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EXCLUSIVE: Sean Menard (_299 Queen Street West_) has been set to direct the docuseries _The Sneaker Boom_, on basketball shoe marketing of the ’90s, for RTG Features, the sister studio to
basketball-focused media company Slam. RTG Features CEO Aron Phillips is among the producers of the project, which Sean Menard Productions is co-producing. Currently in post-production, the
series is set amidst the NBA’s rise in global popularity during the early ’90s, watching as a group of marketing mavericks and advertising execs bet millions on unproven rookies as they
enlist their talents for wildly creative television commercials. As the players grow into superstars, basketball sneakers go from being a niche sportswear product to everyday fashion, en
route to becoming a multi-billion-dollar industry. The story of _The Sneaker Boom_ is told through the lens of ’90s NBA legends including Dee Brown, Larry Johnson, Penny Hardaway and Grant
Hill — who were respectively sponsored by Reebok, Converse, Nike and Fila — and the unsung brand marketers and advertising creatives that brought their popular campaigns to life. The project
is described as picking up where Prime Video’s recent Nike pic _Air__ _leaves off. And while it should be noted that none of the same behind-the-scenes creatives from that Ben
Affleck-directed film are aboard this project, it does prominently feature Sonny Vaccaro, the former sports marketing executive (played in _Air _by Matt Damon) who proved integral in
bringing Michael Jordan to Nike for the launch of the Air Jordan line. WATCH ON DEADLINE _The Sneaker Boom_ came about following Menard’s collaboration with RTG Features’ Phillips on the
Netflix doc_ The Carter Effect_, examining the global impact of NBA legend Vince Carter, which premiered at TIFF in 2017, as well as the 2016 feature doc_ Fight Mom_ on UFC fighter Michelle
“The Karate Hottie” Waterson. Said Menard in a statement to Deadline, “The most interesting aspect of production for me was getting to meet these marketing execs who had never shared their
story on camera before. Early in their careers they helped launch sneakers into mainstream popular culture, and their success came from taking big creative risks. It was very inspiring.”
“Teaming up with Sean again was a no-brainer,” added RTG Features’ Phillips. “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 most recently directed and produced the SXSW-premiering documentary _299 Queen
Street West_, which goes on tour across Canada this fall for 13 one-night-only events, coming to streaming in the country on the platform Crave at the end of the year. Offering new access to
archival interviews with icons ranging from Kurt Cobain and David Bowie to Tupac Shakur, Justin Bieber and Britney Spears, the film tells the story of scrappy Canadian television upstart
MuchMusic from the perspective of the VJs who helped launch it with no prior TV hosting experience, broadcasting live across the country without scripts or much in the way of direction. Also
spotlighting sneaker culture with the forthcoming animated feature _Sneaks_, produced by and starring three-time Emmy winner Laurence Fishburne, RTG Features counts amongst its other
upcoming projects the biopic _Hawk_ on former NFL player Andrew Hawkins, which is being produced in partnership with his Parks Tower Studios, as well as an untitled, multi-part docuseries on
legendary Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson from Peabody Award-winning director Kirk Fraser.