Poster House | Legacy of Inspiration: The Black Fives & NIKE
Event looked back at retro collaboration to coincide with the museum’s current vintage poster exhibition, “Just Frame It: How Nike Turned Sports Stars into Superheroes“
The renowned Poster House museum in New York City held a special event that featured Claude Johnson discussing his iconic 2003 sneaker collaboration with NIKE.
The award-winning author, historian, and Black Fives brand creator Claude Johnson discussed the history of the early African American basketball teams depicted on his iconic “Legacy of Inspiration” sneaker collaboration with Nike in 2003–04.
He talked about how that collab came to be, now eleven years ago, his own experiences at Nike as a product line manager in its branded basketball-apparel group, and, of course, those limited-edition styles themselves, including 21 different styles across nine shoe types: Air Force I’s, II’s, and III’s, Dunk Highs, Dunk Lows, Vandal Highs and Lows, Legends, Air Assault, and Blazer.
There were six Black Fives Era basketball teams represented in the collection: Philadelphia Panthers, St. Christopher Club, Alpha Physical Culture Club, Smart Set Athletic Club, New York Rens, and the Independent Pleasure Club.
Johnson, whose 2022 book, The Black Fives: The Epic Story of Basketball’s Forgotten Era, won the Museum of African American History’s Stone Book Award, remains the only stay-at-home dad, author, or historian ever to get a global sneaker deal.
NIKE staged several promotional activities to launch this collection back in 2003, including this video that played on their NIKE.com home page.
Here is the full video of the livestream feed.
[…] In January 2025, the Foundation partnered with the Poster House Museum in New York City to present Legacy of Inspiration: The Black Fives & Nike. […]