Jay-Z was the first non-athlete to have his own athletic shoe line when Reebok launched the S Carter collection in 2003. The S Carter line has gone onto become one of the most successful brands in the industry and Reebok has followed up on the success of Jay-Z's line by creating one for 50 Cent + G-Unit, Pharrell Williams and Fabolous. Other rap artists to ink deals with shoe companies include Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, The Game, Nelly, Missy Elliott. Former Roc-a-fella president Damon Dash has also jumped into the sneaker world with his attempt to bring back the Pro-Keds line of shoes; he has already signed Ron Artest as one of his endorsers.

Despite their success with hip hop artists' endorsements Reebok hasn't turned their back completely on using basketball stars as pitchmen. They still boast the likes of Steve Francis, Baron Davis, Shaun Livingston, Kenyon Martin and Allen Iverson - one of the most successful and bankable sport stars out there. But their list of stars pales in comparison to the battle being played out between Adidas and Nike.

	T-Mac has been a major success for Adidas.  (Source: Adidas)

Nike - the undisputed market leader holds the prize jewel of the industry in LeBron James - the closest thing to Michael Jordan both on and off the court from a shoe selling standpoint that the NBA has seen. In addition Nike also has Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, Steve Nash, Manu Ginobili and Dwyane Wade indirectly (Wade is sponsored by Converse and Nike owns Converse). Adidas' stable includes: Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady (who consistently has one of the best selling shoes each year, trailing only behind Air Jordan), Gilbert Arenas, Chauncey Billups and young stars such as: Josh Smith, Dwight Howard, J.R. Smith and Sebastian Telfair. Its players like LeBron, Telfair and Howard who are coming straight out of high school where the real battles are being waged.

It's not an uncommon objective in the world of sports to target and retain consumers from a very early standpoint. Sports teams hold events in local schools purposely to impact youth in the community with the end goal being to make them lifelong fans. In the sponsorship world the motivation is the same; shoe companies vie to land an athlete very early in their career and then build a brand that evolves as the player does. To put into perspective how dialed into this whole world LeBron James is: back in high school he wore a different brand of shoes for each nationally televised high school game just to give shoe companies a glimpse of the impact he could make as a full-time pitchman.

The ABCD Camp is renowned as the top annual amateur hoops tournament and brings together the best high school players for a one-week camp where high-school stars can be validated (Lebron James) and over-hyped phenoms can be exposed (Lenny Cooke). The event is a showcase for NBA draft potential and NCAA recruitment hook-ups. In recent years the camp has also proved to be a corporate branding exercise of shoe companies connecting with future basketball stars. Reebok has recently taken over the sponsorship duties of the ABCD Camp from long-standing sponsor Adidas, and in the process Reebok also signed on key ABCD Camp organizer Sonny Vaccaro. As sponsor of this influential tournament the major perk for a shoe company is the connection and hopeful sponsorship agreements that can be built with high school stars when they turn pro. After turning pro with the Trail Blazers, Sebastian Telfair signed a lucrative deal with Adidas and his shoe deal is no coincidence when you consider he attended the Adidas ABCD Camp, attended Lincoln High - an Adidas-outfitted high school, and he received hundreds of pairs of complimentary shoes including custom designed ST31's Adidas made for the Coney Island icon.

	All-star games are a tremendous showcase for shoe companies to roll out unique shoes.  (Source: Pickyourshoes.com)

What good is the sneaker war competition to sign the latest and greatest stars to sell your shoes without a proper event to showcase and launch your new shoe releases? Cue the NBA's annual all-star. With regular season restrictions on uniform team colouring on shoes the all-star game provides a venue for the stars of the game to model unique and limited edition models they normally wouldn't be able to get away with. Scottie Pippen's red Nikes, Chris Webber's chrome DaDas and Ron Artest's four shoe changes at the 2004 game are just some of the memorable and attention grabbing moments. Each Michael Jordan all-star game involved the debut of a new version/variation of Air Jordans and the end result was huge sales in the weeks to follow. Of course for the shoe collectors I alluded to in Part 1, the all-star game proves to be the ultimate showcase of rare and unique versions of kicks.

For those that doubt the continued trend of kicks being accepted and viewed as mainstream status setting cultural symbols then just consider the following. There are now entire magazines dedicated specifically to basketball shoes. ESPN2 is launching a new show this summer entitled "It's the Shoes" which is a variation on "Cribs" where athletes and entertainers display their sneaker collections. And unexpected corporate success stories like the streetball-sponsored AND 1 Mix tape tour continue to emerge out of nowhere and grab national headlines.

The world of Kicks is here to stay.