AND1

1993 BEGINNINGS

AND1 began in the summer of ’93 in Philadelphia as a graduate school project of Jay Coen Gilbert, Seth Berger, and Tom Austin who were selling t-shirts out of the backseat of their cars.

The brand was founded with an aggressive, street ball, in-your-face attitude using basketball trash talk slogans on t-shirts, like "Pass. Save yourself the embarrassment." AND1 marketed itself towards the “ballers," those who hone their craft on the streets and always think they’re the best players on the court.

1994 THE PLAYER

With the increasing success of the trash-talk tees, the iconic AND1 player logo was soon created. The player logo perfectly represented the DNA of AND1 as a true streetball brand. In the words of Seth Berger, co-founder of AND1: “By shining a light on a game that lived in the shadows, streetball started shaping the basketball lifestyle. In the middle of the storm was the Player. The Player made it okay to talk trash as long as you could back it up. The faceless and raceless icon gave ballers everywhere the confidence to take on all comers. He brought attitude back to the courts and swagger to the streets. The Player backed down to no one, and he wasn’t afraid to say it.”

1996 STEPHON MARBURY

In 1996, legendary NBA player and future Hall of Famer Stephon Marbury became AND1’s first NBA ambassador, paving the way for the scores of players the brand would sign in the years to come. Marbury was named to the All-Rookie Team in ’97 and went on to lead the Timberwolves to the NBA Playoffs in ‘97 and ’98, bringing AND1 much fame in its early stages.

With the Marbury signing, AND1 launched its first pair of basketball sneakers, essentially expanding the brand into the footwear category. The brand debuted its footwear at the 1997 NBA All-Star Game, officially releasing the Stephon Marburys, which wound up becoming one of AND1’s greatest shoes.

1998 THE SKIP TAPE

In late 1998, a videotape containing streetball stunts was delivered to AND1 by a high school coach in New York. The low-quality video was a “mixtape” of hip-hop music and dazzling basketball moves by a streetballer named Rafer Alston, who had just entered the 1998 NBA Draft.

A short while later, AND1 edited and reprinted 50,000 digital copies of Alston’s Mixtape and distributed them across America through basketball camps, clinics and record labels. The tape instantly became the buzz of the basketball world.

The videotape was later known as the "Skip Tape," referring to Alston's streetball nickname "Skip 2 My Lou." Alston, although not yet in the NBA, would soon sign with AND1.