Photo Courtesy of Sole Retriever / Twitter
After Nike dropped
from their partnership with Kyrie Irving (a decision Irving’s reps say was mutual), the Brooklyn Nets basketball player is looking to support black-owned businesses as his next business venture.https://twitter.com/Blackmillions_/status/1604881222244892672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener
According to The Sports Rush, Irving’s agent and managers arranged a meeting with the designer and owner of a Black-owned show business called SIA Collective to discuss a possible partnership. Owned by Delvin Carter, SIA stands for Somewhere In America. The potential deal is a step in a different direction for Irving considering Nike is a $165 billion company with over 250 million followers. Meanwhile, SIA Collective has nearly 400,000 followers.
However, the outlet reported that the partnership could benefit both since Irving has a “loyal following”—despite many people disapproving of the athlete after he made a tweet people saw as offensive because it comprised a link to a film called Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America!.
Black Millionaires CEO James Hill spoke on the partnership, stating that sources close to Irving and Carter shared with Hill the three topics discussed at the meeting.
“One of the things people have concerned with…is the technology,” Hill said in a YouTube video. “Can an independent designer, whether they’re black-owned or not…can an independent designer give you the same quality feel, look and safety as a Nike, Adidas, a puma, some of these big brands with these big factories.”
Carter shared with Hill that he used the same technology big companies used, something he can’t get sued for due to patenting. The second topic discussed was the marketing aspect of the partnership, which Hill said doesn’t require much because Irving is constantly in the public eye with daily press conferences and because of the antisemitic tweet controversy that hasn’t died down.
“Now it comes to the delivery,” Hill said at the end of the video. “Can you actually deliver on the promise of creating a design that looks good, feel good, it’s cost-effective and deliver it to the customers in a timely manner where the customers are happy.”
In addition to Nike dropping Irving, the basketball player was prohibited from playing in the NBA until he completed a list of duties, which included apologizing for his actions and donating. Last November, he returned to the court at the Nets vs. Memphis Grizzlies game.