A new global basketball competition is taking shape, and it looks unlike anything the sport has produced before. Project B, a Singapore-based league built around women’s basketball and set to launch in November 2026, is not positioning itself primarily as a sporting competition. It is positioning itself as a cultural platform – one where elite athletics, premium apparel and city-based storytelling operate as a single, integrated business. The appointment of a luxury fashion executive as one of its most senior hires is the clearest signal yet of how seriously that vision is being pursued.
What Project B is
Project B was founded in 2023 by Grady Burnett, a former executive at Facebook and Google, and Geoff Prentice, the co-founder of Skype. Their starting premise was that global basketball – particularly women’s basketball – was dramatically undervalued as a commercial and cultural asset, and that a new format could unlock it for a streaming-first, international audience.
The league will operate as a tournament circuit: seven two-week events held in major cities across Asia, Europe and the Americas, each crowning a local champion that feeds into a season-long championship race. Six teams, 11 players each, playing traditional 5-on-5. Both men’s and women’s tournaments will run concurrently. Tokyo has been confirmed as the first host city, with games at the Toyota Arena scheduled in April, 2027.
The ambition is backed by a notable roster of advisors and investors. Candace Parker, Novak Djokovic, Steve Young and Sloane Stephens are among those publicly attached to the project. Alana Beard, the former WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) star, serves as Chief Basketball Officer.
A league signing elite female players - and paying for them
In recent months, Project B has moved quickly to build credibility through player recruitment. Its confirmed signings include Nneka Ogwumike, Alyssa Thomas, Jonquel Jones, Jewell Loyd, Kelsey Mitchell, Sophie Cunningham and Kamilla Cardoso – a group that represents some of the most decorated players currently in women’s basketball. Japanese national team standout Mai Yamamoto was announced in January 2026 as part of Project B’s Tokyo announcement, connecting the league’s international ambitions to specific markets.
The financial structure is notable. According to multiple reports, base salaries begin at $2 million – significantly above the current WNBA maximum – and players are expected to receive equity in the league. The timing is not incidental. The WNBA and its players’ union are currently engaged in contentious collective bargaining negotiations, with compensation and revenue distribution among the most contested issues. Project B’s salary model applies direct commercial pressure to those talks.
The league’s funding structure has drawn attention. Sela, a Saudi Arabia-based events and entertainment company, has been described as an “operating partner.” League representatives have stated that Sela is not a direct investor, though the practical distinction between the two roles remains unclear, and Project B has not disclosed its full capital structure.
Now, a luxury fashion hire to build the apparel business
Against that backdrop, Project B announced on Feb. 19 the appointment of William Kim as Chief Lifestyle Officer – a newly created role that places fashion and product strategy at the executive level from day one.
Kim’s background is in luxury and premium retail, not sport. He has served as CEO of cycling apparel brand Rapha, CEO of British fashion label AllSaints, Global Executive Vice President at Samsung Mobile, Senior Vice President at Burberry, and held senior roles within Gucci Group. His most recent position was as CEO of Shinsegae International, the South Korean luxury retail conglomerate.
His remit at Project B covers merchandise, brand collaborations and cultural partnerships – and, notably, the development of an AI-driven commerce model integrated with the league’s streaming and social platform. Kim said: “From design to supply chain to final consumer experience, we are operating with the same discipline and control as a luxury house, overseeing product, distribution, and brand experience holistically.”
Natural fibers: a direct challenge to sportswear convention
The product philosophy Kim will execute is deliberately unconventional for sport. Project B has committed to natural fibers – wool, plant-based materials – for both the performance apparel worn by athletes and the consumer-facing collections it intends to sell commercially. Synthetic materials are ruled out entirely. Prentice said: “Our collections will be crafted from natural fabrics with no synthetics and no shortcuts, designed and developed in house so we control the standard end to end.”
That position is at odds with how mainstream sport apparel has been built for decades, where synthetic performance fabrics dominate at every level. Whether natural fibers can meet elite athletic standards while simultaneously functioning as a premium lifestyle product is a question Project B will need to answer in market – and one that established apparel brands will be watching closely.
The broader model – using a sports league as the anchor for a premium lifestyle and commerce business – has precedents in Formula 1’s revival as a global brand and the NBA’s and NFL’s global merchandise expansion. What is unusual is the attempt to build that business before the league has established audience scale.
For sporting goods executives, the experiment is worth tracking: if Project B can demonstrate that a new sports property can monetize lifestyle and apparel from launch rather than retrospectively, it will challenge assumptions about how leagues and apparel businesses relate to each other.
