Making a splash in the NBA sneaker landscape, potential No. 1 pick DeAndre Ayton joined likely lottery pick Marvin Bagley as the two new faces of Puma basketball. For Ayton, the decision to sign with Puma was an easy one to make because well, they offered him the best deal.
In an interview with Bleacher Report’s Master Tesfatsion, Ayton explained why he decided to sign with Puma.
“Puma was the best deal,” Ayton said. “To me, anybody can make your shoe. Anybody can make the best shoe for you and put the right fit in the shoe. We were dealing with Nike people, Under Armour and all the other shoe companies for a pretty long time. We ain’t really got bad blood with any of them, but it’s not bad to start something new. We just thought Puma was the right fit.”
Building on his explanation, Ayton also mentioned that since Puma offered him the most money, he had to take their offer. After all, as Ayton explained, the NBA is a business and so are the accompanying sneaker deals.
“Anybody can really make your shoe,” Ayton said. “We’re not kids anymore. We’re not looking for product. Of course, the brands are going to do their best to give you the best product they have. At the end of the day, it’s a business. You’ve gotta take care of your people, so that’s involved. Of course, if Adidas is giving you like $2 mil and Nike is giving you $1 mil, who would you pick? If you have history or chemistry with Nike, I can see that. But when it comes to business, business is business.”
