Naomi Osaka Starts a Media Company, With Help From LeBron James

She is a four-time Grand Slam singles champion who ranks because the world’s highest-paid feminine athlete, having earned $57 million in 2021, largely from sponsorships. Walmart just lately started to inventory merchandise from her skincare firm, Kinlò, in practically 3,000 places. Last month, she started a sports representation agency.

And now Naomi Osaka is pushing into Hollywood — with an help from LeBron James.

Ms. Osaka, 24, has began a media firm referred to as Hana Kuma in partnership with SpringHill, a fast-growing leisure, advertising and marketing and merchandise firm co-founded by Mr. James. Ms. Osaka stated in a transient Zoom interview that her ambitions for Hana Kuma, which stands for “flower bear” in Japanese, embody scripted and unscripted tv collection, documentaries, anime and branded content material, which is leisure programming that has embedded or built-in promoting.

“I honestly can’t say if I’ll personally be in anything right now,” Ms. Osaka stated. “What excites me is being able to inspire people and tell new stories, particularly ones that I would have wanted to see when I was a kid. I always wanted to kind of see someone like me.” Ms. Osaka is of Japanese and Haitian ancestry.

Fans ought to anticipate Ms. Osaka’s advocacy to underpin a minimum of a few of Hana Kuma’s choices, most of that are nonetheless in improvement. Ms. Osaka has been outspoken on subjects that many elite sports activities stars attempt to keep away from. She was an early supporter of the Black Lives Matter motion. Last 12 months, she began a international dialogue about psychological well being in sports activities when she withdrew from the French Open, citing a must prioritize her personal well-being. She additionally disclosed previous struggles with melancholy and anxiousness.

Ms. Osaka’s candor has resonated with an viewers far past sports activities — younger individuals particularly — making her a sponsorship dream though she has just lately struggled on the tennis court docket. (She misplaced within the first round of the French Open final month. She stated in a social media put up on Saturday that she would not play at Wimbledon this summer season due to an Achilles’ damage.)

One venture in improvement includes cooking and the Haitian neighborhood. “I watch a lot of food-related shows, cooking competitions, because I like to cook,” Ms. Osaka stated with a chortle. The first venture with Hana Kuma credit will probably be a New York Times Op-Doc about Patsy Mink, the primary girl of coloration elected to Congress. Hana Kuma can also be engaged on unspecified documentary content material for Epix, a premium cable channel now owned by Amazon.

SpringHill, co-founded by Maverick Carter in 2020, will function a financing, operations and producing accomplice for Hana Kuma. SpringHill has roughly 200 workers and was valued at $725 million when promoting a minority stake to lift capital final 12 months. Operations embody a advertising and marketing consultancy and a media and apparel division devoted to athlete empowerment. Another unit focuses on movie and tv manufacturing. There can also be an occasions crew.

“Naomi can just plug into what we have built,” Mr. Carter stated.

SpringHill desires to copy the Hana Kuma take care of different athletes who’ve international enchantment. “We want to do a lot more of this in the future,” Mr. Carter stated, noting that discussions have began with different sports activities stars.

It have to be requested: Isn’t this simply a newfangled vainness deal? For a long time, old-line studios gave favored stars funding to begin affiliated corporations, most of which by no means amounted to a lot — other than protecting the star blissful.

“Under the old system, sometimes those ended up being for vanity,” Mr. Carter stated. “But the goal here is to build Hana Kuma into a real company and a real brand.” SpringHill’s emphasis on branded content material units it other than old-line studios, he added. Hana Kuma has been employed by FTX, a cryptocurrency alternate, to provide branded content material.

Mr. James stated by phone that Ms. Osaka’s “grace and power” on and off the court docket made her a good match for SpringHill, “which exists to empower athlete creators.”

“We don’t take for granted the position we are in to lend a helping hand, in this case to Naomi, to help empower her to do even more great things,” Mr. James stated.

Ms. Osaka has 12 sponsors, together with Nike, Mastercard, Louis Vuitton and Panasonic. Her longtime agent and enterprise accomplice, Stuart Duguid, stated some may very well be concerned with Hana Kuma content material. Mr. Duguid is a Hana Kuma co-founder.

“We really want to bring that number down and have more in-depth relationships with the ones that continue,” Mr. Duguid stated, referring to company sponsors. “We want to take bigger swings and start companies, invest in companies, things that might have potentially a bigger outcome than if you did a McDonald’s deal and got paid year to year. What will really move the needle?”

Building a portfolio of companies — whereas nonetheless in the midst of her tennis profession — makes Ms. Osaka one thing of a pioneer amongst feminine athletes. At least, it would if she succeeds.

“We haven’t seen any female athlete do anything like what we are trying to achieve,” Mr. Duguid stated. “Serena has done well with her venture business. But she’s toward the end of her career and, you know, we’re in the middle.” He was referring to the tennis legend Serena Williams, whose enterprise capital agency, Serena Ventures, has raised an inaugural fund of $111 million to spend money on founders with numerous factors of view.

Because she continues to be enjoying tennis, Ms. Osaka won’t be sitting in on many manufacturing conferences. “But everything creative and everything strategic, it’s obviously going to have Naomi’s stamp on it and her style and her input,” Mr. Duguid stated.