Unable to Defeat Nike, Shaquille O’Neal Still Took Pride in Reebok’s Major Milestone Due to 1993 Super Bowl

The 1993 Super Bowl was star-studded in a lot of ways. OJ Simpson was in the game, Garth Brooks sang the national anthem, and Michael Jackson led arguably the most memorable halftime show in Super Bowl history. And then there were the ads. Reebok had mounted an aggressive campaign to compete with Nike after signing its first basketball player, a rookie from LSU named Shaquille O’Neal. As Super Bowl XXVII rolled around, Reebok launched its biggest competition to the Air Jordans. To spice it up, they brought together a collective of NBA greats to star in the Super Bowl ad spot. 30 years after that commercial, Shaq can still gloat that he nearly toppled Nike.

O’Neal’s laundry list of commercial appearances includes multiple Super Bowl ad spots. However, that 1-minute Reebok blockbuster for Shaq Attaq is special to him, as he told ABC News this week. “I remember when we were a close number two behind Nike,” O’Neal recalled about the aftermath of the commercial.

Reebok and Nike were pretty neck-and-neck over three decades ago. Reebok was in fact at the top for three years until 1989. Then Nike obviously got a lead in the sneaker wars thanks to Michael Jordan, and even further when MJ was on a campaign to three-peat in 1993. Meanwhile, Shaq was a proven endorsement magnet from the moment he was selected first in the 1992 Draft. Though his dream was to own a pair of Air Jordans that fit his size 22 feet, he did something unconventional and became Reebok’s first basketball athlete.

That followed the release of the Shaq Attaq sneakers, complete with O’Neal’s backboard-breaking silhouette. His then-agent, Leonard Armato, told EssentiallySports that the logo made the NBA nervous. But Nike had more reason to be nervous.

Reebok produced the “Don’t Fake the Funk on a Nasty Dunk” commercial for the Super Bowl in 1993. Apart from Rookie of the Year Shaq, the commercial starred the Mount Rushmore of Bigs – Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Bill Walton. The combined greatness in this singular commercial made the Shaq Attaq and Reebok very trendy and put them in direct competition with Nike.

The impact of Shaquille O’Neal’s Super Bowl commercial

A report by the NY Times shortly after the Dallas Cowboys (Shaq’s favorite NFL team) won the 1993 Super Bowl revealed the impact of that commercial. Both brands were at a sports goods trade show, working on different floors. Reebok’s then CEO was at the show rallying a campaign to beat Nike. While Nike kept a business aesthetic, Reebok’s stall was themed around Shaq, his Super Bowl commercial, his rap music, a 15-foot standee, and playing his games on 17 television sets.

As of the 1993 Super Bowl, both were raking in billions in revenue. But Reebok was short by $400 million, occupying 24%, the second largest share of the sneaker market. Nike held 30%.

Marketing experts at this trade show saw Shaquille O’Neal had the credibility to be the most marketable athlete after Jordan. But that didn’t work out for Reebok in the long term. He’d eventually leave and Reebok would falter while Nike continued to dominate with MJ.

But Shaq’s back now as the president of basketball operations. Armato said Shaq’s aim is similar to his former boss, to restore Reebok to equal standing with Nike.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting pilot episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and SEC All-Freshman Team Selection, Silas Demary Jr.