Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown unveils own brand and signature shoe ahead of 2024 NBA season

After more than two years of choosing to play without an official footwear endorsement deal, Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown unveiled his own brand, 741, under which he’ll launch the long-anticipated first signature shoe of his career, the Rover.

The announcement of Brown’s self-funded and operated brand arrived Tuesday following the Celtics’ media day, during which the reigning NBA Finals MVP posed for official team photos while wearing his new shoe, which he will wear during the upcoming 2024 NBA season.

“741 is more than just a sneaker brand,” Brown said in an official news release. “It’s a statement — about independence, creativity and ownership.”

The 741 Rover is scheduled to be released Oct. 22, the same day of Boston’s season opener against the New York Knicks. According to 741’s official website, adult sizes of the shoe retail for $200 a pair, while kids’ sizes will cost $70.

Brown’s first shoe will make him the NBA’s 28th active signature headliner. Debut signature shoes for Sacramento Kings All-Star point guard De’Aaron Fox (Curry Brand) and Denver Nuggets three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic (361 Degrees) are expected this season. Brown also becomes at least the ninth player in NBA history to release a signature sneaker under a personal or family-founded brand, joining Patrick Ewing (Ewing Athletics, 1989), Shaquille O’Neal (Dunk.net/Dunkman, 2000-01) and Stephon Marbury (Starbury, 2006).

“The understanding of ownership and value is what’s important for the next generation of athletes,” Brown said in the debut news release promoting 741. “It’s time to create more value for everyone involved, from athletes to consumers to employees and the communities that support them.” He said he “turned down $50 million in offers” from major footwear companies to pursue full ownership and creative design control under his own company.

Initially, Brown endorsed Adidas on a standard player deal, which he signed as a rookie in 2016 and played under until the five-year contract expired in 2021. By spring 2022, Brown made headlines as the first NBA player to sign with Donda Sports, a talent agency founded by musical artist and longtime Adidas collaborator Kanye West. The move potentially set the stage for Brown to become the face and debut signature headliner of a Yeezy Basketball division until the rapper’s partnership with Adidas abruptly ended in October 2022, right around the start of Brown’s breakout seventh NBA season, and Brown left Donda Sports.

For the past two years, Brown has played in Nike sneakers despite not being officially affiliated with a footwear company. However, in late 2023, he began removing swoosh logos on pairs he wore from the late Kobe Bryant’s signature line and pairs from Nike’s G.T. series. The creative control Brown took on his Nike shoes was presumably fueled by the controversial conclusion to his former Celtics teammate Kyrie Irving’s longtime signature-headlining partnership with Nike, which ended ahead of the 2023 NBA season. “Since when did Nike care about ethics?” Brown wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, responding to comments made by the company’s founder, Phil Knight, regarding the termination of Irving’s partnership. Brown’s post has since received more than 120,000 reposts and likes.

“I’m more inclined of following that sneaker disruptive kind of path,” Brown said in November 2023 on the Point Forward Podcast, hosted by longtime NBA veterans Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner. “A lot of deals that athletes get signed are kind of, like, stationary. Here it is, cut and dry, no creative control, no control over your marketing, but no input, actually.”

By early June, after the Celtics reached the 2024 NBA Finals, Brown’s close-to-the-vest quest to forge his own path in footwear took center stage when he participated in pregame warmups wearing a nondescript shoe, spurring speculation that it was his upcoming first signature model. However, no one could identify or confirm the brand behind the aesthetically futuristic design.

A few months later, basketball and sneaker culture had an official answer. After eight NBA seasons, one sneaker endorsement and three years of footwear free agency, Brown finally has his own signature shoe, designed for himself and by himself, under the freedom and vision of his own brand.

Brown also continues a legacy of NBA players launching sneakers on their own terms. It was sparked 35 years ago in 1989, after the former Knicks star Ewing left Adidas and his $1 million annual contract to create Ewing Athletics in an effort to produce more cost-conscious performance basketball shoes. Ewing’s sneaker entrepreneurship paved the way for O’Neal’s Dunkman brand at Payless, Marbury’s Starbury line as one of the most tantalizing stories in sneaker history, and now for Brown to disrupt the contemporary landscape of NBA-headlining footwear.

“I’ve poured everything into designing 741,” Brown said, “and it’s been just as challenging and rewarding as anything I’ve done on the court.”