words // Zack Schlemmer
Today's Classic Commercial feature brings you a look at a kind of oddball ad featuring a young Chauncey Billups for Reebok and Footaction. The weird thing about it is that it features two signature shoes, neither of which are Chauncey's. The two shoes you'll see are Shawn Kemp's Reignman and Allen Iverson's Answer. Since both of these models were released during the 1997-98 NBA season, that puts Chauncey as a rookie with the Boston Celtics for this ad.
Footaction explains that you can get both Kemp's and Iverson's shoes, but you can't get a Chauncey Billups signature model...YET. As it turns out, that "yet" would be quite a while - almost 10 years - before you could get a Billups signature shoe, and it wouldn't be with Reebok but with adidas and the C-Billups model he earned after leading the Detroit Pistons to an NBA Championship.
As for the two shoes within this commercial, the Shawn Kemp's Reebok Reignman was a later model in his line after the unforgettable Kamikaze 1 and 2. The Reignman would be Kemp's last shoe worn as a Sonic, and his first worn as a Cav as he was traded during the 97-98 season. Iverson's Answer was the second model in his signature collection, after the Question, worn during his sophomore season. The Answer shown here in it's popular black and gold colorway was one of the first and probably the most popular Reebok basketball shoes to utilize DMX cushioning technology. It's still one of the favorites and best sellers of AI's long signature line with Reebok.
