Ever wonder what happened to Reebok?

The introduction of the Reebok Zig Tech system brought the running world to its knees with an unconventional design that was more than elaborate. The sheer comfort of the tech was nothing short of amazing, so amazing that hoop fanatics couldn’t wait for the tech to be transitioned over to a basketball shoe. While we got what we wanted with the ZigTech Slash, the traction utterly destroyed the possibility of having Reebok come back in full force.

If we take a look back, way back… we can find an abundance of sneakers just waiting, if not begging, for a reissue. With the retro market showing no signs of slowing down in popularity, why haven’t they taken advantage of the retro and brought back some fan favorites?

Reebok’s signature SHAQ series is just one example. Sure, not all of them are great looking but they were all more comfortable (my opinion) than any Nike Air based sneaker at the time. We get it, Shaq took his name and logo when he left the brand… yet that hasn’t stopped Nike and Adidas from reissuing previous lines that helped make take their popularity to a whole other level and making subtle name and logo changes to make the reissue work.

What about certain shoes where the players attached didn’t take their name or logo with them… and could even use a little extra cash? Shawn Kemp had a great run with the brand featuring Kamikaze’s and the Reign Man line. Again, a VERY comfortable set of sneakers just waiting for a reissue.



We can even go further into the vault and dust off some old turf shoes as well. The Reebok ES 22 was by far one of the best, if not the best, turf shoes of the 90’s. Nike had some great ones I’ll give them that, but these just give me chills when looking at them. That flashy blue and giant Hexalite pods just scream ‘rock me till the sole fall off!’… And trust me, owners of the sneakers DID. Trying to find a pair is next to impossible these days, let alone a pair in good condition. They were the Questions of turf trainers…



Speaking of Questions… this is a sneaker that has been reissued more times than one can count, in more colorways than Baskin Robbins has flavors. Much like most of the Reebok Pump line, the Reebok Question is one of my personal favorites out of the Reebok vault, but it’s been abused over the years as a quick money maker for the brand. Almost like placing patent leather on a shoe. As we have all witnessed, too much of something isn’t always a good thing. More money is awesome and nobody will contest that, but too many Questions just makes one tired of the repetitiveness. I don’t care how many colors or materials they HAVEN’T yet placed on the shoe… it should never come out again; or at least for 20 years.



So why hasn’t Reebok taken advantage of the retro? They have been making great strides with their performance innovation the past few years but they have yet to truly tap into a market that would undoubtedly have them compete with Nike, Jordan and Adidas. Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s there is only one brand that I can think of that truly went head to head with the Swoosh successfully… and it was Reebok. Personally, when I walk into a sneaker store I would love to see some of these cult classics on shelves next to the adidas Crazy 8, Nike Air Go LWP & Air Jordan Legacy lines… Out of all of the brands, one seems to be blatantly missing from the bunch.

What are your thoughts on the subject; should Reebok consider looking into the past in order to retain their consumers from yesteryear, or should they keep looking forward and forget where they came from while attempting to create the next big thing?

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25 Comments

  1. Yeah Reebok should retro some of the previous signature shoes like the Kamikaze or even the Questions(in the OG colorway). The turf trainers are on point too. SMH…they’re missing out on a lot of money. But who knows, only time will tell.

  2. Reebok should retro big time, as in the latest years they have not been able to come up with anything notable design wise…

  3. Well they kinda did with the omni pumps and the and like you mentioned the questions. What they should do is release the blacktop pumps again along with the first shaq’s those were the best shaq’s in my opinion and the fours where you had to buy the pump seperate. The reason in my opinion reebok doesn’t retro shoe is because of the lack of interest from people like me. I am a self proclaimed sneaker head but my main focus is more towards jordans. I would love to see these shoes retroed but find myself doubting in my mind that I would actually buy a pair just because it’s not the same as when I was a kid. As a kid we fed into the hype of reeboks because of the pump (what kid didn’t think those made you jump higher and run faster) the hex air bubble or what ever it is the point I’m trying to make is reebok doesn’t have the popularity amongst the new generation of kids. They know who jordan is they like nike blazer because they wanna dress like skater kids or preppy kids. The times just don’t fit with the styles of the reebok shoes we grew up with. Shaq was a popular guy he broke the hoop (twice!) so that made us want his shoe. Kemp dunked on every body that made us want his shoe Iverson crossed jordan (twice!) that made us want his shoe. Looking at every shoe company, addidas really didn’t retro but one shoe so far they’re are a ton of kobe shoes they can retro they can retro the t-mac I wanted a pair of those back in the day but they won’t. You have to see what they see and they realize that those retros don’t hold the same value as jordan or nike. So they figure noone would be willing to pay the money for a shoe that’s just not that popular with the kids today. These kids don’t know anything about iverson, shaq, or shawn kemp they never seen them play in their primes so they don’t know the significants, we know, but they don’t. Plus reebok isn’t hot to kids maybe the pumps I mean look at them the shoes kind of look bulky and big and heavy they will look at them and say “I can’t rock these” and you know they wear them tight leggin jeans too lol. You forgot to mention Fila and the Grant hill’s, and jerry stackhouse and Converse with the grand mama’s and the kevin johnson’s lol just to mention a few more retro could be’s. Nice article tho

