Launch Like This…Nike & A’ja’s A’Ones
May 22nd, 2025 by Diane Conklin under Business - General, Business Strategy. No Comments.
Do you always look for great marketing and business stories?
Well…
…look no further than Nike and A’ja Wilson’s shoe release.
There’s a lot of background about this – and you can look that up if you’re interested (and you should) – about this shoe release.
A’ja Wilson was a standout basketball player at the University of South Carolina and now plays for the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA. She has been the league MVP three times in her career.
Two years ago, she signed her first shoe deal with Nike and the shoes were released in early May 2025.
Can you imagine working on something for 2 years before it made any money?
First, they released A’ja’s logo – in June of 2024…almost a year before the first pair of shoes came out.
The time between the new logo release and the shoes coming out was significant. And Nike did a masterful job!
They created so much anticipation for these shoes – during their “launch” period that the first release of the A’Ones sold out in minutes (somewhere between 3 and 7 are the reports).
By the way, there were only 3,000 pairs of the launch shoe available on the day of the release (more scarcity).
Let’s back up…
There was a masterful marketing plan for this whole process.
After the release of the logo there were some hats and t-shirts, mostly worn by friends and influencers of A’ja – I never saw the first ones for sale anywhere (scarcity builds desire).
Specific to the release of the shoes, there were some fun things that happened.
First, a few months before the shoes were officially being released to the public, A’ja did a “tour” where she was scheduled to come to Foot Locker stores to “sell” her shoes. There were a limited number available on early release.
Two things to note here…first, the first stop on her “tour” was Columbia, South Carolina – home of the Gamecocks…where she went to college. And, the last stop of the “tour” was a Foot Locker store in Tampa, Florida, the day before the Women’s Final 4 started.
There were other stops in between, but they started and ended with the most significant ones – the ones where she would make the most impact and build the most desire for the shoe.
People were lined up for hours and there were lines around the block at all the locations but there two in particular were crazy. As you can imagine…many (read most) people didn’t get to see A’ja, or buy their shoes that day.
Again, building more anticipation and desire for these shoes.
During this time, there were many videos of A’ja showing up and giving her shoes to teams – the Gamecocks all got a pair, the Las Vegas Aces all got a pair, and more!
Dawn Staley (who is the coach of the women’s basketball team at South Carolina) was seen wearing A’ja gear almost everywhere she went it seemed. Dawn is certainly an influencer in women’s basketball.
And, of significant note, A’ja’s boyfriend, Bam Adebayo (who plays basketball for the Miami Heat), started wearing his pair of the launch shoe during games and practice. I read one article that said all his teammates wanted a pair.
…by the way, the release shoes are pink…a pretty bright pink at that.
The day of the release, my social media pages were flooded (as they had been for weeks prior) with talk of the shoes, how so many people couldn’t get a pair – even though they were in Nike’s advanced notice list.
The shoes retailed for $110 on Nike’s site. One person online said she bought a pair for 3 times that on another site since Nike was sold out! The shoes were only available on the Nike site for the first 24 hours – and retail stores had them the next day. (Again, scarcity and exclusivity)
Remember, this was just on the day of the launch. And only 3,000 pairs were available.
Since the release date, more versions of the shoe has dropped. A different shade of pink, a blue pair, a pearl white pair and there’s another white version being released soon.
By the way, Dawn Staley has been seen in every version prior to the release of them – again, showing she’s in the know and one of the “in” crowd.
Now, mind you these are basketball shoes – and from all the reviews, they’re good ones. My guess is most of the people buying them aren’t wearing them on the court – they don’t even play basketball.
By the way, you can now buy t-shirts and other things with A’ja logo on them. They’re on the Nike website.
I could go on and on about this, but I don’t want this to get too long.
Go check it out!
And, follow things like this. Learn from what the big companies are doing. Study it.
Then go do your own version of it – scaled down…or bigger!
To Your Success –
