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Grandmama returns to billboards

Friday, July 09, 2004

Hey, is that former NBA star Larry Johnson up there on the Converse billboard on Interstate 95, dressed in old-lady clothes, just like in the good old days? The same Larry Johnson who, reportedly, wore out his welcome with the Converse sneaker company in 1999 (and soon afterward with the New York Knicks) when he lost his cool during the NBA Finals, was fined for an obscene outburst, and then called TV commentator Bill Walton a former pot-smoking hippie? And then signed with rival sneaker-maker Fila?

"Yes, that's Larry Johnson on the billboard," says Erick Soderstrom, Converse's director of brand development.

Converse is reintroducing its Aero Jam shoe, which Johnson and his Mrs. Doubtfire-like alter ego, Grandmama, promoted in 1993.

"These are my new shoes from Converse. They're so light and so fast, my grandmama can whip you in them," Johnson said in commercials.

Now Aero Jam is an $85 "heritage basketball model."

Converse pretty much invented basketball shoes with its Chuck Taylors in the early 1920s. It went bankrupt in 2001 and was bought by private investors, who turned its focus to retro styles. Last July, Nike acquired Converse, which still operates independently and has continued to push throwback fashions. It was the No. 6 sneaker brand in U.S. sales in 2003, with two straight years of more than 35 percent growth.

The company took heat last fall from youth basketball coaches, among others, when it introduced a shoe called Loaded Weapon, not long after the shooting death of Baylor basketball player Partrick Dennehy. The company said the name was a homage to The Weapon, a shoe of the '80s endorsed by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

For the reborn Aero Jam, "We got Larry out of retirement, asked him to get involved again, and resurrected Grandmama," Soderstrom says.

There won't be any TV commercials this time - mostly just outdoor ads and store displays. The billboard photo is from an early-1990s shoot. Johnson's new involvement with Converse calls for him to appear at stores and basketball clinics. He's not putting the dress back on.

"He will never appear as Grandmama again," says his agent, George Bass. "He's just doing appearances as Larry Johnson."

A look-alike actor will make appearances as Grandmama, as necessary, at basketball events.