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“He’s just 16!”
Anyone over the age of 25 remembers Jay Z singing the praise of his protege Young Chris when freestyling on Hot 97 during the Dynasty days of the Roc. Well, it’s a new era and while Hov may have bought numerous pairs of Lonzo Ball’s ZO2, he may be logging on to PayPal to support little brother’s shoes and we ain’t talking about Yeezys.
Yup, today LaMelo Ball unveiled his first-ever signature shoe at only 16. The Big Baller Brand MB1 serves as the shoe Swaggy Melo will wear this season at Chino Hill High School for his junior year.
The news broke via our friends at SLAM, who also shared a wild promo video for the shoe, shoot and story that sees LaMelo lounging poolside eating cherries while his big bro Zo raps about his lil bro’s game and new Lambo. We can’t make this up.
? EXCLUSIVE: LaMelo Ball becomes the first high school player to have his own sneaker.
Introducing the MB1 by BBB: https://t.co/36cm4RSv2R pic.twitter.com/m6bdbJrWIZ
— SLAM Magazine (@SLAMonline) August 31, 2017
Pundits would say this model looks a lot alike the recent basketball offerings from Brandblack, and they’d be right. The tooling and shape are very similar to the Brandblack Rare Metal — backed by our friends at Weartesters — and also designed out of LA for performance hoops. For reference, the MB1 will retail for $395 while the Rare Metal runs $140.
Pricepoint and comparisons aside, this is a wild release and exciting to say the least. Off the record, a brand exec once called LaMelo Ball the Justin Bieber of basketball. His star power and following is real, and if he’s anything like Zo he won’t mind the pressure on the court but actually feed off of it.
As reported by SLAM, middle-brother LaGelo has not been forgotten about in all this signature shoe eruption as the family is being respectful to his eligibility at UCLA. As for the high schooler Melo? He’s been working on his kicks for more than a minute as SLAM tells it:
“Melo, who is ranked among the top-10 players in the Class of 2019, had been helping design the shoe and his personal logo since March. He will suit up in the MB1s this upcoming season. New colorways are expected to be revealed closer to the season.
With 2.4 million followers on Instagram alone, Melo already has a much larger following on social media platforms than the majority of NBA players. Although people in the prep scene knew of Melo since his freshman year, it was last season when his notoriety reached new levels. At times he would have to be escorted out of side doors after games due to large crowds lingering in hopes of getting a picture or autograph.”
If that’s not Big Baller status what is?
Check out the Big Baller Brand MB1 below and keep it locked to Snkrs Day for release details.
