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00:00One day in 1984, there was a meeting at Nike run by Rob Strausser, who was second-in-command,
00:16and Phil Knight, obviously, was the boss.
00:19Nike had become somewhat successful when we introduced the colleges and the college players
00:27to wearing the shoe.
00:29Now, this meeting was called for this reason.
00:32Strausser opens it up.
00:34We're doing something different.
00:36We're going to sign players to a record contract,
00:41and we're going to do marketing with them.
00:45I was invited to this meeting.
00:48They brought me in because I had the number one all-star game at that time,
00:51the Brown Ball Classic.
00:54It was the first nationalized game in the country,
00:56and those players would eventually be pros.
00:59So I had a good feel for that world.
01:02Today, live from the Felt Forum in New York City,
01:06the USA Network presents the 1984 NBA College Draft.
01:11The draft was, in 1984, one of the greatest NBA drafts ever.
01:17O'Keeam Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, Sam Bowie was a kid, and he was going to be drafted by the Portland Trailblazers.
01:25I mean, just go through the draft.
01:28That was one of the most seminal years in sports history, and especially for the Nike company.
01:34The Chicago Bulls picked Michael Jordan from the University of North Carolina.
01:41They went around the room, and they asked everybody,
01:44well, we have $500,000 to spend.
01:49Who would you pick?
01:51And I say, you're doing it wrong.
01:53What do you mean, Sonny?
01:55Well, if you're going to do it, give it to the kid.
01:58Well, what do you mean, what kid?
01:59The kid from North Carolina.
02:00Give it to Jordan.
02:03Just give all the money to Jordan.
02:07This will be far-fetched for anybody listening,
02:10but it's so far-fetched, it'd be ridiculous to even say,
02:13unless you totally believe this to be true.
02:15I didn't know Dean Smith from Dean Jones, OK?
02:19There was nothing there, other than I saw the Georgetown game.
02:23Jordy, the black.
02:26The tie, 18.
02:27Michael Jordan from North Carolina has won the 1982 NCAA.
02:34He was not a Nike school.
02:36They were a converse school.
02:38And I said something to the effect, if you don't get him, in my opinion,
02:42you'll never be able to get another kid like this,
02:45because you won't have the money in him.
02:46He's a Jordan.
02:47How do you like that for a fast?
02:49There was only one choice for me, and the choice was Jordan.
02:54I never met Michael in my life until after that, when I met him with Tony Romes.
03:04No one else from Nike went.
03:06No one.
03:07I was just told to get him.
03:10Michael Jordan walked into that thing, was very polite with me, very nice, very cordial.
03:16And we got to a point where he did say to me,
03:19this is my pick.
03:21Even if you offer me more than them, they're the favor.
03:26I wasn't really prepared for that.
03:29Any other course that we go through in life,
03:35there's always something there that turns the tide for you.
03:42I knew they were making a special shoe.
03:44And I said, we're going to make a shoe for you and advertise you.
03:50We're going to market you.
03:54The day in Tony Romes, history changed.
03:59What I said to him at that meeting, it changed that industry.
04:04I don't know anything about shoes, and I still don't.
04:07But when I found out, I started to understand what marketing was,
04:12commercializing the athlete.
04:29I grew up in Southeast D.C., and I was one of these people that was always able to interpret for my friends and my neighborhood.
04:34I grew up in Southeast D.C.
04:36I grew up in Southeast D.C., and I was one of these people that was always able to interpret for my friends and my neighborhood and my community in Southeast what was happening in the business world.
04:48So basically what was going on in the boardroom, I could bring back to the corner.
04:53And then the things that were happening out in the corner, I could interpret and distribute and bring that stuff into the boardroom.
04:57I always felt like my superpower was kind of like being that bridge between the two worlds.
05:06Everyone used to call Reebok at that time, especially in the basketball category, like we were the challenger brand.
05:12Wow, what a matchup this is going to be.
05:14Being able to walk around and operate as a challenger brand and operate as a challenger brand.
05:18And then the things that were happening out in the corner, I could interpret and distribute and bring that stuff into the boardroom.
05:24I always felt like my superpower was kind of like being that bridge between the two worlds.
05:30What a matchup this is going to be.
05:32Being able to walk around and operate as a challenger brand and trying to always prove that, you know, you can sell product, that you can perform at the level of the best, having that chip on your shoulder, it was everything.
05:44Man, you got to play.
05:46Yeah, I know.
