This week, I watched my two favorite sports go through necessary growing pains.
The Western Conference Finals & the PGA Championship offer us a path forward if we’re willing to sacrifice the familiar.
On a personal note, I’m thinking a lot about how pain leads to progress. I’ve learned this over & over in my life. First through recovery from addiction, then through the sacrifice of the hustling for my dream job at Nike and 4 years ago to the day, telling Nike I’m leaving that dream job to go out on my own.
The first three years were really hard. This year has been so much better as I’m experiencing the fruits of all that pain. I’m experiencing this as a tougher part while helping my wife rehab from spinal surgery. She has been in pain for months, and after surgery is now in the worst pain possible, so she can reach full healing on the other side. On a lighter note, let’s discuss how the NBA and Pro Golf are going through this now…
In the PGA Championship, we had a leaderboard full of the top pros in Golf, like Rory, Scottie & Jon Rahm….but to the grumbles of frontrunning fans, a guy named Aaron Rai won. He’s known for wearing two black gloves and having iron covers. And, I for one, think it’s one of the best wins in a while.
We want our winners to be recognizable: household names. People grab onto the familiar. In basketball, Lebron & Steph have dominated the last 10-15 years. Before that, Lebron & Kobe. Last season was the first time that neither advanced past the first round of the Playoffs.
The NBA has painfully & reluctantly been trying to find the next generation of stars, and more importantly, American born stars. Anthony Edwards has been crowned next, but he got injured and then beaten. We will have to wait and see another season to truly Believe That. Nike took the opportunity to celebrate with Wemby’s alien signature in a great clapback of the sneaker wars.
Nike’s Believe This response was great
While we may lack American stars, the last 8 MVPs have come from international markets and just this week we saw two of the current and future greats battling.
Victor Wembenyama AKA Wemby, an otherworldly 7 footer, blocks shots, handles the ball and just last night, shot a dagger three from the logo in overtime for the kill shot. He is a philosopher, spent his summer studying with monks and will waltz down to Central Park to get a chess game when he’s in NYC. He is infinitely more interesting but not what we’re used to. It takes time to become acquainted with the unfamiliar and humans are really bad at it…until we do.
Aaron Rai is a similar story in golf. The tour has mightily struggled to move on from Tiger Woods. No one can fill that monster shadow. Golf has struggled to find the next BIG star because we love underdog stories and a rags to riches story. The reality of pro golf is that you often have to grow up in an affluent family or on a country club to become as good as the game requires to go pro.
But, we humans are drawn to novelty and we want to find the “black sheep” who stands out. This is often done by performance metrics: who wins most. But in the attention economy, dominant performance is no longer the only way to cut through.
Aaron Rai is as close to that novelty as we get. He grew up in a working-class family and valued his parents investment in his clubs so much that he keeps the iron covers on to this day. These are the stories that we want if we’re willing to wait. And eventually, these will become the household names that we know and love. We just have to go through the minor pain of progress.
Education:
The BrandFathers got together IN PERSON in Dallas to give a keynote to the KFC & RedBull marketing teams. We filmed our podcast that you can watch now!
We discuss how Nike’s “walkers tolerated” ad might have broken aspiration marketing. Hoodie brand CMFRT is doing $1B with 10,000 creators on retainer. And if your content’s flopping it’s not the algorithm, your content just sucks.
Inspiration:
On Running launches a new Sprint Club:
Interesting chart from SBJ showing the most brand interest in Women’s Sports:
This Vivo Barefoot ad caught my eye too:
Blessing:
I struggle with my phone being the most annoying distraction. It’s interesting how the gravity of life can pull you back to reality. After my wife’s surgery, I’ve been must less interested in scrolling or creating. This weekend, I got to take my son to his first travel ball tournament and we got so much quality time together. That phone seems so dumb comparatively.
Now, how do I bottle that up constantly?
I will continue to try.
Blessings.
