Not to be outdone, Under Armour added Joel Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers’ charismatic young center, to its roster days before the season began, beating out competition from Puma and New Balance. He joined Stephen Curry and Dennis Smith Jr. on the Under Armour payroll.

The rush of upstart brands signing N.B.A. players is a testament to the league’s ever-expanding popularity; even being tangentially associated with the league gives the brands some credibility with young consumers, they insist. Which is a good thing, given that experts say the shoes themselves may tank.

“The headline for us when it comes down to why are we getting back into basketball after 20 years is culture culture culture culture culture,” said Adam Petrick, Puma’s global director for brand and marketing. “The N.B.A. and all the other entertainment mechanisms around it, whether it’s ESPN or Complex magazine, are attuned to creating a 24-hour news cycle around basketball. In our day of mass news media mass consumption, we have the option to benefit from that.”

Mark Bartelstein, a top N.B.A. agent whose client Gordon Hayward recently signed with the Chinese shoe company Anta, said the companies were battling for a piece of the basketball business because “the money follows what is hot, and the N.B.A. is very hot.”