05:47And so now I'm in Reebok and I have a full year under my belt of working on the basketball business now.
05:52And I'm realizing, like, what makes a really good endorser of a category like basketball?
05:58There were a couple of insights that became reality.
06:03Well, you got to have someone who kind of has the ball in their hand.
06:06They can control the game.
06:10Number two was they need to be good looking.
06:13They need to be someone that guys want to be and girls want to be with.
06:18Number three was kids would find inspiration in who they are.
06:22You could look at him and say, wow, he can do it.
06:24I can do it.
06:25They needed to be relatable.
06:27Kids couldn't aspire to be seven feet, 300 pounds.
06:30Shoot, under six feet?
06:32That's relatable.
06:34That's somebody like any kid in the world can aspire to be.
06:37Not realizing a guy like Allen Iverson was blessed with all his God-given,
06:41too much God-given talent and athleticism in that way.
06:47Coming out of high school in Virginia, he was the number one football player in the state of Virginia
06:51and the number one basketball player in the state of Virginia, and he was a state champion in both sports.
06:58That is rare, rare, rare, rare, rare, rare.
07:01Him going into his final year, I really didn't think we had a real shot at him, because honestly,
07:11up until that point, he was a Nike kid.
07:13I used to talk to my teammates in Georgetown.
07:20They used to ask me, man, do you think you're going to have your own shoe and all that?
07:23And I'm like, I don't know.
07:25You know, hopefully something like that will happen for me, but it was so far-fetched.
07:30I don't think nothing like that would actually come true to where I had my own sneaker.
07:43There was another gentleman at the time, a young guy who was working in product development
07:46by the name of Todd Klinski. Todd and I just started clicking up like,
07:50look, man, we got to figure out how we're going to get AI.
07:52And it just so happened that Todd agreed that AI was the guy.
07:55I was actually an associate development manager working on like the tennis business at the time,
08:02but my passion was in basketball. I was playing ball at lunch every day,
08:05meeting all the basketball guys, and that's when I kind of met Q.
08:08And so our whole thing was instead of just going to the executives with Allen Iverson,
08:12we went to the executives and said, yo, it's Allen Iverson, we've created a shoe,
08:15we created all this kind of passion.
08:18Will we get the company to support us?
08:21Should we even be spending our time thinking about this guy?
08:23Can we get it done? And that's why we called the shoe the question.
08:28Like we knew his nickname was the answer, but we called it the question because there was just so
08:34many questions. No one gave us permission to do this. Like we just did it.
08:42There weren't a lot of people that were excited about this, especially retailers.
08:47Retailers, I mean, I knew these guys at the time and they were kind of like,
08:50yeah, you know, he's six foot, can't really shoot. He had all this trouble. I mean,
08:55it wasn't like he was the slam dunk that he was going to be the guy.
08:58So people did not want to take a strong position on the product.
09:03For a lot of the buyers, for a lot of these top doors, they were like
09:06white older males. Like they're in their forties, right? You know,
09:10they're all wearing khakis and buttons up every day to work. So I'm not really trusting their opinion on
09:14what looks fly. And so we're showing this product internally and everyone is laughing at us.
09:22So I started taking this out to playgrounds up and down the east coast to show it to kids.
09:31So I started in Boston. I go to Rhode Island. I go to New York. I go to Jersey. I go to Baltimore.
09:37I go to DC. And maybe I took a trip to Atlanta or something. But for the most part, I'm up and down
09:42I-95. Because I'm also a hooper still. So I'm still going around playing at all these playgrounds.
09:48They're going to my trunk, showing them product afterwards. And I'm showing it to older players.
09:52I'm showing it to younger players. And everybody in the streets, they feeling the vision.
09:57And then they're going crazy over the product on its own.
10:02I'm never presenting the product as Allen Iverson's product because we don't even have him signed.
10:06I don't even know if we're going to get him.
10:09There was also all these things against us. Like, you know, his mentor, John Thompson,
10:13was on the board of directors at Nike. And we were talking at the time, but the money
10:17was getting really high. Q was like, yo, there's going to be a board room meeting on Iverson.
10:21We're going. Neither of us had any right to be talking about a multi-million dollar long-term
10:26deal with an athlete. Neither of us had that juice at the time. But we were like so passionate about it.
