Kenda Tires becomes Cleveland Cavaliers associate partner for NBA playoff games

Kenda Tires, this year an associate partner for the Cleveland Cavaliers 2024 NBA Playoffs run, kicked off its partnership announcement at the Kenda American Technical Center in North Canton, Ohio, on April 16 with an appearance from Cavs mascot, Sir C.C., and Ahmaad Crump, in-arena host for the Cleveland Cavaliers and “the Voice of the Cavs” during NBA games. Kenda will continue as an associate partner as the Cavs advance through the playoff seeding. This will include advertising on the court, a giveaway of Kenda rally towels, and advertising during local pre-game programming.

“The last time Kenda was fully on board as a partner [in 2016], we won the NBA championship,” said Crump. “We appreciate the partnership that we have with Kenda and hopefully the luck that you guys will bring will get us to a deeper postseason run this year. Kenda is definitely about the community and doing right by the people, and that’s some of the principles that the Cavs stand for. That’s why this partnership is a match made in heaven.”

Kenda-Tire-Mayor-1400 — Pictured are (left to right) Ahmaad Crump, in-arena host for the Cleveland Cavaliers; Sir C.C.; Rocco P. Yeargin, mayor of the City of Green; Brandon Stotsenburg, vice president of Kenda Tire’s automotive division; and Tom Williams, vice president of engineering.

Brandon Stotsenburg, vice president of Kenda Tire’s automotive division, said that the partnership with the Cavs is a great fit for the tire manufacturer because it tends to attract a younger audience who enjoys being active outdoors. He added Kenda tends to develop partnerships that help the company market its products to families.

“Consumers are under stressful economic conditions, such as educational loans, rent or mortgages, and cars that they’re paying off, but they don’t want to sacrifice safety and don’t want to sacrifice performance. So, what are the options? From our perspective, we want to work with our channel partners so that they can make fair and oftentimes higher margins than they can make with other brands without in any way sacrificing performance,” he said. “The product that they can offer gives the consumer a win, where they get premium performance at a value price.”

Kenda-Tire-Corvette-1400 — Ahmaad Crump, in-arena host for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Sir C.C. took a few laps in a Corvette spec’d with Kenda’s Vezda UHP MAX summer racing passenger tires.

“Kenda is proud to support Ohio’s NBA team in the upcoming playoffs,” added Jimmy Yang, global CEO of Kenda Tires. “We believe that high-performance products designed in America for Cavaliers fans are a perfect match for Kenda.”

Kenda-Tire-Dan-Shavers-140 — Don Shavers, director of tire development at Kenda Tire, answered a trivia question to win an autographed ball.

Stotsenburg also teased an upcoming partnership with the Cleveland Guardians, as Kenda’s logo will appear behind home plate during home games.

The Kenda American Technical Center, led by Tom Williams, vice president of engineering, leads the research and development of all Kenda products for the Americas.