Flag s publicity journey began before his college career - "just like making a movie"

(This article was published on June 27, and the author is Brendan Marks, a reporter from The Athletic. The content of the article does not represent the translator's views.) There are three meetings held in four conference rooms just to win a future star.

Time goes back to May 20, 2024, three groups of executives from different sports equipment companies gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. Their trip had only one purpose: to win over Cooper Flag. The talented teenager, who was only 17 years old at the time, was widely regarded as a rising star in the basketball world.

Looking back, especially after the Mavericks picked Flag with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft on Thursday, any doubts about him would seem stupid. But at the time, the 6-foot-8 striker hadn't played a minute of college basketball for Duke. He had informal bursts in the pre-Olympic training camp of the U.S. National Team — where he did a great job against superstars like James and Curry — at that time, two months before he started playing college basketball.

Nevertheless, Flag also showed such great potential that in his third year of high school, some well-known clothing brands were already lined up to work with him. In fall 2023, the teenager from Newport, Maine chose to skip his last year of high school and decided to go to Duke one year early. With this decision, invitations from NIL (name, image and portrait rights) came one after another. The most notable of these are the large footwear companies such as Nike, Adidas and New Balance, all looking to include Flag in their star lineup.

Frager, his family and agent team hope to make this big decision before arriving in Durham, North Carolina so that Flag can focus on basketball. This means they need to develop a solution: They will listen to proposals from three selected companies on the same day and then choose future partners after the meeting is over.

"It's like a movie," said Naveen Lokesh, director of global basketball and football marketing at New Balance, who is also the person in charge of the proposal to Flag. "Almost like the 'Air' series."

On the day of the proposal, executives from various companies gathered in the conference room of the Four Seasons Hotel for the final rehearsal. New Balance is confident in their proposals – especially with a secret weapon, which they hope will play a key role.

Lokesh and his team entered a separate meeting room, and Flag, his family and his CAA team were all amazed by them. Lokesh didn't waste his time and went straight to the point. He reminded the Flags that every summer they go to the New Balance plant in Scohigan, Maine for a tent sale—just half an hour from Flag’s hometown—and pick out sneakers for the upcoming new school year. (Frager's mother, Kelly, even remembers that she did this for her son as a child.)

Lokesh emphasized the importance of the New England region to Boston-based New Balance and the Flag family. They discussed the possibility of charity opportunities and products and reiterated that this person’s brand was not intended to treat Flag the same with many newly signed athletes.

New Balance devoted himself to Flag.

"If he chose other brands," Lokesh recalls, "other brands will tell their wonderful stories and launch quality products. Their marketing strategies and large events will do a great job. These are all we can do."

pause, and it's time to show off the secret weapon.

"There's one more thing we want to show you," Lokesh continued, "this is something that no one can show or give you. It's a little message."

Suddenly, a video starts playing, showing the countless production lines inside the Skowigan factory, and the process of making a pair of customized basketball shoes. At some point, Flag's former grassroots teammate's father — the man who still works at the factory — appears in the video. Then another worker proudly declared: "Cooper Flag is from Maine, he is a basketball genius, which makes us extremely proud." Finally, the 53-second video ended with a still image of a pair of gray shoes, embroidered with "FLAGG" on the tongue.

When the lights in the conference room of Four Seasons Hotel light up again, Lokesh took out his ultimate surprise: the custom shoes in the video were brought directly from Maine, and the only Cooper Flag New Balance sneakers that existed.

"It feels really cool to see that video and shoes from Maine, and some familiar faces," Flag said in an interview. "In that meeting, they showed me their plans and their vision for my future, which are very consistent with my plans for my future." In December 2023, two months after Flag announced his joining Duke, Lokesh was sitting in his office at the Boston headquarters in New Balance. At this time, Chief Marketing Officer Chris Davis walked to his desk and put down a magazine. That was the cover of a SLAM magazine issue, which reads news about celebrating Flag's joining Duke.

"Go and sign him," Davis told Lockesh, "he's perfect." Lockesh knows the challenge of signing Flag. If successful, it will be the biggest gain in basketball for New Balance since poaching future Hall of Fame member Leonard from the Jordan brand in 2018. That signing reignited the basketball series that New Balance has been silent since the James Worthy era in the 1980s. Although New Balance has supplemented Leonard by signing top NBA players such as Jamal Murray, Dejunta Murray and Teres Maxi over the past seven years, they are still looking for another A-list star.

New Balance Basketball Department believes Flag is the person they need. ) New Balance also reached a cooperation with the Maine Legislature, officially announcing that June 25, the first day of the NBA draft, will be "Fragrance Day".

However, what everyone, including Flag, is looking forward to: sneakers. During his time at Duke, the school opened training facilities late at night, allowing Flag to "stress test" different styles of New Balance sneakers, preparing for the limited edition player-only color scheme that will be launched before his Mavericks debut. Flag recently selected the colors and shot a promotional commercial in Los Angeles, where he spent most of his time before the draft.

Flag's promotional video for New Balance

"We won't launch his signature shoes for the time being," Lokesh said, "but we will do small-scale production so that people around the world can have a pair of special sneakers that Flag is at this critical moment."

It's all exciting news for the Flag family and his fans.

"Everyone in Maine is asking us crazy: When will Cooper have his own product? New Balance already has Leonard's sneakers before, when will Cooper's shoes be available?" Kelly joked. "I don't know how many people in Maine, but I believe these shoes will be sold out soon."

When Flag was a kid, he would buy a new pair of shoes at the Skoshgan Tent Sale every summer, when he never thought that one day the shoes with his favorite colors would be sold in the same place. Now, the dream is about to come true, which further proves that the decision he and his team made 13 months ago was correct.

"I never thought this day, nor did it happen," Flag said. "But it's really cool to go through it now, to see how it works, and to be able to get these opportunities."

Original text: Brendan Marks

Translated by JayChan