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adidas keeps $430,000 set aside just to pay Anthony Edwards' NBA fines, and they made a whole commercial about it. Ant got fined $25,000 back in February for throwing a ball into the stands. adidas posted an ad that same day of an accountant stuffing $100 bills into a bag, explaining that Ant racked up $420,000 in fines the season before, so they keep a little extra around just in case. I can't think of another shoe company that would put its star's fine history in an ad, let alone the same afternoon he got fined. Their newest one is even simpler. Ant sits at a table in a bib, pours a bottle of Day 1 Sauce on a steak and goes to work on it. The caption's a Gucci Mane line, and Gucci and Ant are both Atlanta guys. That "day one" thing goes way back. In his rookie year a Bally Sports reporter asked Ant if he could play hockey, and he told her he'd do whatever you need, even cook, and he'd be "A1 from day 1." A couple years later he was tweeting that he always had the sauce on him. adidas is basically pointing a camera at the guy he's always been and letting him talk. They've also shot almost all of it in front of the same orange wall since his first shoe came out in late 2023. Three shoes in, you know it's an Ant ad from the thumbnail before you ever see a logo. Last year he was the only non-Nike player in StockX's top five for signature sneaker sales. For the AE 3 launch in September, they gave him a fake late-night show called Minnatlantasota where he roasts barely disguised versions of LeBron, Jalen Brunson and Jaylen Brown. Brown runs his own sneaker brand now. He watched it live on his stream, roasted Ant right back, and still admitted adidas is "definitely setting the wave." So the ad ended up in front of Jaylen Brown's fans too, and adidas didn't spend a dime on that part. Meanwhile UBS put out a report this spring saying part of why Nike is selling fewer basketball shoes is that NBA players just aren't as popular as they used to be. I'd love to know what they make of a $130 shoe getting sold by a grown man eating steak in a bib.