Nice Kicks: Were you into any of the other signature shoes that Reebok created over the years?
Dee Brown: I wore the Reignmans. I really liked those. I never really felt the Shaqnosis. Those shoes just made me dizzy. I couldn’t wear those. I wore the low top Reebok Classic joints consistently. I think everybody wore those with jeans back in the day. As far as players, I wore the Shawn Kemps, and I wore the Iversons. The Questions were nice. One of my favorite Reeboks of all time was the Insta Pumps though. Those were great. I had all kinds of colors of those. I used to work out in those during the summer.
Nice Kicks: But, I’m sure nothing compares to the Reebok Pump in your opinion, right?
Dee Brown: To this day, it’s one of the cleanest shoes ever made – black and white with the orange ball, and the orange bottom sets it off. I really love that shoe, and I was wearing it faithfully even before the contest. It’s not like it was some shoe that I got just for the dunk contest. I thought the shoe was great to play in. When I pumped it up, it actually secured my ankle. It may sound like I’m selling the shoe, but I’m serious. I never got my ankles tape because I felt locked in when I pumped the shoe up. People used to come up to me and say, ‘Will these make me jump higher?’ I was like, ‘Nah, but keeping pumping. You just might. [Laughs].’
Nice Kicks: You said earlier that the Reebok guys told you that you “changed Reebok overnight.” Do you feel as if the pumping of your shoes altered Reebok, let alone the sneaker industry?
Dee Brown: Well, let me tell you this story. After I won the contest in Charlotte, I didn’t know how much of an impact I had on shoes until later that evening. I went to a party that they had for the players only, and when I walked in, I felt like Michael Jordan [Laughs]. Everybody was talking about the shoes and the no-look dunk and how they had never seen that before. At the party, the fans were trying to get into the VIP where the players were. Somehow, the fans got into it, so the players were getting escorted to a different place. Somehow, I got into the same corridor with Michael Jordan. It was just us two by ourselves. Mind you, I’m still a rookie at this time. He says to me, ‘Hey, you did a great job, and it was a great show you put on at the contest. But, shoe-wise, I have to go at you now.’ That’s all he said. It’s crazy because he wasn’t talking about basketball; he was talking about shoes. He was like, ‘You’re trying to put a dent in my pocket.’ But that’s just his mindset. He was a competitor. No matter what it was, he wanted to be the best. That moment also let me know how powerful the pumping of my shoes was. That one night made that shoe very iconic.
Nice Kicks: Do you think you could’ve beaten MJ in a dunk contest?
Dee Brown: Honestly, Mike was Mike. I’m never going to say I could beat Mike in a dunk contest, but I would’ve given it a good run. I always tell people I had three more dunks that I could’ve did just in case the other ones weren’t good enough. Nobody hasn’t done these dunks yet still. All I know is that night, I was the best in the world, and I made a statement with Reebok that will never be forgotten.
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