Once again I’m going to take you back in time to reminisce about the good ole’ days when athletes had their own shoe and their shoe commercials stuck in your mind forever. One of my favorite players of the 1990s is Larry Johnson. You couldn’t tell me, or anybody I knew, that Johnson was not a great player. It is a shame that his basketball skills were was never quite the same after blowing out his knee. But, Johnson’s “Grand-mama” commercials were outrageous and hilarious and rivaled the “Lil Penny” ads.

During the mid 1990s, Nike had the basketball shoe world on lockdown. Converse needed a shoe that could put them back in the game as far as being a reputable shoe company for athletes. Their answer, Larry Johnson and his “Grand-mama” alter ego. “Grand-mama” was played by Johnson himself as he dribbled and dunked the ball, wearing an old dress that only a grandma would wear. When Johnson was not playing “Grand-mama” he was trying to tell people that his shoes were so light and fast that “His grand-mama could beat you playing basketball while wearing his shoes.

The “Grand-mama” commercials came out when athletes were just starting to revel in the glory of having their own shoe, but the commercials that were made around that time had been never seen before. Before Grand-mama, The only players who had their own shoe with cool commercials were Jordan and Bo Jackson (Bo Knows Bo). “Grand-mama” got so big that she (Larry Johnson) even appeared on the 90s popular sitcom “Family Matters”. Converse’s “Grand-mama” commercials were a big hit and it was one of the first TV ads that featured a cross-dressing male athlete. This was pure genius Converse’s marketing team.

I was fortunate enough to be a teenager when “Grand-mama” commercials were in full swing. I would go back to school the next day and ask “Did you see the new Grand-mama commercials”? Of course we all did and we would talk about all day at school and would even try and duplicate the moves she did in the commercials. I sometimes miss those days.

- John A. Roberts

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Tags | Converse, Grandmama commercials, Larry Johnson, Larry Johnson Shoe