  4. Trent, stand up, this is your post homie!

    Kamikaze 1 was rediculous. I put that next to any Jordan. If they retro-d it, i would cop and can easily rock it casually. Question 1 mid was beautiful as well.

    I dont know whats up with Reebok and Addidas. It seems Nike is the only one profiting from re-issues. They need to step their retro game up. Retros is all buy/wear nowadays.

  5. I couldnt agree more with SneakerGeek 100% true, lol @ ” I cant rock this”. Shaq first Kicks are still hot to my eyes and i would def. get them if they ever come out. Peace

  6. What about Iverson’s sneaker line??!!I’d love to get the wht/red Answer 1 and the Answer VI

  7. I worked at Champs Sports when I was in high school. My first day was the day before the Concord 11 launch. The reason why they won’t bring these shoes back is because they didn’t sell well back then. Of the shoes pictured above, I only see 3 max that could be reissued. Reebok had a hit with the Pumps. Then they didn’t have another hit until the Questions. Now I am just one guy who worked at a Champs near Detroit, but Reeboks didn’t sell, therefore there isn’t much demand for them. For every 1 of those Reeboks, there’s probably 2 or Nikes that people want reissued.

  8. those Kamikazes are awesome, wish they would bring em back, never was a huge fan of any of the SHAQ line except the hypnosis ones, those were tight.

  9. I had the Shaqnosis when i was young and always wanted to have those Kamikazees. Now if Reebok would grant us the wish to have those Kamikazees retroed i would be forever grateful. The 90’s kicks rule!

  10. Reebok has “retro” shoes in production, just not basketball shoes. Reebok needs to find a polarizing figure to attract people to them. John Wall isn’t that guy. AI had swag and could sell an image. Same with SHAQ and KEMP.

  11. I was looking through some old clothes and shoe boxes the other day and I found my old pair of white/Red Iverson VI’s and thought how dope it would be if Reebok “Retroed” the Iverson line? Iverson’s are legendary just like Nike and Jordan in my opinion. The white/Red Iverson VI’s are classics and in my top 5 sneakers of all time! G.narley F.reshmen K.rew

  12. Reebok has retroed several of the shoes in the last few years including the Kamikazes. Matter of fact, if I wanted some Kamikazes I can buy some right now form the Footaction Outlet here in Columbia SC. They have plenty of them for 80% right now. And that tells you all you need to know about why Reebok isn’t retroing more shoes. They don’t sell. The Outlet here gets shoes shipped out from the stores after 13 months and they are on sale for as low as 80% off and people still don’t buy them. The problem is most so called “sneakerheads” are really just Jordan / Nike followers who have no idea about any other brands or won’t wear other brands because their friends they want to impress won’t know what they are. Reebok as a brand just isn’t cool or hip so kids won’t touch them. Let’s be honest here, Nike sells plenty of ugly shoes just on the strength of the Swoosh. Branding is more important to the kids then actual looks and performance.

