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The team of Master P and retired NBA player Baron Davis are among the last remaining prospective Reebok buyers from German sports apparel Adidas. And although the final purchaser will be announced sometime in March, the No Limit owner was not at all shy with already revealing who he believed should be the face of the brand.
“The way we look at Michael Jordan for Nike, we look at Allen Iverson that way in Reebok,” Master P told reporters in his interview with Yahoo Finance Live. “We need to bring him to the forefront. We need to bring in better designers. We also need to make this for the millennials. And I think that that would be a game-changer.”
Last year, Reebok celebrated the 25-year anniversary of Iverson’s essential and signature sneaker, the Question. This sneaker was A.I.’s highest-selling one ever as well as one for Reebok overall. He was so integral to the company’s resurgence in the early 2000’s that it offered him a lifetime contract in 2001, which still pays him $800K every year to this day. Furthermore, he was gifted a $32 million trust fund that he will be able to access in 2030 when he turns 55. Even five years after Iverson’s retirement in 2013, Reebok President and Global Head Matthew O’Toole spoke about Iverson’s impact and legacy with the company in a Bloomberg news article: “He has a place in our heritage, and there is a group of consumers who want to connect to that.”
With Under Amour’s Curry Brand and alleged stories of the late Kobe Bryant potentially leaving Nike to form his own shoe company, Iverson might be “The Answer” to challenging the Jordan Brand, since he would potentially have the status of an elder statesman as well as the appropriate cred for today’s school of ballers.
“I feel like the brand needed to be made cool again,” said Master P. “And I think that we have the plan to make this happen.”
