Long before Stephon Marbury launched his own shoe company, he helped launch AND1 into basketball history. The landmark deal Marbury made with AND1 resulted in some iconic shoes, and and Finish Line is bringing back the classic shoe that started it all.
The shoe that’s instantly recognizable to anyone who watched basketball in the 90s is back as the retrod Coney Island Classic. The shoe is sure to bring back a flood of memories, especially if you loved the full-grain leather look back in the day.
Slam went through the history of the shoe and Marbury’s decision to skip signing with an established brand and helping AND1 morph from a street ball stalwart into an apparel company with dozens of NBA players in its camp.
AND1 had already begun building some momentum in the basketball community with its famous “trash talk” tees prior to signing Marbury; up to this point, the brand was mostly regarded for its streetball influence more than anything else.
“People knew us for our apparel,” recalls Dexter Gordon, AND1’s Director of Player and Grassroots Development. “This legitimized AND1 from streetball to the League, so this was a big step for the brand.”
The shoe will come in three colorways, with a red, black, and white/black/navy version. Perhaps the most striking reference point on the shoe is AND1’s classic shirtless basketball player logo, though these shoes will be missing the logo Marbury once used. AND1 also hints that they’re doing something special next year, which will be the 25th anniversary of Marbury’s first shoe with AND1.
“We just had an overwhelming [amount of] requests from fans and sneakerheads to bring it back,” Gordon says. “It was just something that kept coming up and we had been talking about it for years. Last year, talks ramped up and we decided to do it as an introduction of things to come for our 25th anniversary in 2018.”
I’m not sure if I can pull off the white/black pair myself, but I can’t wait to see a pair of these in the wild.
