How Stance Became the Official Sock of the NBA

Against plenty of odds, Stance has become the official sock of the NBA. Here’s a look at how it happened.

- Abe Schwadron

Years before Clarke Miyasaki stepped into his current role as Stance’s executive vice president of business development, he attended a Utah Jazz game with his friend Jeff Kearl, who would some months later be better known as the brand’s CEO and founder. Miyasaki, who previously helped grow Skull Candy headphones, was a hoophead always interested in seeing the game up close. Kearl, a keen entrepreneur, had been looking for the next big thing, and was excited to tell Miyasaki that he’d finally, after considering jewelry and school supplies, settled on the perfect category to challenge in the market: socks.

“He’s like, ‘Yup, men’s hosiery,’” Miyasaki remembers. “I just start laughing at him. I’m like, ‘Socks? Wow.’”

Eventually, Kearl convinced him to come aboard, not knowing that Miyasaki all along had his eyes set on getting Stance—at its outset an action sports brand with wavy designs that matched better with Vans than basketball shoes— onto the NBA hardwood.

There was only one problem for Miyasaki’s pipe dream: a company called FBF was already producing the NBA’s  official socks. You know the ones—plain white and plain black, with the NBA logo on either side. For the better part of two decades, those were the joints, no questions asked. “We’ve had the same sock partner for a long time,” the NBA told Stance, in essence. “They’re great, we’re good.”