By Odeisel

When two sides are at war, the balance of power is carefully maintained. An uneasy peace can generally be affected through the retention of similar power levels. But behind the scenes there are Manhattan Project machinations, with each side attempting to find that weapon to break that stalemate.  In the post Jordan sneaker landscape, with the broken bodies of Pony, Converse, and Etonics laid by the wayside, only one serious challenger remained in Nike’s path to total domination: Reebok.

But while Nike had set the Jordan line of demarcation above the rim with the right person at the right time, Reebok chose to go back to basics and lean on superior engineering for their brand of oneupsmanship.  The result in 1989 was the creation of the Reebok pump and the first real evolutionary leap in the sneaker wars. For this monumental task, Reebok drafted Paul “Litch” Litchfield. Armed with a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire and an M.S. in Exercise Science from UMass, as well as international post graduate research in Human performance, Litchfield was perhaps uniquely qualified to level the playing field. Planet Ill was lucky enough to catch up with Litch and get his take on being a part of pop history.

Once the technology was in place, there was a need to test it in battlefield conditions. Fortunately for Reebok there was one who could match the Jordan above the rim with similar flair. Atlanta Hawks small forward Dominique Wilkins was christened the “Human Highlight Film” and with good reason. His two-handed windmill dunks were just the match for Jordan’s high-wire act and his charisma was just strong enough to push the pump into the forefront. We spoke to Dominique as well concerning his participation in this epic confrontation.

While Wilkins’ stardom was already established, perhaps the hallmark moment of the Pump’s rise to eminence belonged to the most unlikely of heroes, Boston Celtic’s rookie, Dee Brown. Diminutive by NBA standards, Brown stood a paltry 6’2” in height. Add to that his Boston Celtics blue collar pedigree (certainly antithetical to a flashy Slam Dunk contest at that point in their history) and you had a particularly implausible representative.  But Brown’s incredible hops got him into the final round of the 1991 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, and his “blind dunk,” preceded by his very conspicuous pre-flight pumping, wowed the crowd in attendance and the millions of viewers across the country, cementing the Pump as the “it” sneaker and without a doubt the next big thing. (See Above)

In celebration of The Pump’s 20^th anniversary, Reebok brought together 20 retailers from across the globe for an exclusive Pump collaboration.  Each retailer designed a limited edition of The Pump which will be released alongside the two original colors on November 20, 2009.  US retailers include Undefeated, Saint Alfred, Packer, Bodega, HUF, Commonwealth, and Kicks/HI. Global retailers include 24 Kilates, atmos, Colette, Espionage, Hanon Shop, Juice, Patta, Premium, Size?, Stolen Riches, SNS, and Solebox

Below are the designed, finished Pumps from each.

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