LaVar Ball received mockery from all over the basketball world after unveiling Lonzo Ball’s signature Big Baller Brand shoes, which cost $495 and aren’t even nice. Warriors coach Mike Brown laughed at him, Shaq roasted him on Twitter, and Nike executive George Raveling took the hate even further.
It’s not a surprise that the sneakers aren’t selling well, but just how poorly are they doing?
On Monday, LaVar joined Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe on FS1’s Undisputed to talk about the ZO2 shoes. Bayless asked for some general sales figures, and Ball responded with “495 … at least.” If that number looks familiar, that’s because you saw it two paragraphs ago, and this is all part of Ball’s apparent marketing strategy.
That’s already a terrible number considering the shoes became available on Thursday, and more on that in a minute.
In that clip, Ball also reveals why the price tag is so ridiculous.
“I expect this reaction. The fact that people are losing sight, they’re looking at the price tag and not understanding that Lonzo’s shoe is symbolic. That comes with a price tag. Symbolic as he’s the first one ever to come in here without even playing a game and have his own brand.”
Sure.
But let’s get back to Ball’s claim that he’s sold at least 495 pairs of the ZO2’s. According to NiceKicks.com, even that hilariously low number of sales may be fluffed up. Writers Matt Halfhill and Nick DePaula managed to track the number of BigBallerBrand.com purchases through invoice numbers and found only 328 transactions in the first 24 hours after the shoes launched. That’s not just the ZO2’s. That’s total, including shirts, hats, flip flops, etc.
Here’s more from NiceKicks:
Out of the 328 transactions that happened on BigBallerBrand.com in the first 24 hours that the shoes were offered for sale, we tracked that a total of just 263 pairs of sneakers had sold in both signed and unsigned versions of the ZO2 Prime.
While we have no access to sales receipts, transactions or traffic data, we have been monitoring the inventory levels of the footwear listed on BigBallerBrand.com. After noting the initial product levels at the start and deducting the current units sold, we can confidently say that 210 pairs of unsigned ZO2 Primes had sold (103 pairs in sz 8.5 alone), along with 53 autographed ZO2 Primes.
To his credit, Ball has already prepared a heartwarming spin for low sale numbers. Here’s more of what he said Monday on Undisputed.
“If I sell 50 shoes, who cares? It’s a family thing. It’s for the family. I make them all for Lonzo. Lonzo has his own shoe. … I’m giving him a choice. He can wear any shoe he wants. But why wouldn’t he want to wear something that you own?”
Love him or hate him, you can’t deny LaVar Ball loves his kids.
[FS1 | NiceKicks]
