AND1 is an American athletic shoe company specializing in basketball shoes
and clothing. Founded in August 13, 1993, the company's headquarters were
located in Paoli, Pennsylvan Company history
In 1993, AND1 began as a graduate school project partnership of Seth Berger, Jay
Coen Gilbert and Tom Austin while they were graduate students at the University
of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. The company name is derived from a phrase
used by basketball broadcasters: when a player is fouled while shooting, makes
the shot and makes the awarded foul shot as well, they score the points for the
made basket "and 1" for the made free throw. Early advertising strategies,
used to distinguish their products from others, included other basketball
slogans and trash talk, such as "Pass. Save Yourself The Embarrassment".
In mid of 1996, NBA star Stephon Marbury became the first spokesman for AND1.
In late 1998, a videotape containing streetball stunts was delivered to AND1
by Marquise Kelly, coach of the Benjamin Cardozo High school team in Queens, New
York. The tape contained low quality camera moves, poor resolution and nearly
indecipherable audio featuring a streetballer by the name of Rafer
Alston. At the time, Alston was a student at Fresno State who had entered
the 1998 NBA Draft. The videotape would soon be known as the "Skip tape",
referring to Alston's streetball nickname "Skip to my Lou". Alston later
signed AND1's first endorsement deal. In 1999 at Haverford College in
Philadelphia, AND1 shot their first series of commercials and print ads
incorporating NBA players Darrell Armstrong, Rex Chapman, Ab Osondu, Raef
LaFrentz, Toby Bailey, and Miles Simon. When the traditional marketing campaign
proved unsuccessful, a strategy was formed to use the "Skip tape". It was
edited and reprinted into 50,000 copies and over the next eight weeks,
distributed across basketball camps, clinics, record labels. The tape would
become the first "Mix Tape", and quickly made Alston into a celebrity. When AND1
became a product partner with FootAction, this strategy evolved into a
national program. Beginning in the summer of 1999, a free
AND1 Mix Tape was given with any purchase. Approximately 200,000 tapes
were distributed in the span of 3 weeks, making this promotion one of the most
successful in U.S. retail history. Filmmakers were then sent across the
country to capture and find the next streetball legend.
As of 2014 And 1 is owned by Sequential Brand Group, as part of a portfolio of
shoe brands including Avia, Caribbean Joe and more.
AND1 Mixtape Tour The AND1 Mixtape Tour has featured
streetball players of fame, including Skip to My Lou, Main Event, The
Professor, Hot Sauce, Spyda, 50, and AO. AND1 players have made annual tours
around America to recruit the next streetball legend. This recruiting has
since been edited for airing as Street Ball on ESPN and ESPN2. It is also
parodied in the movie Like Mike 2: Streetball as "Game On".
Video games EA Sports' NBA Street, published in
2001, featured dunks and passes in AND1 fashion, but was licensed from the NBA.
In 2002, Activision announced the first AND1 video game called Street Hoops,
featuring AND1 players. Gameloft has also released a mobile game based on the
AND1 franchise. References
External links AND1 VIDEOS
AND1 Basketballcamps