November 24, 2015, is the Reebok Pump’s 26th birthday! It’s a great opportunity to look back at the Reebok Pump 20 collaboration project.
In 2009, Reebok teamed up with 20 of the greatest sneaker boutiques at the time. Located all over the globe — from Hawaii’s Kicks/Hi to Australia’s Espionage to Sweden’s Sneakersnstuff — the boutiques were given free rein to create 20 unique and extremely limited iterations of the original Reebok Pump. Here’s a little background on the Pump technology from the Pump’s creator, Paul Litchfield.
Each boutique released 31 pairs of their collab and 29 pairs each of the OG white and OG black Pump colorways. The labels on the inside of the tongue featured that particular pair’s number out of its respective set and which store they were produced for. Contrary to what some of the Internet believes, there were a few pairs of the ’00 Friends & Family’ editions. I can confirm this as I’ve simultaneously owned multiple pairs. They were originally intended for the boutique owners.
As you flip through this collection you’ll see that each collab showcases great design, flawless execution, and passion. When the sneaker blogosphere was blowing up 2009, the Pump 20 project was covered extensively. There is a ton of footage on the Web that I’ll be linking you to during and at the end of this piece (not to mention some of the classic Reebok commercials that started The Pump craze). I couldn’t pick a favorite Pump 20 — they’re all beautiful. Let’s get to it.
The undisputed Reebok Pump king is DJ Senatore, also known as @deeboks. He has slain sneaker Instagram countless times with his Reebok collection and during the month of Boktober, he killed it nightly. He’s done a Nice Kicks “Sneak Peek” that focused on his vast Reebok collection, but had not yet completed the Pump 20 collection when that episode was filmed (over a year ago). Reebok has also worked with him on all kinds of things surrounding the Pump, including flying some of his collection out for a special event.
Deeboks is one of the only people I know of that has completed the entire set of Reebok Pump 20 collabs and documented it so thoroughly. The photo below is the entire set — a preview of all the goodness that is to come as we look back at the Reebok Pump 20 project.
Aaron Nojima
Robbie Falchi