Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Report: Less than 300 Big Baller Brand shoes were sold on first day

2017 CIF State Boys Open Division Championship - Chino Hills v Bishop Montgomery

TORRANCE, CA - MARCH 14: Lavar Ball is seen at the game between Chino Hills High School and Bishop Montgomery High School at El Camino College on March 14, 2017 in Torrance, California. (Photo by Josh Lefkowitz/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Over the weekend, rumors swirled that the Ball family had netted themselves a seven-figure payday, selling upwards of 5,000 pairs of Lonzo Ball’s new, signature Big Baller Brand shoe, the ZO2.

That probably isn’t true.

The sneakerheads over at NiceKicks.com did the legwork, tracking invoice numbers -- staffers there not only bought a pair of ZO2s, but they also snagged a pair of BBB shorts -- and inventory levels to determine that the real number of shoes sold in the first day that the ZO2s were on sale was probably less than 300.

From Nice Kicks:

Out of the 328 transactions that happened on BigBallerBrand.com in the first 24 hours that the shoes were offered for sale, we tracked that a total of just 263 pairs of sneakers had sold in both signed and unsigned versions of the ZO2 Prime.

While we have no access to sales receipts, transactions or traffic data, we have been monitoring the inventory levels of the footwear listed on BigBallerBrand.com. After noting the initial product levels at the start and deducting the current units sold, we can confidently say that 210 pairs of unsigned ZO2 Primes had sold (103 pairs in sz 8.5 alone), along with 53 autographed ZO2 Primes.


By their count, the Ball family did a little more than $150,000 in total revenue in their first day in business.

That’s not bad, and it’s a nice little pool of cash to get their operation up and running, but it’s not millions and it’s certainly not, as LaVar Ball likes to put it, “about them B’s -- billions.”

Where BBB goes from here will be fascinating. Personally, I’m rooting for the Ball family. I respect the hustle and the ambition, and I think that LaVar himself is pure comedy. But with the amount of attention that he got when this shoe was finally released last Thursday -- Darren Rovell said on The Dan Le Betard Show that the social traction he got was worth $50 million in advertising -- it’s not a great sign that he was only able to move 263 pairs.