Although Marvin Bagley III and R.J. Barrett never got a chance to team up on the court in Durham, the pair of former Blue Devil freshman standouts now have another shared connection: their shoe deal.
Despite being the last of his former Duke teammates to decide on a shoe company, Barrett made waves Wednesday when it was announced that he would sign a contract with Puma. This signing doesn’t come as a surprise to those closely following Barrett, as he not only wore a Puma jacket in the video of him receiving his NBA 2K ratings, but he also sported Puma kicks in his rookie photo shoot for the Knicks a couple weeks ago.
Puma announced this multi-year deal with Barrett with a mural outside a Manhattan Puma store.
The news comes just a few weeks after Barrett’s college teammates Cam Reddish and Zion Williamson announced shoe deals of their own with Nike and Jordan respectively. With this signing, Puma continues to make big moves in the NBA shoe game, as they signed Terry Rozier, DeAndre Ayton and Bagley III as feature athletes last year.
Barrett will also be one of Puma’s marketable faces, as the third overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft will have a lot of rookie responsibilities in Madison Square Garden this upcoming season as a New York Knick.
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