10:32And then eventually, Paul Farmer gets brought in. We started to share the reports of what we were
10:37doing with the kids and showing them some of that feedback. But these old white buyers,
10:43they're not getting the story. They're not seeing it. At one point, Paul said,
10:48this thing's getting really high. I really feel like that he paused and he said,
10:53there'll be another Allen Iverson. Paul and Iverson were like, wait, what?
11:00We both hit the table like, no, Paul, no, there won't. There will never be another Allen Iverson.
11:06Trust us.
11:11I think one of the smartest things in the beginning that Allen did
11:15was that he had David Falk as his agent.
11:18And joining me now is David Falk, Michael's longtime agent and manager.
11:22David, uh, David was a super agent.
11:25And I know this is recorded and I'm sorry, David, for saying it because I know you're a great guy
11:30and I love you to death. But back then, I would argue that David Falk's ego was bigger than Allen.
11:38And there was a time when he was definitely, you could argue, the most powerful man
11:42in basketball for sure, you know, with having Mike and AI at the same time.
11:47While he was pro-Nike for sure at times, he definitely was more pro-David.
11:52And it's really about showing Allen that we get him and that we connect with him.
11:57We don't want you to be the next Michael Jordan. We're going to let you be you.
12:02I mean, that's basically the crux of our pitch.
12:06And I think David understood that if he had a top guy at Nike and a top guy at Reebok,
12:14he had real power.
12:15When I first met Allen and he walked in, I remember, like, the aura he had.
12:23And I was like, this guy is ready for everything that's coming at him.
12:27And Allen was really, really ready for it.
12:29We go through our storytelling, division for our business, all the boring stuff up front.
12:36Allen was just sitting there in the cool AI fashion, just taking it all in,
12:39playing poker, not really giving us nothing.
12:41And then Todd and I looked at each other like, yo, we got to get the shoe on the table.
12:45We really got to put this shoe on the table.
12:46Because that's what he really wants to see, right?
12:49So we kind of saved that towards the end.
12:51And then it was like, okay, any questions?
12:53And they were like, no, no questions.
12:54We're like, well, we got a question.
13:00I remember seeing the shoe and it didn't really matter what it looked like.
13:07It didn't even matter.
13:08You know, just the fact of it being my shoe was enough for me.
13:14But then seeing the shoe made it that much better.
13:18I couldn't wait to put him on.
13:22I think he was super impressed that we had a product for him.
13:25When he went and met with Nike, they didn't.
13:28And then, honestly, it came down to money.
13:31It wasn't like we got Allen for the cheap.
13:32Like, we had to pay a lot of money to get him.
13:35Allen was a $50 million investment that the brand was making at the time.
13:40At Nike, Jordan had Howard White, who everyone had known had been like his confidant,
13:45and kind of helped shepherd him through the process.
13:48They wanted me to kind of work in a similar capacity.
13:51And then that's when Paul and others volunteered.
13:53Like, and Q's going to be your day-to-day contact, your point person.
13:58With the first pick in the 1996 NBA draft,
14:03the Philadelphia 76ers select Allen Iverson from Georgetown University.
14:10I was just happy to have my own shoe.
14:13That was my dream.
14:14That was my biggest, one of my biggest dreams.
14:16Obviously, to make it to the NBA, but to have my own signature shoe,
14:22that's icing on the cake.
14:25Just a dream come true.
14:26It was just an incredible feeling.
14:29All right, Allen, congratulations.
14:30Hubie Brown says there's nobody in the league quicker than you.
14:33Is there anybody that could stop you one-on-one?
14:36No, I hope not.
14:38I don't think so.
14:38You've pretty well been able to do whatever you want on the court in high school and in college.
14:43All the campaigns with Allen were very unscripted.
14:47Maybe we would have an idea, or maybe we wouldn't.
14:50We were very kind of flexible with being an authentic brand and wanting him to really just
14:53express who he was.
14:54I want everybody to know I play every game like it's my last.
15:00It seemed like just yesterday I was talking with my friends about one day making it to the NBA.
15:06Everything was freestyle.
15:08Everything was authentic.
15:09It was all original.
15:11That was the genius of Reebok.
15:16The guys that came in with me, the guys that were my age, you know, they all thought it was cool.
15:22You know what I mean?
15:22The fact that I had my own shoe.
15:25The older guys, you know how older guys are when it comes to young guys.
15:30A lot of guys had contracts with different shoe companies, but didn't have their signature shoe.
15:38I kind of stuck my chest out a little bit.
15:41Felt a little different.
15:42We were in Philly a lot.
