- AJ Dybantsa, the 2026 NBA Draft's No. 1 overall pick, has signed on to headline Oakley Meta's newest interactive travel and lifestyle campaign.
- The digital spot is filmed entirely through Oakley Meta's built-in smart glasses lenses, giving fans a POV look at Dybantsa's draft-day journey.
- The campaign follows Dybantsa's recent Nike signature logo launch, a Topps trading card licensing deal, and a custom Kenzo look for draft night.
- Oakley Meta continues expanding its athlete roster, building on past tech-meets-sports campaigns with names like Dearica Hamby and Katie Lou Samuelson.
AJ Dybantsa is trading the hardwood spotlight for a new kind of lens. The BYU standout, turned Washington Wizards No. 1 pick, has partnered with Oakley Meta to front its latest interactive travel and lifestyle campaign, filmed through the brand’s built-in smart glasses cameras.
The digital spot follows Dybantsa’s draft-day prep in first-person POV, from an early morning haircut to picking out his suit, before shifting to a third-person shot of the moment he’s selected first overall.
This is a fitting next step for a player whose off-court portfolio is growing almost as fast as his on-court résumé. He led the nation in scoring at 25.5 points per game as a freshman and took home the Julius Erving Award before turning pro.
This isn’t Dybantsa’s first big brand swing since the draft. He recently anchored a high-profile Nike campaign tied to his new signature logo, similar to the buzz Devin Hester generated with Heinz around this year’s draft. He’s also locked in a Topps trading card licensing agreement and stepped out in a custom Kenzo outfit for draft night.
For Oakley Meta, the deal keeps its athlete-and-creator pipeline moving. The brand has previously worked with wearable-tech faces like Dearica Hamby, Katie Lou Samuelson, and Brandon Dwyer, and has run larger star-studded rollouts like the Jaylen Brown and Kylian Mbappé fronting the Oakley Players Collection or the Travis Scott, Tom Brady, and Jalen Hurts-led Oakley campaign.
Landing a No. 1 pick before his rookie season even tips off is a clear signal of where the brand’s ambitions sit.
Takeaways
Oakley Meta isn’t waiting for rookies to prove themselves before signing them; it’s betting on draft-night buzz itself as the marketing moment.
Pairing wearable tech with a No. 1 pick’s origin story turns a single campaign into a built-in highlight reel. And for Dybantsa, stacking Nike, Topps, Kenzo, and now Oakley Meta before playing an NBA minute shows just how fast rookie stardom converts into brand equity these days.
Does locking in a No. 1 pick before their rookie season carry more marketing risk or more reward for a brand? Could Dybantsa’s early brand stacking set a new pace for rookie endorsement deals? Does Oakley Meta’s athlete strategy suggest tech brands are becoming the new frontier for sports marketing?
