NBA 2K22 Endorsements: How to Get Deals, Tips and Tricks

If you’re new to NBA 2K22, you may find the MyCareer game mode to be very engaging but challenging at the same time. 

Not long after starting a new game, you’ll find that having an adequate amount of VC (virtual currency) is vital to succeeding in MyCareer. 

Without VC, you can’t upgrade your player; if you sit with a low overall rating, you’ll have little chance of being competitive in the game mode. 

In this guide, you can find out everything that you need to know about getting and maximizing endorsements, from picking the right agent to gaining fans as quickly as possible.

There are several easy ways to earn VC in NBA 2K22, with playing MyCareer games is still one of the best ways to stack-up cash as fast as possible in the title. 

Every MyCareer game gives you a guaranteed salary and bonus earnings for reaching milestones or by simply maintaining a high player grade. You’ll likely find these mechanics as being your primary source of VC income.

However, as you progress, another much more impactful avenue of earning VC in MyCareer opens up to you – endorsements.

What are sponsorships and endorsement deals in 2K22?

Sponsorships and endorsement deals allow you to market brands and are a prominent in the 2K22. They can significantly increase your total VC earnings in MyCareer.

Once endorsement deals are secured, the more games you play, the more opportunities you’ll have to earn VC.

Essentially, playing MyCareer games with sponsorship deals will outearn any other VC earning method in 2K22, which makes them an integral aspect of your gameplay.

How to get endorsements in 2k22

Unlike in prior NBA 2K games, the road to securing endorsements is a bit different in 2K22. After getting through the early stages of the story mode and getting drafted into the NBA, your key priority should be to sign with an agency. The earlier that you find an agent to represent you, the faster sponsorships and endorsements will come your way.

As discussed in the best agents guide, you will need to choose an agent who best fits your need. After about five or seven games into your NBA career, you will be presented with an opportunity to choose an agency to represent you. Your choices are either Palmer Athletic Agency or Barry & Associates.

Endorsements don’t come right away

Once your player signs on with an agency, there is more work to be done. You will need to continue to prove your worth in the NBA by earning more playing time and garnering more fans.

After you have made an impact and increased your player’s marketability, you will receive potential endorsement offers from your agent. Depending on your player’s ability to impact the NBA, this process may be longer for those with a lower overall rating. 

How to check your progress for endorsements

A quick way to check your player’s progress on the path to landing endorsements is to go to Progression, Personal Brand, and then Endorsements.

Early on in the game, you shouldn’t expect to see too many here. So, the key thing is to try to do well in MyCareer games, accumulate more fans, and increase your marketability.

How to unlock Endorsements

The easiest way to see your current progress and what endorsements are within your reach is by making your way to your player’s Personal Brand tab in MyCareer.

Most endorsement deals can be broken down into sub-categories. Essentially, the criteria are a little different for every endorsement. Many will require you to reach a certain objective threshold, ranging from the number of fans to off-court personality, to style, and more. You can view these in the Personal Brand tab.

Complete City Quests to earn Endorsements

In order to unlock any particular endorsement, you will have to work towards them intentionally. Some will come by playing in MyCareer games; others are related to specific Quests around the City.

Within each quest, there are usually three objectives, with one of the three being related to MyCareer games, along with the other two related to tasks around the City.

Quests related to Endorsements

As mentioned before, a good amount of the quests related to endorsements can be found under your Personal Brand tab. Others can be found in other quests tabs, such as City Quests, Season Quests, and City MVP.

Under every tab, there will be quests that reward your player with MVP points, including off-court events related to fashion, special runway events, or collaborations with designers and music artists. Once again, the quests in this section are somewhat tied to the agent that you choose earlier in the game.

If you went with Palmer Athletic Agency, you might have to deal with the more basketball-related quests. If you choose to sign with Barry & Associates, you will come across more tasks related to off-court branding.

As a result, every player’s path to unlocking endorsements varies. In a sense, this makes NBA 2K22 much more realistic as you get to work towards specific brands that you want to associate yourself with, rather than the less targeted approach of the past.

Redeeming your endorsement deals

Once you feel like you have completed the objectives required to unlock endorsements, it is best to go back to your personal brand tab to see which ones are eligible to be redeemed. After you select redeem, that particular endorsement will be applied to your player with VC incentives to earn more every time you play.

However, bear in mind that you don’t have to redeem every endorsement that comes your way. It’s important to be mindful of contractual obligations for every sponsorship – especially shoe deals.

For example, New Balance might be the first brand that reaches out to you, but if you decide to sign on with them right away, you will have to honor your contract. In that, you will not be able to switch brands and wear other shoes until your contract is up, which in some cases may take a few seasons.

More fans equals more deals

In MyCareer, having more fans leads to you getting more sponsorship deals, which increases your VC earning potential. As your player reaches each next tier of total fans, new offers will be sent your way. 

As your player’s marketability increases with more fans gained, you can even re-negotiate old sponsorships and demand more money. 

Earning fans isn’t that difficult in MyCareer; something as simple as scoring a basket or making any goodwill gesture will earn you fans. 

