BAL announces a merchandising partnership with Ghanaian luxury brand

There’s a new basketball-inspired lifestyle brand in town. It’s African and Bold. 

On the eve of its last conference in Dakar, the BAL announced an unprecedented partnership to create licensed merchandise with Cacao, a label by luxury fashion house Chocolate. 

The brilliant mind behind the Cacao label is Kwaku Bediako. He founded his brand in 2013 and incorporated Chocolate Clothing in 2018, won multiple awards which led him to connect with international luxury powerhouses such as Louis Vuitton. 

As a designer, Kwaku Bediako has been connecting the dots with the African diaspora by collaborating with celebrities such as Idris Elba, Boris Kodjoe and more recently GQ’s Most Stylish NFL Player of the Year and Cleveland Brown’s WR Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. 

In a conversation with #AfricaScores, he confirmed that the first items of the collection will be released at the BAL Finals in Kigali including items for men and women (shirts, bags, hoodies and more!). The majority of the pieces are produced in Ghana and the entire collection will later be available online and at pop-up store at key events worldwide. The idea behind the BAL x Cacao line, according to Kwaku Bediako, is to make African luxury accessible to a broader audience.

The BAL x Cacao collab comes in as the BAL looks to develop new revenue streams just like the NBA and other sports leagues in the world. Globally, the licensed merchandise market is estimated to have reached USD 35 billion in 2023 and to increase to over USD 50 billion by 2030. As more interests develops around African fashion, the BAL x Cacao collab will be observed as a blueprint for sports brands to collaborate with African fashion labels.