Around the sneaker industry, much like in NBA front offices, executives and marketing teams are already looking ahead to next year’s NBA Draft class, which boasts some of the nation’s top outgoing High School seniors that headlined and starred in this week’s 47th annual McDonald’s All American Game.

Many feel the 2025 NBA Draft class is the best in a decade, with just as many impactful players showing potential as sneaker endorsers. Since 2012, Adidas has served as the official uniform and footwear partner of the McDonald’s Game, providing them with a five-day platform of programming and activations to connect with and help showcase the stars of the next generation.

“It's the most storied and iconic amateur All-Star game, and the McDonald’s All American Game solidifies their high school career and catapults them into the next stage of their career,” said Cameron Mason, Head of Sports Marketing at Adidas Basketball. “The exposure not only attracts attention from fans, scouts, and media, but now with the evolution of NIL, it gives visibility to brands and future partnership opportunities.”

 The McDonald’s Game exclusive AE 1.

Throughout the weekend, players had a rotation of exclusive McDonald’s Game colorways of the DRose 1.5 Low Retro, Harden Vol. 8, AE 1, and adiZero Select. 

“We try to continue to tell the story of our McDAAG alum athletes,” added Mason. 

The footwear lineup highlights the signature models of Derrick Rose and James Harden, who both starred in the 2007 game, along with 2019 alum Anthony Edwards. Class of 2004 star Candace Parker and 2020 alum Jalen Green were also featured through the brand’s new adiZero models. 

With strong designs worn by high school’s top players, who already boast a combined Instagram tally of more than 2.3 million followers, there was a significant wave of interest over the weekend. 

“I’ve seen the Adidas basketball brand reap the benefits of its new direction of footwear,” added Mason. “Not only were the athletes here excited to wear the product, but also the consumer spoke as the AE1s sold out within hours at FootLocker.com.”

The McDonald’s Game exclusive adiZero Select and DRose 1.5 Low Retro.

While the top two projected picks in Duke-bound Cooper Flagg and Rutgers commit Ace Bailey are locks for the next level in next June’s draft, a trio of guards and wing players made their mark in Houston and look to carry that momentum into their college campaigns.

After winning the Dunk Contest by leaping over a 7-footer, 6'4" Miami commit Jalil Bethea showcased his explosiveness for a national TV audience. Point guard VJ Edgecombe also shined in the Dunk Contest, before showing his all-around game that has some scouts thinking he could enter the conversation as next year’s top overall pick. Meanwhile, Tre Johnson’s smooth and polished game was perhaps as NBA-ready as anyone on the floor. 

All three have yet to land a NIL shoe deal as they head off to college, but stood out as players that brands are closely circling before the 2025 Draft that will draw significant interest in their shoe deal talks.

VJ Edgecombe could be the class’ most promising sneaker endorser.

On Saturday, ahead of the game, I had the opportunity to host a “Building Your Brand” workshop for the players. I was joined by former 2008 McDonald’s All-American and NBA pro Brandon Jennings and Texas A&M sophomore forward Janiah Barker, who played in the 2022 McD’s Game and is Adidas’ most recent NIL shoe deal signing. 

Around half of the boys and girls squads raised their hands when asked if they already 

had a NIL deal. The way in which the maturation and awareness level of just how much the world of marketing around them has advanced in recent years immediately stood out as well. 

Simply put: Today’s players fully grasp their brand power before even turning 18. 

“The McDonald’s Game is everything,” Jennings told the players. “You can really make your name here. There’s so much history when you think of all of the great players who’ve played on this stage — I would’ve been devastated if I didn’t get invited.”

There were sharp questions about how to interact with brand employees, how to stand out on social media, and the pros and cons of signing what may seem like a modest deal now, rather than waiting for a more lucrative potential offer when entering the WNBA or NBA Draft. 

Barker also stressed the importance of prioritizing both basketball and schoolwork while slowly balancing the new dynamic of brand deals and contractual social media posts. Without locking in on the first two, there would be no deals to land. 

The “Building Your Brand” workshop for McDonald’s Game players.

Since the advent of NIL rules in 2021, it was last year’s McDonald’s Game when we first noticed how today’s new branding rules could come into play and be disruptive. For the first time, not all players in the game wore the official sponsor’s footwear, as Juju Watkins, Bronny James, and DJ Wagner had each already landed a NIL deal with Nike and wore Nike sneakers in the game.

That wasn’t the case this year. Instead, the only players in the game with a NIL shoe deal on hand were already signed to Adidas. Both Ian Jackson and Karter Knox finished their high school careers playing in the Adidas-sponsored Overtime Elite League and officially signed with the brand on February 14. 

 Ian Jackson starred both on and off the court in Houston.

The UNC-bound Jackson dropped 21 points in the game (the third-highest scoring total), but it was his overall weekend schedule and off-court presence that highlighted just how much the game’s top players were mindful of establishing their branding power while in Houston. 

Jackson already has his own RealCaptainJack.com web store, where he sells three different collections of clothing merch that feature everything from his own “IJ” personal brand logo to the tagline “Hood Hope” across gear. After conducting extra media interviews for an hour after Saturday’s practice, he then corralled guests at the team hotel for his own “Captain Jack Podcast,” which he produces in partnership with Overtime, while decked out in Adidas gear. 

The unmistakable yellow and red Harden Vol. 8s that Jackson wore during the game was just one way in which he looked to stand out, as players at this year’s McDonald’s Game proved to be a class that could carry the marketing industry even further to a new frontier, before even entering the Draft. 

At the start of March Madness, Nike and its subsidiary Jordan Brand held a dominant hold on sponsorship of just north of 60% of the 68 total teams competing in both the women’s and men’s brackets.

As the Final Four slotting sorted itself out over the weekend, five of the eight remaining teams competing will don the Swoosh. Purdue, Alabama, and UConn are featured in the men’s Elite 8, while the UConn women also qualified for the Final Four and will face Iowa on Friday with a chance to advance to the title game. 

Adidas’s lone team — NC State — has also advanced to the Final Four on both the men’s and women’s brackets, the first time in NCAA history that two schools have sent both their men’s and women’s teams to the coveted round. Meanwhile, Under Armour powerhouse South Carolina remains the last-standing squad of its initial 25 colleges in both tournaments.

After his five-year shoe deal with Under Armour came to an end this past October, reigning league MVP Joel Embiid had been courted by Skechers to help kickstart their entry into the performance basketball space. 

Embiid debuted with Skechers in the brand’s SKX Float model.

Making his return to the court on Tuesday night after missing 29 games and all of February and March, the seven-time All-Star laced up in Skechers for the very first time, making his new deal official.

As Nike looks to slowly re-integrate signature athlete Ja Morant into additional campaigns and marketing materials, the sidelined and embattled Memphis Grizzlies star is featured in the new lookbook imagery for the upcoming Nike x MMW collection, one of Morant’s first features of the year. 

A years-long collaboration between the Swoosh and Alyx Studios founder and creative director Matthew M. Williams, the newest apparel launch inspired by yoga wear is slotted for April 4 and includes a $400 packable jacket, along with subtle elevated sweats and tees.

A defining signature detail along Sabrina Ionescu’s debut shoe is the dotted “i” that wraps from the top of the tongue, around the outsole, and into the heel panel of the Sabrina 1. On her newest drop, Nike is looking to flip that, inverting her last initial to be read as an exclamation point, with this latest look in “Luminous Green” lighting up the color palette and making for, according to Sabrina, “one of my favorite colorways!”

Nike Sabrina 1 “Exclamation”
4/1 on nike.com

One of the more … unique … colorway inspirations of the season is certainly this newest Harden look, which drafts its simple white design from James Harden’s longtime love for a good summertime “White Party.” Really. 

Debuted at the start of the season courtside by none of than Michael Rubin, host of the annual celeb-filled White Party in the Hamptons, the newest edition of the Vol. 8 surely brings life and storytelling to an otherwise simple white colorway. 

Adidas Harden Vol. 8

4/1 on adidas.com

For years, Nike launched lively Easter-themed executions atop its classic models like the Air Force 1 or retro runners like the Air Max 180, with egg graphic labels and a pastel palette perfect for springtime. In recent years, the themed releases have been spotted less and less. Bringing the light blue, pink, and green styling back on a performance model like this new GT Cut 3 might be unexpected, but is a welcome sign to those longing for the return of the annual Easter-hued drops. 

Nike GT Cut 3 “Easter”

4/1 on nike.com

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