Air Force One: the Marketing Deluge Begins

This Sunday the 10th in New York, there's gonna be the first of probably many events in the coming year created to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Nike's most famous/popular shoe, the Air Force One, aka Uptowns, aka Ones, aka Coke Whites.

According to an AHH news story:

During the celebration, rappers Kanye West, Nas, Rakim and KRS-One will unveil and perform a new, Rick Rubin-produced original song, dedicated to the sneaker.

Rubin is well known for his wide range of hit productions, which include another sneaker anthem, Run-DMC's 1986 smash single, "My Adidas."

Guests expected to attend include Dave Chappelle, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Rihanna, Queen Latifah, Spike Lee, Moses Malone, Usher, Snoop Dogg, LL Cool J and others.

What's interesting is not so much who is performing, but who's NOT performing. For one, Nelly, whose big hit, "Air Force Ones" was an ode to the classic shoe, and then Jay-Z, who favors Uptowns over all others. While I haven't seen much in the news these days about either Nelly's Derty One sneakers (ironically another AF1 knock-off) or Jay Z's S-Dots, both of those shoes are manufactured by Nike rival Reebok, which means that either the legal association between those artists and Reebok still exists or Nike just doesn't feel comfortable with fact that they were connected with another brand so recently in the past.

Hat tip to NahRight where I first spotted this story.