She is a four-time Grand Slam singles winner who ranks as the highest-paid female athlete in the world, having earned $57 million in 2021, the majority of which came from sponsorships. Her success on the tennis court has earned her this ranking. Walmart has only just started stocking goods from her skin care brand, Kinl, in roughly 3,000 of their stores around the country. She launched a sports representation firm at the beginning of this month.
And now, with a little help from her friend LeBron James, Naomi Osaka is making her way into the Hollywood scene. Hana Kuma is the name of the media firm that Ms. Osaka, who is 24 years old, has launched in cooperation with SpringHill, a rapidly expanding entertainment, marketing, and goods company that Mr. James co-founded. Ms. Osaka stated in a brief interview conducted through Zoom that her goals for Hana Kuma, which translates to “flower bear” in Japanese, include the production of scripted and unscripted television series, documentaries, anime, and branded content. Branded content refers to entertainment programming that has advertising embedded or integrated into it.
Fans can anticipate that at least some of Hana Kuma’s items, the majority of which are still in the development stage, will be supported by Ms. Osaka’s lobbying. Ms. Osaka has not been shy in speaking her mind on a variety of issues, in contrast to the majority of other great athletes in their field. She has been a staunch advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement from the very beginning. When she withdrew from the French Open the year before, claiming the need to put her own health and well-being first, she sparked a worldwide conversation about the importance of mental health in the sporting world. In addition, she discussed her history of dealing with anxiety and despair.
Even if she has been having recent difficulties on the tennis court, Ms. Osaka is a perfect candidate for sponsorship because her honesty has connected with an audience that extends well beyond the realm of sports, particularly young people.
One of the projects that is currently in the planning stages concerns the Haitian community and cookery. Laughing, Ms. Osaka said, “Because I like cooking, I watch a lot of programmes that are linked to food, including contests in the kitchen.” Patsy Mink was the first woman of colour to be elected to Congress, and Hana Kuma’s first assignment will be an opinion piece for The New York Times on her life and career. Additionally, Hana Kuma is working on a documentary project for the premium cable channel Epix, which is currently owned by Amazon. The nature of this project remains unknown.
Hana Kuma will have a partner in funding, operations, and production in the form of SpringHill, which Maverick Carter co-founded in the year 2020. When SpringHill sold a minority interest to obtain finance the previous year, the company was estimated to be worth $725 million and had around 200 workers. A marketing consultancy as well as a media and clothing section focused to athlete empowerment are included in the business’s operations. Production of movies and shows for television is the emphasis of another division. In addition to that, there is an events team.
The endorsement arrangement that Hana Kuma has with SpringHill wishes to be replicated with other athletes that have a worldwide following. Mr. Carter said, “We want to do a lot more of this in the future,” and he mentioned that negotiations had already begun with other prominent athletes.
The question has to be asked: Isn’t this simply some kind of modern-day vanity deal? Over the course of many decades, old-line studios provided its most popular actors and actresses with financial backing to launch connected businesses. The majority of these businesses never achieved significant success, but they did succeed in making the celebrity happy. Ms. Osaka’s “grace and strength” both on and off the court made her a natural fit for SpringHill, “which exists to empower athlete creators,” according to Mr. James, who spoke with Ms. Osaka by telephone. SpringHill
Ms. Osaka is a trailblazer among female athletes since she is constructing a portfolio of companies while she is still in the midst of her tennis career. At the very least, such is the case if she is successful. Ms. Osaka won’t be able to attend as many production meetings as she would want since she is still actively competing in tennis. According to Mr. Duguid, “but everything creative and everything strategic is certainly going to have Naomi’s imprint on it and her style and her influence.”
