AND1
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| Industry | Sporting goods, footwear |
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| Founded | 1993 |
| Founder | Jay Coen Gilbert, Seth Berger, and Tom Austin |
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Key people
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Endorsees: Rafer "Skip to my Lou" Alston Lance "Born Ready" Stephenson Sean "The Chosen One" Kilpatrick |
| Products | Athletic shoes, clothing, sports equipment, accessories |
| Parent | Sequential Brands Group |
| Website | and1 |
Endorsees: Rafer "Skip to my Lou" Alston Lance "Born Ready" Stephenson
AND1 is an American footwear and clothing company specializing in basketball shoes, clothing and sporting goods. AND1 was founded on August 13, 1993, on the grounds of "All ball, nothing more". AND1 focuses strictly on basketball with an aggressive, in-your-face attitude in the design of their products and marketing of the brand. It is currently a subsidiary of the Sequential Brands Group, and is sold nationally and around the world by Sporting Goods retailers. AND1 continues to sponsor NBA athletes, as well as numerous High School and AAU teams in America.
In 1993, AND1 began as a graduate school project partnership of Jay Coen Gilbert, Seth Berger, 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. The brand started by selling T-shirts out of the back of a car, but caught fire right away. Early advertising strategies, used to distinguish their products from others, included other basketball slogans and trash talk, such as "Pass. Save Yourself The Embarrassment". It marketed itself towards the “ballers”, those who hone their craft on streets and always think they’re the best player on the court. The t-shirts started off in Foot Locker and within the second year of launching it reached 1,500 stores across America.
In mid of 1996, NBA star Stephon Marbury became the first spokesman for AND1. With Marbury’s signing, AND1 launched its first pair of basketball sneakers, officially expanding the brand into the footwear category. Marbury was named to the All-Rookie Team in ‘97.
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 on with AND1.
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