One of the most infamous sports apparel brands in American history appears to be nearing its sad end, as LaVar Ball’s ‘Big Baller Brand’ made news this week after someone spotted the company's previously high-priced merchandise being sold for several dollars at a local volleyball tournament.
When you combine the comical clearance sale with the fact their official Twitter page hasn't tweeted since Match, and even worse, the website has also yielded a ‘website under construction’ banner on the homepage for the last several months, it’s painfully obvious that the ‘Billion Dollar Brand’ as LaVar Ball infamously tabbed it will soon fade into oblivion.
Ball had at one point, had gone on The Herd and said his company was open to working with Nike or Adidas for a simple fee of three billion dollars, as the notorious patriarch of the Ball basketball family did everything in his power to steal his company headlines, albeit in laughably absurd fashion.
In November 2017, the company released its first signature shoe called the ZO2 for son Lonzo Ball, at a shocking price of $495, to which LaVar defended the crazily high price tag with ‘If you can’t afford the ZO2’s, you’re not a big baller.’
At the time, Lonzo was a rookie for the Lakers, in a season where he averaged only 10.2 points.
In January of 2018, the Better Business Bureau gave the Big Baller Brand an ‘F’ grade, saying some customers had waited months for their orders, with some were even complaining their orders never arrived. Former Baltimore Orioles All-Star Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones added further humiliation when he said it took a full year for his ZO2’s to arrive.
In March of 2019, the company was dealt quite possibly their biggest deathblow, as they were allegedly swindled out of $1.5 million by co-founder Alan Foster, a close family friend who was a trusted member of the company.
Days later, Lonzo would remove all traces of the brand from his social media account and reportedly alter his ‘BBB’ tattoo as well. He would play the rest of the season wearing Nike sneakers.
The optics of the clearance sale coupled with the website being down and twitter account going inactive leads to obvious speculation over the company’s dire future as Lavar’s ovatious, yet deranged attempt at a competitor to Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour appears to be over.