tiwari) Also Read: As TDP gears up for convention on YSR turf, why all eyes are on Lokesh's elevation as heir apparent
