BOSTON -- Jaylen Brown's last sneaker affiliation was with Adidas, a deal that expired in 2021 and left the Celtics guard a footwear free agent for the past three seasons. Now an NBA champion and reigning Finals MVP, the 28-year-old isn't returning to any major corporations in search of a signature shoe deal.
Instead, Brown launched his own brand, 741, giving the three-time All-Star full creative control and ownership of his upcoming debut sneaker release, the "Rover" in the "Black Moon" colorway, set to drop on Oct. 22. Brown, although still in the middle of a deep-rooted beef with Nike, received and turned down $50 million endorsement deals from competitor brands, according to a press release from 741. Images surfaced throughout the offseason of Brown sporting the then-mysterious laceless, iridescent-oval-filled sneaker resembling a minimalistic version of the Nike "Paul George 4" mixed with the Air Jordan "Future" -- drawing questions that were cleared before the launch announcement.
"I'll be wearing different variations (of the 741 Rover) but these shoes all season," Brown said during Tuesday's media day at Auerbach Center. "... I'm excited about it. Excited to explain to you guys the journey and the process that I've been on; all the ups and downs, everything that's happened behind closed doors. Sharing the whole experience that goes on in the sneaker market, sneaker companies. From grassroots up. A lot of you guys are probably familiar with it but I'll be able to articulate it a lot clearer than most so I'm looking forward to doing that when the time presents itself."
Brown applied the close-to-home connections with the numbers 7, 4 and 1 to create the brand's name, per Complex's Ben Felderstein, to bring to life a venture that others in the NBA, too, have undergone. Shaquille O'Neal and Stephon Marbury both launched their own independent sneaker lines during their playing careers, and Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball became the first NBA player to enter the league on draft night with his own shoe, the "ZO2" from the Ball family-ran Big Baller Brand. Brown's $200 price tag for men's sizes tops teammate Jayson Tatum's $125 retail cost Jordan's upcoming "Tatum 3."
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The original "Black Moon" colorway will be the first to hit the market. However, Brown was spotted wearing an alternative gray colorway during Celtics practice Wednesday, hinting at more to come from 741 in the future.
"There needs to be some disruption in the sneaker game because everything is kind of getting boring," Brown told Complex in 2023. "The designs are getting lazy. There's no creativity. There's no authenticity. Some of the sneakers that are out right now, even for athletes, are trash. We gotta come with the originality and bring it back to the (1990s)."
Featured image via David Butler II/Imagn Images
