Even before they even stepped out onto an NBA court as teammates, Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard dished out an assist to his backcourt mate Ja Morant.
At the start of the team’s preseason training camp, Morant was getting ready to put on his shoes when he mentioned to Lillard that he needed more pairs of the orthotics he was using.
“You know that’s my company, right?” Lillard said to Morant, who initially thought Lillard was joking.
Lillard hasn’t gone around the NBA evangelizing his own product, but as Morant’s usage showed, it turns out he hasn’t needed to. Move Insoles, the company Lillard co-founded with longtime athlete marketer Nate Jones, has already been widely adopted by athletes across multiple sports.
Jones, who works at Goodwin Sports, the agency that represents Lillard, began working on Move in earnest in 2019. He courted Lillard as a co-founder, and other NBA stars such as Chris Paul and Jamal Crawford as investors. Jones estimates that around 25 NBA teams now use the product, in addition to non-basketball stars such as the Dallas Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb and five-time WNBA MVP A’Ja Wilson.
And like Morant, those teams and players are using the insoles not because of a corporate partnership or at Lillard’s request, but through word of mouth.
“I’ve been watching the NBA and been an NBA junkie my entire life,” said Jones. “So to create something that these players rely on, believe in, that their medical staffs rely on and believe in, is a big deal.”
Lillard was eager to be an active participant in the company due to his own experiences. He’s been using orthotics in his shoes ever since college to help recover from a broken foot he suffered while at Weber State. Early in his NBA career, Lillard also dealt with plantar fasciitis, but he couldn’t find the right insole that was both comfortable and not a hindrance to his performance.
“Needing more support in my shoe, especially having flat feet and the amount of miles on my feet, I understood the importance of not only having support in your shoe, but the right type of support and different options for different people,” said Lillard.
The star guard hasn’t simply slapped his name on Move, he’s also made himself an integral part of the product development. Lillard has personally tested each of the four insoles Move sells, which range from a more comfort-oriented orthotic to more performance-oriented ones.
While practicing with Team USA ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Lillard was testing prototypes and giving feedback to Jones.
“Me being somebody that’s going to be on the floor, somebody that’s had these [foot] issues that I mentioned, and also having real friendships with the people that I’m partnering with, they know I’m gonna tell the truth,” said Lillard.
Jones said the biggest advantage of working with Lillard was his honesty, saying Lillard “won’t sugarcoat it” when it comes to his opinions. Now, not only is it common for Lillard to see other players wearing his signature shoe on the court, after games he’ll see players pulling out the insole he tested years earlier.
Over the last year, as he missed all of the 2025-26 season with a torn Achilles, Lillard had extra time to devote to his business interests.
“At this stage of my career and having that much time, I’m thinking about, ‘What do I see for my kids, and how do I want to try to help them more? What about when I’m not playing? What do I want to spend my time doing?’” Lillard said.
He added that working on Move reaffirmed his interest in business opportunities that allow him to be involved from the ground up. Lillard and Jones still have further goals for their insoles, though, including targeting the youth sports market so athletes are aware of their foot health at a younger age.
Move is also announcing soon it will be an official partner of the National Basketball Athletic Trainers Association, which means it’s even more likely some of Lillard’s opponents will have him to thank for helping their feet.
Just don’t expect Lillard to be aggressively pitching the product now that he’s ready to resume his NBA career. He laughed when asked if he’s considered trying to find an investment on the TV show “Shark Tank.”
“I‘ve watched the show, and I’ve had thoughts,” Lillard admitted. “It would be a hard show for me personally to be on, just because I would want to be prepared 1,000%. I wouldn’t want to have the responsibility of still being an active player.”
For now, that means Lillard will have to settle for advertising by what he does on the court.