However, some plays get you more than fans than others, and a few of the highest “fan acquisition” plays in the game include:

• Flashy Pass Assists
• Lob Passes
• Alley-oop Finishes
• Alley-oop to Self Finish
• Score Off Assist 
• Stepback Limitless Range Triple 
• Fade Jumpshots and Triples
• Euro Steps
• Reverse Layups
• Posterizing Dunks
• Steals
• Fastbreak Scores on the Opponent
• Blocks
• Chase Down Blocks 

So, when playing games in MyCareer, try your best to execute some of these plays to maximize your fan-earning potential. This is one of the three key ways of securing sponsorships in 2K22, with the other two being to complete quests and off-court objectives, as detailed further down.

Don’t forget to pick-up your cheques

Once you secure your sponsors and play through some games with your endorsements intact,  the money will start coming in. Surprisingly, though, many 2K players neglect or simply forget to complete the simple step of collecting their cheques. 

As a result, they leave piles of unused VC left untouched in their bank. Over time, this misstep can significantly slow down your progress in the game mode. So, to maximize your earnings, you should always be on the lookout for messages from your agent. 

After he makes contact, you’ll then be able to collect your earnings at the VC Sports Management building shown below:

What to do if 2K22 endorsements are not working

Members in the 2K community seem to have problems with not being able to collect virtual currency for their endorsement deals. As a result, some of you may have thousands of VC locked up in the vault, unable to cash out at the VC Sports Management building. 

Unfortunately, there isn’t a clear-cut solution for this matter in-game. 

Some users have solved this problem by downloading new patch updates for NBA 2K22, whenever they become available. Another option is to contact 2K support and submit a request about unclaimable virtual currency. 

To do this, you’ll need to go to the 2K Support page and fill in a ticket detailing your problem. Hopefully, an NBA 2K support staff member can solve the problem for you.

Is there a best shoe brand in 2K22?

There isn’t a best shoe brand in 2K22. Choosing a certain brand doesn’t give your player more perks or help your player earn more money. While the brand choice doesn’t impact your gameplay beyond an aesthetic value, there are some aspects to consider such as the design you vibe with the most. For beginners, choose the brand that you feel most comfortable seeing your player wearing for the long term. 

In MyCareer, you will be given the opportunity to customize your own shoe. So, if the design is something that is important to you, you have several decisions to make. It might be a good idea to go into the shoe creator menu in MyCareer and quickly browse through all of the designs to get a feel of each brand before choosing. 

As different brands offer different designs, this can aesthetically impact your overall gaming experience in 2K22. For example, if you are a fan of classic Jordan shoes and other Nike lines like Kobe, Lebron, KD, it’d make sense to choose either Jordan or Nike. 

As both brands are owned by the same company, your player won’t get into trouble for wearing any Nike or Jordan shoe if you sign with either brand. After you have chosen a brand, it is important that your player honors their contract with the company. This means that they should avoid wearing another brand of the shoe when playing in NBA games. Otherwise, your player will receive warnings from their sponsors and could potentially lose their endorsement deal in the process.

At the end of the day, regardless of what brand you choose, the salary negotiations and payout system are essentially the same for all players in MyCareer. 

How to collect endorsement money and VC from endorsements in 2K22

Endorsement money can be collected by going to the VC Sports Management building in the neighborhood. 

After about three to seven games, you will usually receive a message from your agent, which tells you that there is an endorsement cheque available for you to pick up. 

As a rule of thumb, it’s good to check your phone once every three to seven games to keep up with your endorsement cheques. Otherwise, you could be missing out on currency that can be used to upgrade your player. 

You collect all of your endorsement-related currency from the same place, the VC Sports Management building. So, you can also get the VC from endorsements at the same building as you get your endorsement money.

Now that you know these simple steps, you can go out and maximize your endorsement VC earning potential in NBA 2K22.

How many endorsements can you have?

You can have one endorsement for each type of company. For example, you can have a shoe endorsement with Nike, but that also means you are not allowed to have another shoe endorsement with New Balance until the contract is completed. You can have a bunch of endorsements at a single time as long as they are not competitors of one another in the same field. If decide to wear another brands item, you risk losing your endorsement and will receive a warning.

How do you trigger endorsement events?

You need to increase the marketability of your MyPlayer in order to trigger endorsement events. The more fans you have, the better your marketability, which means you will get more endorsement events. Continue growing your personal brand by playing well in games and signing the right deals to make your player stand out in order to receive more endorsements.

How do you do an event appearance?

To do an event appearance, you need to go to the fourth floor and head to the purser’s office and view your event schedule. There are events happening throughout NBA 2K22 where you play against others with different rule variations that happen from time to time. Some appearances are required through your endorsement contracts.

How many fans do you need for your own signature shoe line?

This changes depending on the company you are trying to sign with as each shoe brand is going to require different amounts of fans in order to sign a contract which is typically two million fans.

You have to go to your personal brand tab and go to endorsements to look at what each shoe company wants you to do in order to reach the ability to negotiate a deal.  

Then, you have to go to your personal brand section and complete part of your contract and get to the point where you can meet with the designers and create your own custom colorways exactly how you want.  

What are incentives in 2K22?

Incentives are part of the endorsement deal that you agree upon with the representative of a brand. You will negotiate a number of incentives in your contract and that will help you earn a extra VC when playing the game. You can receive incentives by performing actions on the court such as 3 for up and under shots and 3 for hopstep layups and receive an extra bonus for completing these.