Knicks’ Jalen Brunson Signs BodyArmor Endorsement Deal

BodyArmor has added another emerging star to its roster of endorsing athletes: New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson. The sports drink company announced that it has signed a multiyear deal with the NBA All-Star, which comes at the dawn of a new era for the Knicks as serious title contenders for the first time since the 1990s.

The company will heavily feature Brunson in a social media and out-of-home advertising campaign that celebrates the player’s rise from high school to Villanova to the NBA. “Just like my journey, where success is built on genuine effort and dedication, this collaboration is rooted in authenticity and real impact,” Brunson said in a press release.

BodyArmor believes Brunson aligns with the brand because of the perception that both must scrap for their share of the proverbial pie in their fields. “We’re a massive underdog in this category,” said BodyArmor chief marketing officer Tom Gargiulo in a phone interview. “We’ve been around for about 14 years, but Gatorade has been the establishment since the beginning. We’re constantly fighting our way to get to that leadership position, and it’s going to require us to execute our brand differently.

“When we look at our athlete partners, we’re looking at partners that are going to grow with us and have that underdog mentality and have that grit and that sense of that obsession with constantly being better every single day.”

PepsiCo-owned Gatorade is the unquestioned leader in the sports drink category at a 63.5% share of the market, according to Euromonitor, while Powerade has 14.3% and BodyArmor holds a 12% share. The latter two brands are both owned by Coca-Cola.

The brand rosters fellow NBA players Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks). It has a dozen athletes across multiple sports including the WNBA, NHL, NFL and MLB.

Gargiulo notes that Brunson is important for another reason: Both athlete and brand are New York area natives. BodyArmor started in and remains headquartered in the city’s borough of Queens. Brunson, the son of Knicks assistant coach and former NBA player Rick Brunson, was born in New Brunswick, N.J., and spent his early childhood in the state. Jalen essentially grew up in NBA locker rooms, as Rick has spent most of his playing and coaching careers in the league since 1997.

“Outside of (New York Liberty guard) Sabrina Ionescu, we haven’t really had any other athletes in the New York area,” Gargiulo said. “So now that we have the two best basketball players in New York, we’re here to say we’re proud New Yorkers to the core and now we can activate our brand in the area with some really important assets that are going to rally the entire area.”

Brunson is coming off a career season in 2023-24 when he averaged 28.7 points and 6.7 assists per game. He raised his game to a different level in the playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers and Indiana Pacers, averaging 32.4 points and 7.5 assists per contest. Brunson finished fifth in the league’s MVP voting and was named to his first All-Star game.

Over the summer, he signed a four-year, $156.5 million extension that kicks in for the 2025-26 season. The extension was notable because had he waited another year to sign it, he would have been eligible to sign for an additional $113 million. His decision gave the Knicks unprecedented flexibility to build a title-contending roster in light of new salary cap restrictions in the CBA.

As his star power grew on the court, it was a matter of time before it grew off it. Earlier this year during his appearance on Sportico’s Business Beyond the Game, Brunson said that his primary focus was always going to be basketball, but he welcomed the right endorsement opportunities. “Everyone dreams of having endorsements and things like that, but when it comes time to doing it, you have to think on your feet and understand what everything is about,” Brunson said in February. “It’s been a great way to expand my brain and my business off the court.”

In addition to individual athletes, BodyArmor has two leaguewide sponsorships with MLS and the NHL. The NHL arrangement, which runs through the 2028-29 season, was signed in April. Gargiulo told Sportico that the NHL deal is the biggest investment the company has ever made.