Apple's Beats by Dre Brand Announces NBA Partnership

Wednesday September 5, 2018 9:48 am PDT by Juli Clover

Beats by Dr. Dre, Apple's well-known headphones brand, today announced a marketing and merchandising partnership with the NBA, which will make it the official headphone, wireless speaker, and audio partner of the NBA, and sister associations WNBA, NBA G League, and USA Basketball as of October 2018.

Under the terms of the partnership, which will span multiple years, Beats will establish separate deals with NBA teams to launch audio products for NBA fans, including NBA team-branded headphones.

Apple is aiming to boost Beats by Dre brand recognition through the NBA deal by leveraging NBA stars that include LeBron James, Draymond Green, James Harden, Ben Simmons, Jayson Tatum and Karl-Anthony Towns.

beatsnbapartnership
Luke Woods, Beats by Dr. Dre president, said that the company's partnership with NBA is the "perfect alignment," an unsurprising statement given that Beats has long used major athletes to advertise its headphones, even prior to the purchase by Apple.

"The NBA and its players have long been significant drivers of global culture. Basketball, music, and style speak as one voice: Julius Erving became a style icon, Allen Iverson cemented hip hop's place on and off the court and LeBron James is breaking new music every day... the list goes on and on," said Luke Wood, President of Beats by Dr. Dre. "This partnership with the NBA is the perfect alignment for Beats. It feels like coming home."

In addition to developing NBA-themed headphones for fans, Beats also plans to provide headphones to players and advertise during major events like the NBA All-Star, NBA Draft, international games, WNBA games, and more.

The Beats NBA partnership will kick off in October, which is when the 2018-2019 NBA season will begin.

Tags: Beats, NBA

Popular Stories

iOS 27 Will Reportedly Be Like Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Sunday March 15, 2026 9:42 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reiterated that iOS 27 will be similar to 2009's Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense that one of Apple's biggest priorities is bug fixes for improved performance and stability. During WWDC 2008's State of the Union, Apple showed a slide that said Mac OS X Snow Leopard had "0 new features," as it opted to focus on performance and...

• 260 comments

Apple Announces AirPods Max 2 With H2 Chip and More

Monday March 16, 2026 6:12 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Apple today unveiled AirPods Max 2, with key upgrades including the H2 chip, increased active noise cancellation, improved sound quality, and features such as Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Voice Isolation, and Live Translation. The new AirPods Max have the same overall design as the previous generation, with most of the new features coming from the upgrade to the H2 chip:- Adaptive ...

• 335 comments

Apple Announces 2025 Design Award Winners Ahead of WWDC 2025

Tuesday June 3, 2025 10:14 am PDT by Juli Clover

As we wait for WWDC to kick off next Monday, Apple today announced the winners of its annual Apple Design Awards, recognizing apps and games for their innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement. The 2025 Apple Design Award winners are listed below, with one app and one game selected per category: Delight and Fun - CapWords (App) and Balatro (Game) Innovation - Play (App) and PBJ -...

• 25 comments

Top Rated Comments

keysofanxiety

98 months ago

I was never blown away by the Beats brand and their artificially heavy bass. Don't get me wrong: they're not as terrible as people make out. On the Internet everybody's an audiophile it seems.

But after the weights they put in the headphones to make them heavier and feel more substantial/expensive, whilst the components inside were crappy, that sealed the deal for me. They're not bad (e.g., if you get them free with a Mac purchase you're unlikely to be dissatisfied), but not worth anywhere near the price.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

blacktape242

98 months ago

global culture? basketball? wrong sport.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Blackstick

98 months ago

Meh. Bass heavy, overpriced status symbols... more interested in Apple’s own efforts without the Beats branding.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

AngerDanger

98 months ago

It has always been my dream to play basketball professionally. Initially, I worried that my lack of skill and even a single day of practice would pose somewhat of an obstacle, but now all I have to do to be like my heroes is buy a pair of headphones. Thanks Beats®©™! :)

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

iMi

98 months ago

Next year's Beats will be $100 more. Someone has to pay for the endorsements, people. The brand won't make itself an even more expensive and valuable thing all by itself.

All joking aside, I think many of you with comments suggesting beats are "crappy" should really consider taking a second look. The new Studio3 and BeatsX are both fantastic. I enjoy them a lot. Less bass, more clarity on both headsets. The Studio is the most improve from previous generation.

I tried compatible Bose headset and thought Beats were better. I tried the new Sony headset and while I liked that one better, the lack of W1 chip made it a second choice again. So, I don't think they are crapy. Plus, sound quality is super subjective.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)