Jaylen Brown sat down for a much-anticipated interview on The Stephen A Smith Show, talking about his championship run, his relationship with Nike, and many other things, including Smith’s controversial take on Brown’s integrity as a player through his ‘unnamed sources.’ The interview was as blunt and raw as one could imagine it to be, with questions coming back and forth from both JB and SAS for each other. Sure enough, in this sit-down interview, Brown also spoke about his brand ‘741.’
In this summer and offseason, we saw the tumultuous relationship between Brown and Nike come into further limelight. Brown has been openly critical of Nike and has stated that some discrepancies might also have contributed to him being snubbed from Team USA. While speaking about Nike, JB elaborated more on his brand, inspired by Kobe Bryant allegedly planning to split with the Oregon-based brand before his untimely death. He said,
“The reason why I started this shoe company [741] was because I read an article around 2019 or so that Kobe was doing the same thing before he passed. I read that he partnered with like the CEO of Uber or whatnot and he wanted to give athletes better percentages and better deals and allow them to be able to invest into the company as it grows. And I though it was unique. I remember seeing this, they had a picture of the shoe as well. And I remember like man, how cool would it be if I could be one of those athletes.”
Brown further states that Kobe was one of his biggest inspirations to take up basketball, and he wanted to pick up the unfinished job that was left hanging following Kobe’s death. Though Brown never got to meet or shake hands with the Mamba, he seeks to honor the Lakers legend’s legacy through this effort of his own.
Back in 2019, Kobe was unhappy with how Nike was marketing the Kobe line of shoes and was hopeful about starting his own shoe company called ‘Mamba.’
During the months before his death, the sale of Kobe’s shoes was ‘anemic,’ and Bryant blamed Nike for the same. In simple words, Bryant wanted autonomy over his brand. He wanted a setup for a player-owned business model, which could have been far superior to the other existing models in the market.
How did Jaylen Brown start 741?
JB picked on this same strategy to start his brand ‘741’. The 2024 Finals MVP has turned down over $50 million in endorsements from established sneaker brands to pursue “full ownership and creative control of his brand.”
741’s first shoe, Rover, is available for pre-order and will be shipping in late November. The brand currently has a limited edition pair for each sneaker collection.
The other products of this brand will go live the same day the season begins on October 22. It would be interesting to see how Jaylen Brown navigates through the rugged landscape of brands and endorsements similarly as other players, such as Kyrie Irving.
