It was modern urban life's answer to a movie premiere, complete with hulking black SUVs, gawkers and screamers, barricades and video paparazzi.
The scene was the Reebok Store on Philadelphia's South Street. The debut was for sneakers. And 500 people, most of them school-age, were standing in line, waiting to see a basketball player and a rap star.
Allen Iverson and 50 Cent met the media yesterday afternoon in an event staged to promote Iverson's new Answer 7 shoe and 50 Cent's new G6.
Iverson, of course, is Reebok's star in the basketball-shoe endorsement business and one of the hottest merchandise sellers in the NBA. For 50 Cent, though, signature shoes are something new.
But the 76ers guard said that pairing the two for promotional purposes (and billboards across America) made perfect sense. Hip-hop and the NBA, he said, go together like peanut butter and jelly.
"All rappers do is watch basketball," he said. "All we do is listen to rap and watch videos."
50 Cent echoed that thought. "I told the people at Reebok: Put me next to A.I. I want to be hot."
Iverson's new shoe, which he will wear on the court, has a suggested retail price of $115. The G6, meant for leisure wear, goes for $80.50, with the 50 cents going to charity.
These are relatively good times for Reebok, which recently issued its best quarterly earning report in six years. While Nike dominates the basketball shoe business, Reebok, based in Canton, Mass., has new hopes of eating into the industry giant's market share.
Nike still has Michael Jordan, the unchallenged king of the basketball shoe, with a LeBron James product line arriving in stores soon.
Last month, though, Reebok signed Houston Rockets center Yao Ming away from Nike, a move likely to have more impact overseas than here. And it has Iverson.
"The Iverson shoes have been very successful," said John Horan, publisher of Sports Goods Intelligence, an industry newsletter based in Glen Mills. "Kids really identify with him because he's been through it all. He has a lot of currency, and Reebok has basically made a lifetime commitment to him."
Among those in line to see Iverson and friend yesterday was Fred Anderson, 28, of Willingboro, Burlington County, carrying two bullet-proof vests that he'd sewn by hand for the celebrities.
Iverson's was white with parts of a blue Sixers jersey on it, No. 3; 50 Cent's was silver and black and bore his name.
Bringing such a gift to the rapper made perfect sense; 50 Cent was shot nine times three years ago and always wears a vest when he performs. Anderson figured that what he did for the one man he ought to do for the other.
"I'm hoping they'll accept the vests and maybe that they can help me get a clothing line started," Anderson said. "If not, if I can get a picture with them holding the vests, that would do."
More typical of the crowd, in terms of age and outlook, was Marqus Yip, 13, of West Philadelphia. In a white shopping bag, he had an Iverson basketball, an Iverson picture, and newly purchased Answer 7 sneakers, white with a black heel and silver trim. He was hoping to get autographs on all the items.
"He just loves A.I.," explained his mother, Jacqueline Holmes, who had taken him out of school to be there. "The Iverson gear is how I keep the A's and B's on his report card. It's an incentive. He knows that if you don't get the A's and B's, you don't get the stuff."
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