Tyrese Maxey has his signature sneaker. Now comes the hard part.

Life, like Tyrese Maxey, comes at you fast.

“I feel like I grew up in Philly,” the Philadelphia 76ers’ point guard told Andscape. “I got here at 19. I just had a child who’s going to grow up here.”

In February, while awaiting the birth of his daughter, Marvel, Maxey was the only 76er selected to the 2026 NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles. For one night, he pushed the pace and shared the ball with the league’s best players.

Fast forward to today, and Maxey, 25, will be surrounded by top-tier talent nightly, throwing outlet passes to newly acquired NBA Finals MVPs LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, two of the league’s biggest stars.

For the first time in his career, Maxey will have the eyes of the world on him, not just Philadelphia.

For Maxey, stepping into that spotlight meant expanding his reach beyond Philadelphia as the face of New Balance basketball. To promote his debut signature shoe, the Maxey v1, he embarked on a promotional tour spanning local sporting goods stores in Philadelphia to basketball courts across Shanghai.

“It was my first time in China,” Maxey said. “And it definitely won’t be my last.”

Entering the 2026-27 NBA season, Maxey shoulders grand expectations for two historic Northeastern franchises — the 76ers and Boston-based New Balance.

Philadelphia, led by Maxey alongside James, Brown, Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecombe, has not won an NBA championship in 43 years, when the 1982-83 team was led by Julius Erving and Moses Malone.

New Balance has elevated Maxey to the top of its basketball lineup, launching the Maxey v1 on Oct. 2 at flagship stores and key retail partners worldwide.

The timing for New Balance, Maxey and the 76ers couldn’t be better.

Last season, Maxey averaged a career-high 28.3 points per game and earned All-NBA third-team honors, but Philadelphia had only 14 nationally televised games. The 76ers will play a franchise-record 34 this season.

Maxey will lace up the New Balance Maxey v1 in games and promote the shoe globally through commercials and in-store appearances.

“Once you get rewarded with a signature shoe, the work really starts,” Rich Paul, Maxey’s agent, told Andscape. “You have to go out and build a business.”

As Maxey’s workload and expectations grew in recent months, so did the belief that he could lead a contender and carry a basketball brand.

In late 2024, just months after becoming a full-time starter, making his first All-Star Game and winning NBA Most Improved Player award, Maxey was approached by New Balance about a signature shoe.

“Honestly, I was excited and surprised,” Maxey said. “I didn’t really expect it.”

The rise of the No. 21 pick in the 2020 NBA draft began with sweat equity in the gym.

“When we signed him [in 2023], we were taking a swing on him, and he was taking a swing on us,” Kevin Trotman, senior product manager for New Balance Basketball, told Andscape.

Maxey’s relationship with New Balance blossomed during meetings at the brand’s offices, where he impressed executives with his professional behavior.

“He’s extremely punctual,” Trotman said. “He’s never late to anything. He will always shake your hand and look you in the eyes.”

In trademark Maxey fashion, he quickly made an impression.

Paul said Maxey’s good manners helped accelerate his rise at New Balance.

“The people who work with Tyrese have some say in the smallest things and the biggest things,” Paul said. “A lot of athletes should think that it’s not just the stats that get you here.”

But on-court production doesn’t hurt. Last season, Maxey finished fifth in the NBA in points per game and first in minutes played.

His outsized output, uptempo style, and ear-to-ear grin, have made Maxey adored in Philadelphia, fueling a growing allure among the younger fans chased by sportswear brands.

“If you watch Tyrese and don’t know the game of basketball, you’d probably get dizzy,” Paul said. “He resonates with the youth. A lot of that has to do with always smiling. He looks like a kid when he’s playing the game he loves.”

New Balance is betting on Maxey’s infectious joy and kinetic panache to sell sneakers, relying on him to steer the shoe’s aesthetic.

“It’s definitely different,” said Maxey, who had previously influenced player-exclusive colorways but never helped build a shoe from scratch. “They let me create. That was the coolest thing for me.”

What Maxey and the New Balance team landed on was drastically different from the previous pairs he’d played in — shaped as much by trends traced to Paris Fashion Week as by the NBA star’s quick-cutting game.

“There isn’t anything else on the market right now that has this wavy nature with a sleek, tapered-down toe,” Trotman said. “That was all really intentional, and it came from Maxey.”

Trotman said the Maxey v1’s sharp, European-inspired stance marks the first step in the brand’s new performance basketball strategy.

“At New Balance, we obsess over shape,” Trotman said. “We’re confident enough to say that we think of ourselves as industry leaders in fashion. That’s our instinct when we’re starting to create basketball product now.”

As New Balance basketball’s face and guinea pig, Maxey faced avant-garde concepts pulled from Paris runways meant to stretch and redefine the category on the court.

To push the envelope without alienating consumers, Maxey turned to his family for advice.

“It was a family affair every time we met,” Trotman said. “Tyrese had a huge hand in it, but he got input and confidence from his family on what they thought was fire or what he could pull off.”

Key insights came from Maxey’s uncle, who loves to swap laces. Perhaps the most valuable voice was Maxey’s teenage nephew who “knows what all the kids like.”

“I’m a firm believer in starting with the youth,” Paul said. “Today, you’re competing with everything. The basketball shoe was the lifestyle shoe; today it isn’t. So it takes a ton of work to build the business the way you want to.”

Paul knows this reality well. As a kid in Cleveland, he purchased Air Jordans in abundance. As an adult, he helped LeBron James build his brand at Nike.

“What you want is to get to the point where it’s probably 50/50 people wearing it on and off the court,” Paul said. “In today’s climate, it’s probably 80/20.”

“I think Tyrese will have a chance to do so, especially with the market that he’s in,” Paul said. “Philly and New Balance are one. They’ve always been.”

This season, Maxey has been thrust to the top of the New Balance basketball roster. Also, he is one of four 76ers starters with his own signature sneaker.

Maxey has leaned on Paul and locker-room legends while transitioning from brand ambassador to brand face.

He recalls watching Embiid receive signature shoes during their time in Philly. He even reached out to former teammate James Harden for advice on everything from asserting himself creatively to traveling to China for promotions.

Meanwhile, Maxey and Trotman are already fielding calls from peers and potential collaborators about getting their hands on the New Balance Maxey v1.

“I’ve got a ton of messages from basketball players and non-players,” Trotman said. “There’s definitely a couple of friends that we’re going to be touching point with.”

“So many people hit me up asking for my shoes to wear them this year,” said Maxey, who has already seen his shoe on teammate Anfernee Simons.

As the fulcrum of a championship contender and the face of a footwear line, Maxey will navigate magnified global attention and frequent TV exposure this season.

He is meeting this sudden onslaught of expectations the only way he knows how: with a smile.

“The people in Philadelphia already like New Balance,” Maxey said with a grin. “And I think I’ve done a good job where they like me a little bit out here.”