crooked tongues magazine News Features

In stock: Click here to buy the Reebok Question Mid (White, Navy) in the Crooked Tongues store now.

In stock: Click here to buy the Reebok Answer Iv (White, Black) in the Crooked Tongues store now.

Allen Iverson helped change professional basketball and Reebok's decision to snap him up paid off, even if we've seen the lifetime signee in AF1s lately. Who's going to tell Allen what to do? From being caught up in bizarre laws over brawls, to the Georgetown days into the 76ers in 1996 and those money-burning rumors of a fortune squandered we're inclined to believe that Iverson is a true rebel in an era where sportsmen are bland brand-led cardboard cutouts. Iverson's look was the most powerful basketball style statement since Michigan's 1991 team wore their shorts long — Rodman's antics veered to close to camp to fully influence us, but Iverson's cornrow and excess of ink (quality is irrelevant - we can't trust a basketball player with expertly applied tattoos) sparked an epidemic, to the point where that look became mainstream. We even wonder if his Philly days even had an impact on street style in that city, with neck tattoos being everywhere.

He looked short as hell (at 6 foot, he was hardly towering) and his 3-pointers were weak , but the shouting, the anger and the passion makes Allen one of our favourite athletes ever (in fact, some of the anecdotes we've heard might make him the most interesting athlete who ever lived). Back when Jordan's signature shoes hit their commercial prime, leading to the genesis of Jordan Brand, Iverson's releases rivaled Reebok's arch enemy with some solid design merged with pure performance for the kind of outlaw even Nike might baulk at trying to market. Bearing in mind that the first Question model (the lightweight edition was cool but the sequel looked horrible) was on the shelves next to a slew of some of the best basketball shoes ever from Nike, Converse and adidas and still blew our minds, we still think it's one of the greats, capturing the player in those anti-subtle eyelet letters and the contrast leather toe cap (red is the greatest, but this colourway, which got plenty of play in 1997 runs close), plus that showboating Hexalite panels.

Shaq's shoes got ugly and Shawn Kemp's career hit freefall by 1996, so Iverson's line was a savior of the Reebok basketball line and while the Question is a classic, we think 2000's Answer IV is the definitive Answer. 1997's original was cool, but this paralleled some elements of the original Question like that toe cap to feel like the true sequel (in fact, the Answer V, VI and VII are all very good too), and it's one of the best examples of the currently controversial subject of zipped basketball shoes concealing laces, capturing one of our favourite eras of Allen. There was actually 13 different Answers (like some sort of trick question) in the end, but some clear standouts. That Iverson logo is still questionable to us though.

We're glad to see that the kind of retros that were once confined to the American market have made it here, presumably as part of a new look at the Reebok archives and response to the current Jordan-mania. A lot of brands could learn from both the quality of the reissue of both the Hexalite-aided icon and its younger DMX-assisted sibling. These have been out in other territories for a minute, but they've just landed inshore and going on previews, 2013 is going to be an even stronger one than 2012 for 1990s Reebok basketball fans.

In stock: Click here to buy the Reebok Question Mid (White, Navy) in the Crooked Tongues store now.

In stock: Click here to buy the Reebok Answer Iv (White, Black) in the Crooked Tongues store now.