15:48We were watching every game we could.
15:51He had the most aspirational, but somewhat relatable game.
15:55He wasn't freakish in terms of stature or size, but he was fearless.
16:00It was very difficult to stop him.
16:05Allen was always going to be taken care of in terms of being able to have product to go on court.
16:09What we were struggling with was where we were going to have product at retail to be able to match what was happening on court.
16:16So when we're going through that sales cycle, when we need them to place purchase orders
16:20so that we can get the shoe ready for retail, there's no purchase order. None.
16:28Alex, what's up with the singles?
16:32These are good questions.
16:33Very good questions.
16:34We had no purchase orders on the shoe, because remember, none of the buyers believed in it.
16:40The most they could do at that moment in time for his very first shoe.
16:44And I don't know if this has ever been publicly stated, but it was it was like 5,000 pairs.
16:48And that's nothing like 5,000 pairs is nothing.
16:51And for God, we're slotted for 50 billion.
16:54You need 100,000 pairs to start paying back that kind of money.
16:57I was in Philadelphia in the mall, and the Foot Locker buyers were in there.
17:02I remember bumping into them because everyone was shopping the mall that day, and they were like,
17:06every single Foot Locker in Philly was sold out.
17:09It's sold out in the two minutes.
17:11This word started spreading across the country, because people across the country wanted this product, and no one could get the product.
17:20But because we never disclosed the number of how many pairs we ended up having, it probably ended up being the best thing that ever happened.
17:27So on the blue toe, we flooded the market with pairs of the blue toe, and that ended up even selling out.
17:33But it was hundreds of thousands of pairs.
17:36So by the time that one came, the market was primed.
17:39They were ready.
17:40And as they say, the rest is history.
17:45You got your own shoe, but seeing somebody else with them on, that's the best part about it all.
17:52And I'm not talking about your family and your friends, you know, because they're going to wear them regardless.
17:57But just seeing the fans wear them.
17:59And to go even further, the people that's not even fans of you would like to shoot.
18:05That's one of the best feelings ever.
18:07It's incredible.
18:11To me, growing up, how you look, how you play.
18:16You know, I want to make myself up to look not only just like a basketball player, but look like a superhero.
18:22A skinny one, but a superhero.
18:25So that's how I came up with style.
18:27I was like, what hasn't been done?
18:30The NBA has admitted to cracking down on traveling calls this year.
18:33One of the moves that's been singled out is a crossover dribble of Allen Iverson.
18:37Commonly known as palming the ball, Iverson was kind enough this afternoon to show us a slow, exaggerated look at the violation.
18:45When they have memos out on my move, I just, you know, just try to break it down.
18:50If they say it's too high and if they sit my hand on the bottom of the ball, I put it right on the side.
18:56So, just try to change it up.
18:58And the referees haven't been calling me lately.
19:01The only person who's going to stop him night in and night out will be himself.
19:06No one player can guard him one-on-one.
19:08I can have all these different flavors because I'm coming up with original things that haven't been done.
19:17Nobody would do this, nobody would do that.
19:19That's how I used to come up with it, like a superhero, to where they don't even look real.
19:24And it gives me great pleasure on behalf of the Philadelphia 76ers to present our rookie,
19:32Allen Iverson, with the Schick NBA Rookie of the Year Award.
19:35Yeah!
19:40I literally shadowed Allen everywhere he went.
19:43I loved being a fly on the wall, so to speak, in Allen's life.
19:47By me being everywhere with him all the time, it was also a way for me to make sure that he was
19:55always representing Reebok.
19:59I felt like in the beginning, the media had labeled him a little bit of a thug or menace.
20:06He used to catch a lot of flack for always having family and friends around,
20:11and they were calling all of us the posse.
20:13And I think Allen was very conscious of not wanting to be one of those types of athletes.
20:27I think he wanted to make sure in his success that he was pulling people along the way.
20:32I know what my nephew likes. My name is Jesse. I'm Allen's aunt.
20:37What's his favorite dish? Lasagna. I'm blessed to be part of his life.
20:42Every game, he always come up with some kind of new move.
20:46I tell my friend, I said, watch him, watch him.
20:48Allen Iverson's number one quality that everybody loved is that he did not change.
21:00Allen Iverson was never going to be the dude who was going to switch up and change
21:07just to maybe get that mainstream adulation that so many athletes, frankly, trade for authenticity all the time.
21:15And everybody loves somebody who's kind of going against the system.
