Nike Gets Clowned After Filing Trademark For Bronny James Logo
Building a brand for a bench player.
Nike is doing all it can to stay in the good graces of LeBron James. It's an understandable move given that James is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time and has been a global ambassador for the swoosh brand for decades, but the latest move has some folks scratching their heads.
Nike filed for the trademark for a logo on Monday, and not some new alternative one for LeBron, but one for his son and teammate, Bronny James.
The 21-year-old Bronny has his own personal logo, a lower-case ‘b’ stitched together with the No. 9 he wears for the Los Angeles Lakers. Seeing as how we're living in the year 2026 with personal brands taking the forefront and Bronny's father being who he is, it should come as no surprise that he has his own logo.
Bronny was drafted 55th overall in the 2024 NBA Draft and is a two-way player for the Lakers, spending much of his time on the court with the South Bay Lakers of the G-League. In his limited, mostly garbage-time minutes with the NBA Lakers this season, he's averaging 2.2 points per game. He's scored in double figures only once this NBA season.
That's not exactly the résumé businesses are looking for when it comes to potential talent to build a brand with, which is the point basketball fans quickly made on social media following the trademark news.
Josh Gerbe, the trademark attorney who first broke the news of Nike's trademark filing, also reported back in 2022 that Bronny had applied for two other trademarks based on his signature as well.
While it's all too easy to clown Nike's move and Bronny's résumé up to this point, it's a no-brainer move from the brand to bet on the son of LeBron James, who could still develop into a serviceable player in the league, and who was already born with a personal brand given who his father is.
At worst, Nike keeps the elder James happy while Bronny gets some love from one of the biggest brands on planet Earth at the same time.