With NBA Benched, Shoe Makers Try New Game Plan

With the National Basketball Assn. season in danger of dribbling away, the fate of Reebok International Ltd.’s new Allen Iverson model shoes has grown even more dependent upon alternative marketing thrusts such as the Reebok sign inside Roscoe’s House of Chicken & Waffles on Pico Boulevard and the new Iverson basketball shoe sitting in a plexiglass display case at Posh Kliptz barbershop near Inglewood High School.

“We can’t get away from the fact that the NBA game isn’t going to be there for a while,” said Carl Washington, a Los Angeles-based urban marketing manager for Stoughton, Mass.-based Reebok. “But we have a commitment to launching Allen’s new shoe [Friday], and we’re not going to back away from that.”

Washington’s army of street teams are placing the $115 shoes and product literature in urban gathering spots in big cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and San Diego. The marketers hope to get influential consumers talking about the shoe by outfitting hip-hop artists and radio disc jockeys with the new shoes.

They’re handing out key chains, water bottles and Iverson T-shirts at concerts and radio station giveaways. And they’re placing the shoe named for the Philadelphia 76ers player in barbershop display cases, hoping to shape conversations in a setting in which customers have little to do but talk as they wait their turns.

The goal is to create a buzz among urban trendsetters that will spread into suburbia without the benefit of TV exposure that NBA games can provide, which expensive shoes traditionally have used to get noticed on crowded shoe store shelves.

Reebok executives acknowledge that it’s easier to sell basketball gear when the shoe’s namesake is playing his highly publicized game. “Ideally, we’d like the season to be up and running,” said Henry “Que” Gaskins, Reebok’s marketing director for the Iverson line. “At the end of the day, Allen’s popularity turns on his being able to do his thing on the court.”

And Reebok is plodding ahead, undeterred by Iverson’s no-contest plea to illegal gun possession last year.

Indeed, big-name endorsements by top NBA stars helped drive athletic shoe sales for most of the last decade. Enticed by the otherworldly success Nike Inc. enjoyed with Michael Jordan, shoe companies rushed to sign top players. Sports marketers also believed that the famous names could help build credibility for athletic gear ranging from uniforms to water bottles.

Shoes Linked to Lifestyles

The NBA remains a power to be reckoned with in the sports marketing world--as is witnessed by Beaverton, Ore.-based Nike’s role as outfitter for 10 teams and shoe of choice for 65% of the league’s players. But even before the NBA lockout, marketers found that consumers were no longer content to wear a shoe simply because an athlete gets paid a handsome sum to wear it to work. Consumers are increasingly likely to select shoes and apparel that mirror their overall lifestyles. That’s one reason sales of basketball shoes were flat last year.

So marketing executives are scrambling to determine which athletes can successfully be recast in that new light. Reebok executives, for example, maintain that Iverson’s appeal to young, urban consumers extends beyond basketball into music and movies.

“He represents the whole hip-hop generation,” Gaskins said. “While the [shoe market] has become very fragmented, with Allen, what you’ve got is a lifestyle that can sell whether there’s a season or not.”

Reebok’s new Iverson ads, which began playing this week, show the star playing basketball. But Iverson cuts to a basket in a gritty city park rather than a stylish NBA arena. And Reebok uses Iverson’s distinctive style of play to emphasize individuality--an increasingly common theme in sports marketing.

The street-oriented theme also is evident in a commercial for the new Kobe Bryant basketball shoe from Beaverton, Ore.-based Adidas America Inc., which goes on sale Oct. 26. There’s no NBA footage of the youthful Los Angeles Lakers guard in the ads, which focus more on Bryant than on his NBA connection. “We’re going with a more grass-roots style of advertising,” Adidas spokesman Travis Gonzolez said.

The shoe industry’s street-level marketing push takes its cue from the music industry, which long has used street teams to promote new music to largely black and Latino urban consumers, who play a significant role in what becomes fashionable in the broader market.

Reebok and other shoe companies are scrambling to outfit hip-hop groups and radio disc jockeys with their shoes. Reebok might also sponsor a national hip-hop dance contest--and polish its image by outfitting top contestants with new models that are stylish and practical.

“Think about it,” Marketing Manager Washington said. “Where are your eyes when you watch people dance? On their feet.”

But as is always the case with fashion, the key is pairing the right product with the right artist. When Reebok sponsored a recent string of hip-hop concerts, the company didn’t offer Iverson shoes to every performer. Shoes that look good on the feet of a hip-hop group like the WhoRidas, Washington said, would be out of place on a so-called gangster rapper like MC Ren, who has a darker and harder edge.

Selling to Hip Teenagers

The distinctions aren’t lost on fashion-conscious teenagers who get their hair cut at Posh Kliptz, a barbershop across the street from Inglewood High School. Sports is a hot topic in the shop where NBA players such as Larry Johnson occasionally get their hair cut. But according to shop owner Sonny Wells, Inglewood students also pay close attention to fashion--and are quick to grab the free key chains and water bottles that Reebok occasionally provides.

The in-store displays and life-size Allen Iverson cut-out also make customers stop and consider Reebok’s new lines of shoes. “Kids look at themselves from head to toe--from the hair to the shoes,” Wells said. “And for a lot of these kids, it’s not as important who wears the shoes as what they look like.”

The unconventional marketing is aimed at shoe buyers like Marcus Brown, who was wearing a pair of Nike shoes while getting his hair trimmed at Cut Shop on Pico Boulevard on Monday. And from Brown’s seat in the last chair in the narrow barbershop, it was hard to miss the new Iverson shoe in the front window, the Reebok T-shirts worn by barbers or the Reebok water bottles.

“Using a shop is a good way to sell shoes,” said Brown, who pays as much attention to what a basketball shoe looks like as how it performs during pickup games at Los Angeles’ Balboa Sports Center. “You walk in and out, and you’re going to see the product. And if you like it, you run out and buy it.”

And as major players such as Reebok and Nike scramble to adjust their marketing and advertising, companies such as New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc., which have long eschewed celebrity endorsements, are mounting their own street-level attacks. When Boston-based New Balance promotes its shoes at upcoming three-on-three basketball competitions, it will hand out T-shirts with “Endorsed By No One” emblazoned on the front and the company’s “NB” trademark on the back.