21:19He just felt like rebellion, and it was cool.
21:22I like to think that me being a basketball player is totally different from me setting trends.
21:32This is who I am, and that's that. That's the great part of who I created within myself.
21:39You know what I mean? To be myself and let people know that I'm cool with that whole aspect of life, just being me.
21:45Mike had everyone wearing suits. Mike, because of his power, had everyone looking to him for a lot of direction in that way.
21:55And I think AI recognized that while all that's great and he loved Mike, Mike was like the big brother of the big uncle.
22:02But the little cousins don't necessarily want to be like the big brother and the big uncle.
22:05They want to create their own path, their own way.
22:07This was also when the urban market was starting to be focused on and paid attention to as a real consumer base.
22:17You got to remember, prior to that, a lot of brands weren't really paying attention to the urban consumer in an intentional way.
22:23Yes!
22:26Ladies and gentlemen,
22:32Alan Anderson, your first talk show.
22:35What's been the biggest surprise since you got in the NBA?
22:47I mean, the response that I've gotten from kids, you know, I mean, it's unbelievable, man.
22:54Sometimes, you know, I'll be on my block and I see a kid just walk by and I'll sit there and watch him.
22:59I mean, he had one of my sneakers and I'll watch him until he get out of sight, man.
23:02Cause I, I mean, cause I used to be a sneaker fanatic, man.
23:05And finally see little kids wearing my sneaker and look up to me.
23:09They don't care about what these adults care about reading.
23:11What is Alan doing with his posse and blah, blah, blah.
23:14All they care about is Alan Anderson.
23:15The Alan Anderson they see.
23:16And that's real with me, man.
23:17Okay.
23:18Magic had a bad TV show.
23:21Shaq did a genie movie.
23:24How are you going to embarrass yourself?
23:26It was amazing for me, you know, cause me wanting to be a future marketer.
23:36It was definitely something that put a certifiable stamp on my career.
23:42I really got hands on with this project.
23:46I was brought to Philly because of AI.
23:48I ended up moving from Boston and moving to Philly.
23:51And DMX.
23:52But had I not been there firsthand to kind of see it, dissect it, analyze it,
23:57and then try to figure out how to create and execute against it,
24:00we would have never built, let's call it anywhere from a half a billion to a billion dollar business
24:05on his behalf.
24:08We were kids, man.
24:09I mean, I, I was learning the business as I was showing him shoes.
24:11I didn't know what I was doing either.
24:13Q as well.
24:13We kind of learned on the job.
24:15I think what made it really work was we weren't trying to create a legacy.
24:19We weren't trying to set a standard.
24:21We weren't trying to create some new trend.
24:24We just like, we're living in the moment of working with one of the,
24:27I think most prolific players ever at the time.
24:29We were just trying to allow him to be himself.
24:32And I think that authenticity of who he is and us allowing him to do that is the magic of what happened.
24:38Reebok made the right pick.
24:42They were looking for the new hero.
24:45And Alan was that.
24:46He did everything that Reebok could possibly ever want.
24:49He was all the other great ones were before him.
24:59In 91 or 92, August that particular summer,
25:03Michael and I had just come back to the New York tour
25:05and we had a big meeting with the Nike staff.
25:09And for whatever reason, fate has it.
25:12Because it's true, Phil Knight, he fired me.
25:16Just like that.
25:19So I bounced around for a minute or two doing some other things.
25:22And I got a call.
25:25Rob Strasser and Peter Moore bought Adidas America.
25:30Rob and Peter invited me to fly to New York.
25:34And I go to New York and I meet him.
25:36I said, what are you going to do?
25:38We're buying Adidas America.
25:40We ain't got no money, but come aboard.
25:42We'll figure this out.
25:43And he asked me a question.
25:46How would you like to climb the same mountain twice?
25:51There were three or four kids that we were looking at, but we had to get it right.
25:56At this camp, we had all these high school kids,
25:59150 of them in one building for a week.
26:03I went there looking for the next Michael.
26:06That's why I went there.
26:09What I saw move my life on and move the shoe industry on,
26:13I saw a kid that came out of nowhere.
26:21And I called Peter and I said, I got the guy.
26:23We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:36We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:38We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:39We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:40We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:41We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:42We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:43We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:44We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:45We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:46We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:47We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:48We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:49We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:51We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:53We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:55We're going to offer him this is the one.
26:57We're going to offer him this is the one.
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