Adidas is expanding its basketball footprint by becoming the exclusive apparel and footwear sponsor of Overtime Elite, Sports Illustrated can reveal.
The sporting goods brand has agreed to a multi-year partnership with OTE, a basketball league based in Atlanta, Ga. that features professional and amateur 17-to-19-year-old players. Each of the league’s eight teams will be provided with new-look uniforms as part of the deal with Adidas.
Adidas
Beyond having access to Adidas apparel and footwear, including signature models from Trae Young and Anthony Edwards, Overtime Elite players will be provided mentorship and NIL education opportunities, along with product testing experiences and visits to Adidas headquarters. Players will be able to build a relationship with the brand before their careers grow professionally beyond OTE.
“This partnership will provide us an opportunity to help athletes succeed both on and off the court, while allowing rising players to experience the best of some of our products,” Adidas general manager of global basketball Eric Wise said.
OTE, created in 2021, provides schooling and training for its players in an alternate pathway to the NBA or professional ranks. Amen and Ausar Thompson, top-five picks in the 2023 NBA draft, are among the 15 Overtime Elite players that have gone on to play professionally in the two years since the league’s inception.
Atlanta Hawks guard Young, an Adidas signature athlete, made a surprise appearance to welcome OTE players to Adidas on Wednesday. An Overtime investor himself, Young spoke on the importance of investing in the next generation of basketball players.
“It’s the next chapter,” Young told SI. “The game is always going to grow, always going to get better so you need to continue to develop the next generation of the youth. I think Adidas does a great job of focusing on the youth, focusing on the next kids coming up.”
OTE teams will be sporting their new Adidas uniforms and footwear when the league’s third season tips off on Dec. 1.
