Untold the Rise and Fall of And 1 (Netflix)

[Russ Smith]

I watched this today. It's not great but it was actually really interesting to me just because I was one of those guys who watched those mix tapes and I learned quite a bit about the show etc. The premise of the movie is what happened to And 1, why did it fail. And 1 started out as 3 friends selling t shirts with basketball insults on them and at a certain point they decided we need a shoe so they got financing, signed Marbury to a 10 year deal and then he blew out his ankle in their shoes and nearly bankrupted them.

One of the interns had apparently been giving out shirts and I guess shoes to some local streetball players in NY and then filming them and he showed the tapes to some others and convinced them to make a "Mix tape" which went viral. Then they got the ESPN show and it blew up. And then that iconic Nike ad with the hip hop music and the guys like Jason Williams bouncing the ball, came out as Nike had targeted them because they were taking business from Nike.

Interesting stories, I always hated "the Professor" I saw him as Vanilla Ice of Streetball but it was interesting to see the backstory, 18 year old kid who everyone on the tour loved, until he "blew up" and got too much attention then some of them said it was racial or the company was pushing him because he was white etc. But if you want to blame one guy, it's Hot Sauce who was essentially the Ice Cube of the group. he's the one that figured out we're the stars and they're making all the money( I think the top salary was 100K). We signed a contract we can't make other money using our own likeness, we can't go do something else when the tour is off for the year, they're selling shoes with posters with our pictures on it, off tapes with us on it, but we only get the salary. The owner was pretty clear(the CEO) he said Hot Sauce came and asked for more money and I told him "go ahead and go then" because he didn't really at that time get it. He said looking back he wishes he'd made them employees and given them stock.

Eventually they sold the company, and the players got literally no notice, into a meeting, we just sold the company, everything is changing there is no And 1 Mixtape tour anymore. And that was it.

Not great but it was interesting and worth watching. ANd I don't hate Professor anymore I realize he was just a kid living his dream who realized he had a limited window to make money so he did what he could. He's still doing it btw I see him on youtube videos all the time so good for him.

 

[Chaplin]

Best pair of basketball shoes I ever owned were actually And1's. Granted, I only wore them to play basketball in, so they probably lasted longer than they would have had I worn them more often.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

I watched it when it first came out. Squashed by Nike.

Thought it was very interesting.

 

[Russ Smith]

Forgot to add I didn't even know And 1 was still around but apparently the company has been sold 3 times now and still exists somewhere.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I enjoyed it. Never knew the genesis but obviously a ball player and hoop junkie I knew the gear and watched the shows.

 

[Finito]

Yeah I’ve seen this. I remember those VHS tapes making the rounds. I was in a radio broadcasting class and we would get stuff from all over the country. There was like 15 of us in a studio going crazy.

They were cool for a hot minute but I had checked out by the time they were on TV.

 

[oaken1]

And1 were comfortable shoes, but the support was crap. I wore them to the office then switched to my Nikes for hoopin