Angel Reese’s signature shoe was released at 10 am ET on September 18, 2025, but if you were trying to buy them by the evening, you would have been disappointed. Sure, there was always going to be a big reaction on launch day, but nobody, not even Reese herself, would have thought that the shoe would be sold out in just a few hours. But it wasn’t just down to Angel Reese’s popularity and the design that contributed to this enormous response. It was also down to a never-seen-before advertisement campaign that increased the hype even more.
At first glance, it seemed like an ordinary ad campaign. With Angel Reese’s monologue about her not riding the hate train, but driving it. But as details came out, this was something that had never been done before. The advertisement campaign was actually created with a mix of AI and live action spots. The man behind the ad and CEO of Ritual Ads, Jethro Rothe-Kushel, appeared on FOX 11 Los Angeles to give some more insight about the process of creation.
Talking about the creative process of the commercial, Jethro said, “We were able to deliver a pre-visualization of this within 90 minutes to Reebok. What a pre-visualization does is it allows you to understand the look and the feel of what these campaigns can feel like.” When asked about the comparison between the time taken vs the traditional campaigns, it revealed a surprising picture.
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“Typically, you have months in pre-production and then weeks, sometimes on set. And then many months in post-production. So we just speed up that process, and then what we can do at Ritual Ads is we can then work with streamers to be able to get real-time feedback and then pivot.” This quickness not only gives the creators more options to choose from but also makes sure that the players spend as little time of their busy schedules on shooting. Therefore, allowing them more time to rest and recover.
Suffice to say, such an innovative campaign was certainly a factor in the shoes flying off the shelves in mere hours after official launch. Launched at the price of $120, the shoe was reasonably priced if not cheap, compared to some other signature or player-exclusive shoes. According to some reports, the demand for her signature shoe was so much that it almost crashed Reebok’s website!
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As of now, the Angel Reese 1 is available in three colorways: Diamond Dust, Mebounds, and Receipts Ready. However, Reebok has already announced three more colorways: Charm City, King Tiago, and Giving Grace. Although there is no concrete update about when these colorways will release, we have no doubts that the demand will remain the same, and we could soon see the sold-out pop-up as soon as the show launches.
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Angel Reese Has an Emotional Reaction to the Response to her Signature Shoe
As soon as the news of Angel Reese 1’s getting an overwhelming response, Angel Reese posted a message on her social media that showed how much it meant to her. Her message read, “I’m in full tears right now. Taking a leap of faith and launching three of my signature shoes at once was a huge risk-but guess what? They all sold out! I’m soooooo THANKFUL & beyond GRATEFUL and just want to thank everyone for the amazing support. REEBOK IS BACK!”
Even during a recent interview with Swish Cultures, Reese credited Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson. “He (Shaq) spoke about me being able to bring Reebok back. I already knew everything he and A.I. were able to do, and their swag. I love A.I.’s swag, what they were able to do while they were playing. But like me, being able to have my own creative control and having my hands on everything was something I really wanted to do, and I was like, ‘All right, let’s do it. Let’s talk.’ And everything went great.”
Normally, whenever a player releases their signature shoe, they bring all the colorways separately. Not only does that reduce the risk of the show bombing on launch, but more launches mean more media coverage. But Angel Reese took a different path. ‘Chi Barbie’ has never shown any fear of failure or negative reactions. The biggest example of this is her ‘Mebounds’ collection.
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Started as a way to get back at the ‘haters’, the brand is now worth $2 million. This shows the fearlessness and how business-savvy Angel Reese is. She is well aware of her popularity, and even when she is being trolled, she is finding ways to cash in on that and adding more and more zeroes next to her net worth.