Clippers

Kawhi Leonard and New Balance officially unveiled the KAWHI III earlier this week. The Los Angeles Clippers star certainly bel...

He’s pretty private, but we wanted to give the consumer a sneak peek into the mind of Kawhi and what makes him tick, so as we started to have that conversation with Kawhi and gave him that insight, he started sending over things around sacred geometry, around chakras, around all the things that he’s into so we kinda really got into that and kinda took those insights and created colors and stories around the insight directly from the athlete. Possible storytelling for the future around that as well, so just sitting down and getting to know the athlete and building that trust and having those conversations really gives us some really fun angles to tell stories through the lens of product and through the lens of the community. Cuz in some cases, you might wanna throw a TPU clip on the heel, but that’s gonna add some weight to it, so we don’t wanna do that, but is there a different way to solve for that heel lockdown. We drive innovation through the lens of Kawhi, but over the last few years, you’ve seen it, we’ve signed some really really good athletes in Jamal Murray, Dejounte Murray, Zach LaVine, Tyrese Maxey, so we really broadened our stable of athletes to speak to different types of consumers and just like we tell stories through the lens of Kawhi, we’ll continue to tell stories through the lens of those athletes through different models within the line. Combined with a carbon fiber plate that kinda gives you that bounce in the forefoot so that carbon fiber energy arc which is also found in our running shoes, in our Coco tennis shoes as well, it’s the first time we’ve used it in basketball and I think the underfoot bounce that that provides and the responsiveness really takes this shoe to the next level in comparison to the OMNI Kawhi 1 and TWO-WXY Kawhi Just kinda talking to them and understanding what theyre looking for and then kind of looking at our kit of parts and technologies that we have at New Balance and how that would kind of benefit his game and Make him a better player on the court, so it’s just kind of getting to know the athlete, what they want in their shoes, and what they wanna strive to be better in. Then, as he continues to get older in the game, his needs will change, so making sure that his needs are still the same and having that conversation with him around what’s expecting in his footwear every time we kick off a shoe, it is key but I think it all starts with, ‘hey, how was the Kawhi II and what would you do to improve upon it?’ TC: Yeah, so what we do is that our innovation team works to when you had that technology in running, that’s done in linear movements in running. TC: Yeah, I mean he’s really really really involved so he texts me all the time ideas that he has around stories, around colors, and he’s really involved. So I’m wondering how involved was and is Kawhi Leonard in the creation of these shoes? Trent Casper: Yeah, I started about two years ago with New Balance and when I met Kawhi for the first time, I kind of had the same thoughts, outside looking in. The [Los Angeles Clippers](/nba/los-angeles-clippers) star has been wearing his third signature sneaker with New Balance, and after trying them out, it’s arguably the best signature sneaker of Kawhi Leonard’s to date.