Hamilton, Ont. filmmaker Sean Menard (299 Queen Street West) is directing RTG Features’ docuseries on sneaker culture The Sneaker Boom.

The Sneaker Boom is coproduced by Menard’s Toronto-based banner Sean Menard Productions. RTG Features CEO Aron Phillips, who previously teamed up with Menard on the 2017 feature doc The Carter Effect, is producing.

The multi-part series is currently in post-production, according to a news release. RTG Features, a film and TV production and financing company, is basketball media company SLAM’s sister studio.

The Sneaker Boom is set during the NBA’s explosion in popularity in the early 1990s, when marketing and advertising execs began to bet on unproven rookies to pitch their athletic footwear in wild and creative TV commercials.

The series features such ’90s NBA icons as Dee Brown (who was sponsored by Reebok), Converse pitchman Larry Johnson (pictured centre, as his TV ad character “Grandmama”), Penny Hardaway (Nike) and Grant Hill (Fila), as well as the brand marketers and advertising creatives that brought their campaigns to life. Also appearing is Sonny Vaccaro, the executive who helped bring Michael Jordan to Nike, and who was recently played by Matt Damon in the feature film Air.

“Teaming up with Sean again was a no-brainer,” said Phillips in a statement. “By flipping the script from the players to the marketers and advertisers behind them, we’re able to tell a fascinating sports business story about basketball and sneaker culture that’s never been told before.”

Menard’s latest documentary, 299 Queen Street West, about the rise of Canadian channel MuchMusic, premiered at this year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival. The film is scheduled to go on tour across Canada this fall before premiering on  Crave at the end of this year, said the release.

With files from Taimur Sikander Mirza

This story originally appeared in Realscreen

Photo courtesy: Sean Menard Productions