Exclusive: Why Flight Club Is Partnering With NBA Great Baron Davis’ Crossroads School
Flight Club has entered into a multiyear partnership with the Crossroads School men’s varsity basketball team — the California high school that NBA legend Baron Davis attended — becoming its official jersey and footwear partner.
With this partnership, which is the first of the kind for Flight Club, the sneaker consignment store will provide and produce exclusive jerseys and products for both the team and the coaching staff.
Flight Club confirmed the multiyear partnership will run throughout the upcoming 2023-24 season, with additional collaborative announcements to come.
Davis, who told FN attending Crossroads was an “eye-opening experience” that uniquely prepared him for functioning in the real world, said the Flight Club partnership will bring more eyes to the program, which it deserves.
“It brings a lot of cachet to the school from a sports perspective. Being able to do something outside of the box for the school is a testament to how far they’ve come. They’ve always been on the cutting edge,” Davis said.
The retired athlete also said Crossroads couldn’t have a more ideal partner than Flight Club.
“They are the leaders in curation. They’ve been such a staple and a destination in L.A.,” Davis said. “The partnership is going to bring different elements of the city together. Flight Club being in this space makes sense because they’re agnostic to any one brand outside of their own, and their brand is built around this vibe around sneakers and L.A. culture and music.”
With the partnership, the company will host an annual Flight Club Invitational at the Crossroads Sports Complex in Santa Monica on Oct. 28-29. The weekend-long tournament will feature invited nationally-ranked teams with a reputation for creating eventual pros.
“We’ve invited nationally ranked teams across the country and this event is the perfect opportunity to showcase the talented players. Although this is a tournament, we’re more excited about bringing together a community of people across all age groups who love the game of basketball,” Flight Club director of brand Ilias Panayiotou told FN.
Aside from Crossroads, the remaining teams that are invited and will participate include Dream City Christian (Arizona), Moravian Prep (North Carolina), Millennium (Arizona), Southern California Academy, as well as other schools from the Los Angeles area.
There are also several big names in basketball who are slated to appear, including Bryce James (the son of NBA star LeBron James), Alijah Arenas (the son of former pro Gilbert Arenas), Tajh Ariza (son of retired NBA veteran Trevor Ariza), high school standout Jason Crowe Jr., University of Arizona commit Emmanuel Stephen, and others.
“I’ll be there as a fan, but also as a champion of how we need to love basketball and this next generation of kids for their talent and what they’re going to bring to the game,” Davis said. “Having Flight Club there to help spearhead that and capture content and create a space for them, it’s a win-win for everybody.”
He continued, “For me, my expectation is to say, ‘I remember a year one when you played in the invitational and now you’re an NBA All-Star.’ These kids are nice, man.”