The new ZO2 Prime basketball sneaker from Lonzo Ball of Big Baller Brand®: A Market Disruptor debuts

My Angel,

In honor of Pamper-Her-Friday, I bought a little something for you.

Part gift, part conversation piece, part thought provoker . . . that a woman of your ilk would understand.

The ZO2 Prime signature basketball sneakers from projected No. 2 NBA draft pick Lonzo Ball, the UCLA one-year wunderkind, have debuted. I reveal the price tag—north of $500—not as some silly indicator of my love for you—frankly, that is priceless. Nor to imply the cost arguably borders on outrageous, as many feel. But simply to express an opinion.

The market will let a man know how it feels about his product.

Whether the shoe flourishes or flops, it makes a powerful statement on the very essence of the American gestalt: The ingenuity to imagine, build, and take the risk.

The critics say the father, LaVar Ball, is boisterous, audacious, even delusional. His sons don’t think so. The pundits say the son isn’t as good as the marketing implies. The draft’s opinion matters more. The naysayers say, “How dare the Ball family reach for the moon,” when the universe they’re used to has always posed limits. Even if they fail, the Balls will still be among the stars, no?

When Phil Knight and his partner Bill Bowerman brought to market the Nike waffle-sole running shoe in the early ‘70s (yes, conceived from a waffle iron), players like Converse, Adidas and Puma were established athletic-shoe powerhouses. How dare Phil try to shake up the market and establish his own brand.

He did.

Phil Knight may well be a fan of LaVar Ball’s. Sure, he also hopes he fails. Why would Nike want the competition? But, quietly, Phil understands and may well be rooting for LaVar. After all, he was LaVar back in the ‘70s. Phil said, “F@#k you!” to the established competition and chased his dream. The rest is Nike history.

Love, you know what I think about more than anything regarding this basketball saga? The poor, inner-city kid, the fail-but-try-and-try-again dream chaser, the would-be entrepreneur who has no financial backing except his savings and sweat equity, the Horatio Alger with only a dollar to his name but a vision he can’t get out of his head.

If established companies, to say nothing of the dream killers, exert total dominance over markets and refuse—understandably, to protect their market share—to allow new entrants, how will America continue its storied business prowess? Its intellectual, technological and economic dominance over global competitors?

Who had heard of a Google before it launched? And now that Facebook dominates social media, should Snapchat even bother? Of course it should. Why would Uber make the cab market uncomfortable? Because the market was ready for something new and perhaps more efficient.

Uber is a disruptor. Markets need disruption now and again because of simple human evolution. The market wants faster, better, cheaper, more convenient, more fabulous, more exclusive. The market apparently likes disruption. Otherwise those new entrants wouldn’t succeed.

Why should Pamper-Her-Friday by Rg2® bother to challenge the established romance space? Why not?

Why should a Barack Obama even try to disrupt such a historically exclusive club? Why not? Obama is the ultimate disruptor.

Big Baller Brand® is a disruptor. It makes consumers who are devoted to their established brands uncomfortable, not to mention the CEOs of those companies. But the market has proven throughout history that it makes room for newcomers. Whether that newcomer has the wherewithal to sustain its presence in the market will determine its success.

But the effort, the audacity to dream, to risk and to deliver, is the essence of the American spirit.

The Ball shoe may well fail. Quietly, I’m pulling for them, Love. And dreamers all over the world are pulling for them, too, truth be told.

Should they fail? Well, they tried. How many others have dared to try?

Just as I’ve tried to win your heart . . . on Pamper-Her-Friday. I can’t say I’ve succeeded. And the gift of these Ball sneakers certainly may not do the trick.

But aren’t I in your mind? Call me the “Romantic Disruptor.”

And for good measure, next Friday you’ll receive a delivery of sneakers of a slightly different brand:

The “Zero Dark Thirty” LeBron 14s—collector’s edition.

Why?

It’s Pamper-Her-Friday, Love.

Athletically yours,
Rg2

________________

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Pamper the woman . . . regardless of the naysayers. -Rg2

© 2017 Pamper-Her-Friday by Rg2®