3 Greatest Moments in Sneaker Ad History
When it came to the way that companies advertise their latest and greatest sneakers it was done in a way that was usually done with a simple advert showing the different angles of shoes or NBA players playing in them. Some companies like Pony took it upon themselves to use celebrity marketing as well to sell their sneakers to break dancers and kids in general. Some would use the usual elaborate posters that would explain all of the “tech” and details in the shoes with a lineup of basic white-based shoes and maybe one black and white pair. These Ads are all ads that either came before their time, caused an uproar made sales go through the roof, or are just something that has stuck in the minds of Americans to this day.
#1 Air Jordan 1 Banned
The year was 1985 and during this time the NBA was very much dominated by other brands such as Converse, Adidas, and Asics. Nike was seen as being a very young company still with it staring an all only 13 years prior nobody expected them to jump out at becoming a big dawg in the space of basket so fast. This commercial catapulted the companies sales in an insane way. For the back story, the NBA at this time had a very strict rule when it came to what their athlete was wearing on their feet which were white-based shoes with a hint of the team’s main color. Here comes a new star in the making Michael Jordan who has just signed a sneaker deal of his own with his own sneaker that one was nothing like everybody else in shape, height, and color. The shoe we are speaking about is the fan-favorite Bred 1s which were supposedly banned by the NBA. So Nike thought that it would be very smart to use the drama to get people to wear the sneaker and it did. And thirty-six years later Jordan 1 Breds or Banned 1s which is the name they coined are still highly sought after.
#2 Nike Air Mag (2010)
This is an ad for the Air Mag Nike shoe or the “Back to the future” sneaker the show is first seen in the second back to the future for Mart Mcfly to be able to ride on his hoover board. But this ad starts with a store associate played by Bill Hader who is showing Kevin Durant a pair of shoes that nobody else has seen yet which was to release in 2011. Fast forward the mad scientist from “Back to The Future” comes through a portal speaking about how he really is in need of these shoes thinking that it was 2015. Nike used this commercial to draw a sense of nostalgia out of the consumer and connect the shoes back to their origin story. They also used this commercial to drop the beginning of their E.A.R.L program. I the commercial world-famous sneaker designer Tinker Hatfield is playing a store manager and says “not till 2016” to Bill Hader character who asked him “are these shoe self-lacing?”. Remember this commercial was filmed in 2010 but Nike mentioned something in the works to create buzz for an entire 6 years.
#3 Converse Weapon
The Converse Weapon was one of the first shoes that were seen as The shoe that almost all of your favorite basketball players were wearing on the court at the time. Converse at this time was the main shoe in the league at the time and they first wanted to show it off by using their biggest stars Magic and Bird who had their own commercial together which had its own storyline behind it. But they wanted to use this opportunity to show all of the colors that you could get the shoe and by having almost every big-name player appear, this brought the eyes of all fans to the screen. Converse attempted to feed everyone with this commercial and show a light-hearted side of NBA players.
