As seen and mentioned on Friday, all kinds of shoe companies were vying to be king of the hill in the late 80s/early 90s. Everyone was so shoe crazy kids were getting beat up and their shoes stolen! The manic levels Reebok, Nike, L.A. Gear, Converse, Adidas, British Knights, etc. propelled our thirst for “cool” shoes to was ridiculous.
Case in point — after using many star athletes of the day (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky) to push their line, L.A. Gear turned their attention to the music business. They used campaigns featuring Belinda Carlisle and Paula Abdul (no relation to Kareem) but their biggest coup with wrangling up “The King of Pop” Michael Jackson in a rare bout of endorsement for Jackson. When “the most famous person in the world” signs on to endorse your product, you know you’ve got the public in the palm of your hands.
The opening seconds of this commercial are kinda funny to me. It reminds me of that scene from A Nightmare on Elm Street where Freddy is walking down the alleyway. Now there’s an idea! Freddy should’ve worn L.A. Gear in A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.
I don’t think I ever actually owned any L.A. Gear shoes, but I remember wanting some of their L.A. Lights line and I remember many of their commercials. My sister once got a pair of Gears though and I remember taking the little mock license plate keychain that every pair of shoes came with.
what a cool commercial. PS – your comment about wondering why you bought those NES cards made me laugh out loud. You bought them because they’re AWESOME.