"How Big Baller Brand Was Saved by a Skechers-Funded Sneaker Start-Up"

GQ:

sneakerheads took notice of the the similarities between the Melo 1 and another shoe, from the shape of the shoe to the sole to the pattern on the upper: the Rare Metal, from upstart Brandblack. That same day, Wear Testers, a site dedicated to rigorously testing basketball sneakers, reported that this wasn’t an act of design theft, but of collaboration between an extension of Brandblack and Big Baller Brand. But if either party was trying to hide the fact that the two brands had teamed up, they didn’t do a very good job: if you look closely at the side of the ZO2 Remix, which debuted just three weeks after the Melo 1, you’ll see a print that reads “Santa Ana”—the name of a design consultancy started in August 2017 by Brandblack founder David Raysse and creative director Billy Dill.

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Raysse compares the relationship between Santa Ana Design and BBB to the way Ferraris used to outsource the design of its cars to a company called Pininfarina.

The partnershipship hasn’t stopped hot-take Twitter users from knocking Big Baller Brand sneakers as nothing more than extra-expensive Skechers.