1
Jun
2010
VIDEO: Dennis Hopper, Crazed Referee
As we all know by now, one of the great actors of our generation, Dennis Hopper passed away over the weekend due to complications from prostate cancer. He was 74 years old, and Hollywood isn’t likely to see another talent of his kind any time soon.
Best known for his roles in Easy Rider, Blue Velvet, Apocalypse Now, and Hoosiers, Hopper also made his mark on the NFL with a series of Nike Commercials in the mid-90′s, playing the role of the “Crazed Referee”. The Bruce Smith commercial above might be the most iconic of the series, but do you remember this classic with Sterling Sharpe?
“Choo-Choo! Choo-Choo Baby!”
29
Jul
2009
Nike Introduces “Tecmo Bo” Sneakers
In news that made our inner child jump out of it’s seat, Nike is set to release a new series of sneakers in tribute to Bo Jackson. And what better way to immortalize the greatest 2-sport athlete of our day than by capturing him at the apex of his career … namely, as the unstoppable force that Jackson was in the old-school video game, Tecmo Bowl. Behold the former Raider in all his 8-bit glory!
From First Cuts:
To start the Bo Jackson series, Nike is set to release two sneakers inspired by Bo’s appearances in classic video games. Dubbed the “Tecmo Bo” pack, the pack features two colorways of the Nike Air Trainer TW II, a Black and a Grey (the Grey is not pictured), that are both inspired by Bo’s days on the gridiron as an L.A. Raider. The tongue on the sneaker features an 8-bit version of Bo from the classic Tecmo Bowl NES video game.
The shoes are set to hit stores in August, but are available at select retailers now. We make no apologies for our love of old-school video games here at ReadandReact, and this item has shot right to the top of our Xmas list. Glad to see the design wizards up in Beaverton are letting their geek flag fly.
23
May
2009
Blogger Responds to Nike Pimping Allegations
Dewey Hammond vs Larry Fitzgerald
Blogger & YardBarker Editor Dewey Hammond was kind enough to stop by ReadAndReact to respond to our post from last week – Blogger Used by Nike to Pimp New Shoes – where we called into question the credibility of his “un-staged, spontaneous” footrace with Larry Fitzgerald.
It was a classy move by Dewey to take the time to respond, and we want to give equal time here.
So here’s his response, in its entirety:
Those (Nike TR1) banners were there for an event with local college kids at UC-Irvine. They definitely had nothing to do with me racing Larry. It was an afterthought at the event, and it happened only because I was talking smack all day with Larry, and it wouldn’t have happened had Larry not pulled rank and basically said he appreciated Nike’s concern, but he was racing, because “that’s what I do, and I’ll race all day long.” I appreciate your cynicism, though. I’m sure I would have thought the same thing had I not been there, but it was an “un-staged, spontaneous moment,” and maybe the reason many bloggers aren’t questioning that fact is because there were 30 other bloggers/reporters present for the race, and if you still don’t believe me that it was spontaneous? Well, I don’t really give a fuck one way or the other. Later.
As we said in our reply to Dewey’s comment, he’s right, our cynicism is fairly well built-in at this point, especially when it comes to a behemoth company like Nike. And we apologize for questioning Dewey’s integrity. But we felt some skepticism needed to be injected into the conversation. If we’re wrong, we’ll happily admit it.
Hammond vs Chestnut
It turns out Dewey has a long history of this sort of thing, including challenging competitive eating champion Joey Chestnut to a beer chugging competition … and winning! (video after the jump). Moral of the story, here: Dewey cleary has WAY more access and blogging experience than we do, so we’ll just bow down to the master here. Mad respect, my man.
After the jump, in case you missed it, the video in question
18
May
2009
Blogger used by Nike to pimp new shoes
This video has been making the rounds for the last few days, and I can’t believe how disappointed I am in our fellow bloggers that everyone seems to be buying into the fact that this is an un-staged, spontaneous moment.
This blogger challenges Larry Fitzgerald to a footrace, and shockingly loses twice. In the second race, he gives up his Nike Trainer1 shoes (“which aren’t even out in stores yet!”):
In his original post, blogger Dewey Hammond claims that “the Nike folks in attendance tried to put a stop to it” … which must have been what they were doing when they set up all those Nike TR1 banners along the race course. Please.
Obviously, this is a viral marketing ploy by the folks from Beaverton, and a pretty great one at that. They got all of us sucker bloggers to post this video all over the web, getting all sorts of free subtle publicity for their newest shoe. Pretty sneak, sis.
