As of 2018, China was the largest NBA market after the United States.
Since then, the league has seen the massive potential of the Asian market, expanding into Southeast Asia. This move has been supported by the numbers, with 75% of homes in the Philippines reported to have watched the NBA game season that year. Furthermore, countries like Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Japan were predicted to be huge markets for the NBA, based on audience numbers.
The growth of basketball in Asia
Beyond the sport itself, the business of basketball has been growing rapidly around the world. Positioning itself with a multitude of media partners, the NBA disseminated into various regions through the Junior NBA Program, a series of workshops and classes meant to introduce the youth to the game. Since its initial launch in 2018, the program has reached more than 18 million children, training more than 72,000 teachers from 53,000 schools across 50 cities in the Southeast Asia region.
While traditionally, basketball was nothing more than a thriving game in the US and in certain Eastern parts of Europe, now, the sport has become global, with countries like Singapore, Taiwan, China, and the Philippines jumping in on the craze. The Philippines has been a veteran in this regard, as the Philippines Basketball Association (PBA), founded in 1975, was the first professional basketball league in Asia. It is now the second-oldest existing league in the world, behind the NBA itself.
Since the success of Taiwanese-bred players such as Jeremy Lin, young Taiwanese teenagers have found great interest in the sport as well. In China, the sport of basketball ranked fourth in terms of popularity, behind badminton, table tennis, and swimming.
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In the span of a few years, the Jr.NBA program placed basketball into the lives of over 24 million kids across Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Thailand. The first glimpse of the program’s success came when the Indonesian government worked together with NBA Asia to incorporate the game in the school curriculum across the country. Soon after, countries like Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia followed suit. Today, NBA Asia has managed to partner with 38 governments in the region.
Why the NBA coming to Asia is great for the sport of basketball
NBA China was established in the region in 2008. A bit over a decade later, the market is worth over US$4 billion. Due to this smart move, the average NBA team has tripled its value over the last five years. The popularity of the NBA has skyrocketed over the years, and now, it looks into other parts of the world like Asia for lucrative growth.
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In fact, apparently of the 1.5 billion social media followers of the NBA, half of them came from outside of the US. with the largest portion coming from Asia. Merchandising deals have proved to be quite lucrative for the business. Great examples of this have been when the NBA signed an exclusive US$225 million distribution deal with Rakuten in Japan.
The whole Asia-Pacific region presents massive amounts of growth opportunities for grass-root participation and talent development. On social media alone, China’s NBA followers are in the multi-millions, with tech titans such as Tencent distributing over 600 NBA games on digital platforms.
What this means for the sneaker and streetwear culture
Anyone in the community knows that there are intersecting interests between basketball, hip-hop, and the culture of sneakers and streetwear. The three go hand in hand.
With the rise of basketball in China, there has been an equal increase in investment for sneaker brands such as Adidas, Nike, and Puma. The youth have been putting more money into that than other forms of assets such as cryptocurrency or real estate. In Southeast Asia, the sneaker craze is at an all-time high, with some theorizing that resale profits approaching 5,000%.
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Younger investors are looking into items they can relate to. China’s secondary sneaker market surpassed US$1 billion and is one of the quickest growing components of the global market. Poizon, the country’s own sneaker trading platform, saw a net worth of around US$2.1 billion according to reports by iiMedia Research. This was three times more than the leading platform in the US, Stock X.
Shop Air Jordan 7 Retro ‘Greater China’ on Novelship
Southeast Asia’s largest, most-trusted marketplace
These numbers are only proof that the culture is here to stay in Asia. As the NBA continues to expand in the Southeast Asia market, so will the demand for exclusive, authentic sneakers and streetwear. Just as the value of platforms like Poizon has indicated, people will need a place to find the hottest items out in the market.
This is where Novelship —Southeast Asia’s leading largest and most-trusted marketplace for exclusive sneakers and streetwear — comes in. With over 200 satisfied customers, the platform has seen massive growth over the last few months. Operating within Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and now expanding into Australia, customers can expect to be delivered the hottest items at the best prices, all the while ensuring the utmost authenticity.
