Indianapolis – Kate Linklark’s favorite color is blue. Outside the gym, she is happiest to be on the water or on the golf course. She says the same to her teammate Aliya Boston before every Indiana Fever game.
When you buy one of the basketballs at Wilson’s Clark’s new line, you’re not just getting the ball. You can get a glimpse of Clark himself.
The colors, patterns, and details – are all the results of months of conversation between Clark and Wilson’s design team, and I love what she likes, the messages she wants to send to younger fans.
“It was a really fun process to go through,” Clark told USA Today Sports. “It’s very important to me and it’s all very different throughout my life, so I hope they can influence the people who pick up the ball.”
Clark joined Michael Jordan as the sole athlete in Wilson’s full basketball collection and signed a multi-year sponsorship agreement in May 2024 with the official WNBA, NBA and NCAA basketball makers. Clark’s first line was leaning heavily towards history, in part due to the short turnaround time before her first signature ball was released last October. A record she defeated in Iowa. Her historic newcomer season with the WNBA Indiana Fever.
However, Clark and Wilson knew they wanted the future line to be more personal, reflecting who Clark is as human as the player.
“She’s actually influenced this. It’s not just Wilson’s people choose designs,” said Hudson Vantreas, director of product design at Wilson.
“We didn’t want to put her name on the ball and call her a day,” he added. “We want to tell the most persuasive story, and having her as part of it is positive for that.”
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Wilson invited USA Today Sports to a design team meeting in April to watch Clark’s first completed basketball. The design team also gave USA Today a behind the scenes look at the collaboration process with Clark for the latest collection, which will be released on June 23rd.
The collection has four balls, with both different purposes (one can be used indoors only, one can be used outdoors only, two can be used indoors or outdoors) and price range. embrace is an EVO NXT basketball. In other words, it has the same structure as the Regulation W Ball and can be used in official games.
“Amazing. Amazing, Amazing, Amazing,” Clark said as he stepped into the Indiana Fever practice gym and watched four new basketballs. “You guys killed it.”
The team responsible for developing Clark’s line has around 12 core members. They met with Clark at last year’s All-Star Game and got their first thoughts on the collection, including what young Caitlyn Clark had hoped for.
“I think she said the blue ball,” said Haley Raines, Wilson’s product line manager.
Reines and product designer Julia Muscarello then sent Clark a detailed survey to ask her everything, from her favorite colours (blue) to her outside hobbies of basketball (golf, overwater), if she wasn’t a basketball player (chef). They also monitored social media with caution on Clark’s clothes – an Instagram account dedicated to her fit, and what she does on the coat.
“I don’t want to be a boundary stalker, but I do,” Mascarero said with a laugh. “I was trying to keep it at Caitlin’s pulse.”
These answers and details drove a design process that involves “hundreds” of time.
Christopher Likert, senior director of Wilson’s global production, said the team started with 50 design ideas and cut them down. Sometimes the colour was incorrect. The pattern may not work. Sometimes what seemed like a great idea on paper was not translated completely into reality.
When the team had 10 ideas, they sent Clark the designs for her ideas. There were also some fine tweaks and prototypes were created to make the design look the same as the drawings in real basketball.
The four designs that were ultimately selected for this year’s line all have very different looks, but they all have similarities.
Clark.
“Whenever I do something, I want it to be the best product possible for people, but I feel that this is an easy way for me to connect with my fans,” Clark said he was very involved in the design process.
“I want to feel very personal to them too. They can connect with me. They don’t just watch me on TV or buy tickets for the game.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-enzqezivw4
Take oasis balls that can be used indoors and outdoors. Clark told Reines and Muscarello that she likes blue, pastels, and that she loves happiness in the water and the golf courses. So, while the panels on the oasis ball are white and light blue, some of the light blue panels look like a pink and green splash of paint, they are actually abstract drawings of the golf course.
Clark picked it up as soon as he saw the ball.
“It looks like a hole on a golf course!” she cried.
Light blue is also the shade used in Envision patterns, outdoor ball patterns. At first glance, it looks like a maze, but it’s really the word “big big.” The phrase also appears in Aspire, an indoor/outdoor ball that initially looks like white or gray. But put it in the sunlight, and the phrases “You’re amazing”, “You’ll be amazing”, “You’ll be amazing”, “You’ll be amazing” appear in bold, heated red letters.
That last phrase is what Clark said to Boston before every game.
“Look, she loves it!” Clark said, pointing to a photo of her and Boston on the bench on the design team’s planning whiteboard. “We get her a free basketball. She’ll love it. I’ll put it in her locker.”
Since embrace is an official basketball, it cannot have obvious details. However, if you look closely, you can see patterns (again, light blue) that look like sunbursts inside the Wilson logo and around the air holes. Both are visual representations at decibel levels in the heat game. The Wilson team retrieved the audio file of the sound and then created the graphics.
“Fans really admire her how she plays so well under pressure,” Mascarello said. “It’s okay to accept noise from time to time.”
Clark was involved in every step of the design process, but watching a basketball on a computer screen is very different from holding a finished product. Clark picked up each basketball and looked into it and noted various details. She rotated each ball and shifted from one hand to the other.
She also studied the design team’s white boards and pointed to some notes and photos.
Although she initially seemed to be the most filmed on the ball in Oasis, she said she was fascinated by Envision’s UV technology and loved having a basketball that revealed a “secret” message as a child.
She was also impressed by the fact that Wilson’s design team was able to turn decibel meter readings into designs.
“They are all unique in their own way. They all have what I like about them,” Clark said. “I think they each serve their own purposes and are different.
“So I think you have to buy everything!” she added with a laugh.
There are fans who buy the entire collection, but whether they’re going to be used as a souvenir or maintain, Clark was conscious of not priceting fans from the new line. Two balls cost under $50, the outdoor Envision ball costs $27.95, the Oasis indoor ball costs $49.95, and the Aspire outdoor ball costs $54.95.
Embrace, Wilson’s premium EVO NXT basketball, costs $124.95.
All balls are available on the Wilson website and on the retail sports goods store. Last year’s collection sold out quickly, but given Clark’s appetite for everything, this is another good bet.
“It’s kind of cool to see how the ball comes back and see how they feel so “me,” Clark told USA Today Sports. “That’s what I love about it, and I feel like I’m sharing a journey with parts of my life and people.
“I might not have dreamed of having something like this (like a child),” she added. “That’s pretty special.”
Follow USA Today sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrammour.