Super League Basketball (SLB), the newly formed top tier of UK basketball, has announced a multi-year partnership with sportswear and sporting goods outfitter Reebok to serve as the competition’s kit and basketball sneaker supplier.
The partnership, which is set to begin alongside the slated September launch of the competition's 2024-25 season, will see Reebok provide SLB’s nine franchises with playing kits, training kits, athleisure travel apparel, and basketball sneakers through the course of the deal.
This deal will include the production of replica kits for fans to purchase.
Speaking on the Reebok partnership, Paul Blake, owner of SLB’s Newcastle Eagles franchise, has stated: “It’s been a challenging few months for our sport, but to attract a brand of Reebok’s status, heritage, and association as we launch our new league is fantastic.”
Reebok had planned to relaunch its basketball division in early 2025, and to that end has brought in famed US basketball legends Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson as president and vice president of that division, with the new partnership with SLB preempting the consumer imprint’s launch.
Blake added: “Seeing stars like [O’Neal] and Allen Iverson involved in a project that touches our league is incredibly exciting and with them on board, we look forward to achieving great things both on and off the court.”
The Reebok brand is owned by Authentic Brands Group, which also owns O’Neal’s brand, as well as that of fellow former player Julius Erving, and the iconic US sports publication Sports Illustrated.
US brand Reebok replaces Italian sportswear brand Kappa, which for a number of years had been the league-wide kit provider and technical partner for UK basketball's previous top-flight competition, the British Basketball League (BBL).
SLB supplanted the British Basketball League (BBL) as the new top-tier of British basketball earlier this year in the aftermath of the former’s dissolution following severe financial troubles.
Last week (August 23) SLB announced the format that the 2024-25 season will take, returning to the four-competition set-up that the BBL had taken prior to the 2023-24 season with a 32-game per team regular season, an eight-team post-season play-offs, and two mid-season knockout competitions featuring all franchises (the SLB Trophy and the SLB Cup).
