I love these old sports shop commercials for their low-budget knack for cramming as much as possible into thirty seconds. This early 1990s ad for Boston’s legendary Harry the Greek’s (which closed in 2001 after several decades in business) might be your only opportunity to see a crudely animated 1992 Torsion Allegra and tons of Champion, Reebok, ASICS and Fila flashing before your eyes. Plus the upgraded Forum of the time too — “I bought my Forums at Harry the Greek’s” is a testament to that shoe’s regional impact. It’s quick enough that stores should be making these things for Instagram video and not even bothering with other approaches to marketing. The sports store was always meant to be unpolished and this is as unpolished as it gets.
This French version of the 1988 ‘Come to the Stripes‘ commercial is also excellent and sounds better in another dialect — it does a good job of avoiding single brand bias, despite its speedy duration. Alabama’s Shoe City commercial from the same year harasses a man on the street and talks up the kind of dull, entry-level budget shoes that nobody got excited about then, but clueless people seem to like now because they’re old. Finally, a monk gets hyped with some Sonic Flights on his feet in an advert for Family Shoe Store in Williston, North Dakota.
GWARIZM 