  13. I always remember wanting those Shawn kemps when I was younger and the twilight zone pumps, but at the time I was getting into Jordans and being little It was one or the other so I was never able to get them but now that times have changed and I have the money I would spend hundreds on pumps, kamikaze and iverson & shaq retros. I only wish reebok had the balls to release them

    1. Yeah, Shawn Kemp’s Reign Man or Kamikaze, they’re wicked.. And I want all Reebook sneakers back..

  14. …And here I am… I bit late, sorry guys I was out of the country in the last week so I missed that article, but last night after a came back from UK, and a short tour in Europe, I saw it and I got so excited. Did not have a lot of time to write, so I decided to do it this morning.
    To start, I would say that my main reason to go on this short trip was that I needed to get all my Reebok archive materials, which I will have to scan in the next few weeks and get ready to be published, my plan is to finish and make popular my Reebok tribute and history site, and at the same time reach out to them and talk some retrofitting, hopefully people like me will love that…hey if not it will be for my own pleasure :-)
    K2, good to see you here brother, Sneakergeek, good as always – respect!
    And now, not sure where to start, there is so many things I can say, and still will not be enough, so many different prospective and points of view on the subject.
    First IMO Reebok lost the battle in the late 90’s by starting to design weird and cheep looking shoes, and starting to drift away from technologies like The Pump, Hexalite and the Graphlite, going for the new stuff like 3D Ultralite and DMX foam was just not convincing enough and the lost all the followers and fans of the old glory and especially the Pump.
    Shortly after, Adidas took the advantage and bought them and starting to control it differently, of course Reebok being a huge competitor for them before was just left behind and neglected. Personally I was not a huge fan of Adidas, there was only hand full of models that I really liked back in a day and I would want to buy if they re-issued them now (StreetBall, Mutombo’s and some of the running shoes from the 90’s), and I am still not a big fan of them and their policy. Reebok are still left behind, with only a few models retro-ed (Off course I have the Omni Lite, both the limited 1991 edition and the recent one, also the D-time, missed the Battleground :-(, but will catch them next time) unfortunately, the fact is that they have at least a 2-3 dozens of sneakers that can be re-released and I personally will buy. Don’t name them all now, but some of them I have to, like the pictures show above all the Shaq models (although I think they will never bring those back) all the Kamikaze models (especially 1 and 2, even the Low ones) most definitely all the Vertical models (one of my favorite lines Vert 3 and Vert 4 were just amazing) and all the Omni line (1 to 4, plus all the other Zones like Twilight, Transit and Vector ) than comes a ton of Blacktop shoes, think Boulevard, Battleground, Central Park and Alternative (had one of those, one of the best I ever wore). Than comes newer models like the InstaPump Boom (absolutely awesome sneaker), Insta Pump Romulus (the first Basketball shoe without laces) all the Preseason line and all the Cross Training lines and many more…
    And off course who can forget Insta Pump Fury 1, probably the most amazing and innovative designs ever created, received multiple awards and millions of followers around the world, and I don’t know what was Reebok thinking re-releasing the second one in a millions of hideous colors and never the first one in its original colors (red/black/electric green and black/blue), I hope they will snap out of it some day.
    At the end probably most of you guys don’t even recognize all the model names I mentioned above and probably don’t even care, but form me and a not that big of a group out there it is like a religion.
    BTW author, you missed Shaq Trainer above in the pictures, Shaq played in those for a long time (interesting fact Shaq played in Vertical 3 before he got his first signature ones and in his LSU days he rocked a LaGear)
    Reebok, please wake up and start re-releasing those models, I am sure you will have a profit, more than now, Zig’s are good and I run in one of those, and I am sure they are the backbone of the your profits now, but please we want retros.
    P.S. All the Reebok OG fans, keep your eye out there for the new Reebok tribute.

  15. Simple answer… The shoes are just too ugly. No respectable non-sneaker head would purchase an ugly shoe that has no sex appeal what so ever. I mean just look at those ugly bulky pieces of crap, they have zero swag factor, zero fashion sensibility. If i tried to rock any of these Reebok’s with any of my outfits (except the Iverson Answers) I would look like a total lame, a literal laughing stock. Reebok is smart and they know they could only sell these retro’s to blind people and nostalgic sneaker heads. They were kool back in the day but with today’s modern contemporary styles they are just to ugly and the color ways/design are outdated even for a retro no matter how comfortable they the Reeboks feel!

  16. Im looking to purchase Reebok Boulevard Blacktop Bringbacks, Mens, Black, Size 9 UK. Anyone know where i can get these? Its proving impossible. Willing to pay a good price for a new pair.

  17. Central bank your an idiot are u blind you must not have seen those hideous Swiss beat reeboks ? Lol go smack yourself you must be young guy?

  18. Please Reebook, bring them all back.. I’m choosing Reebok over Nike or Jordan’s, even Adidas. I was a big fan of your sneakers. I’m on my knees begging…

  19. hey do you know where i can find Reeboks Optiks? they were shawn kemps shoes but i cant find any pictures