“The fans never stopped asking for it,” says Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. The rapper, producer, and serial entrepreneur isn’t talking about a new album or yet another spinoff of his sprawling Power franchise. Instead, he’s finally indulging his supporters by re-releasing one of the most beloved sneakers of the early-aughts: the Reebok G-Unit G6.
The G6 launched in 2003, the very same year 50 broke through with his seminal album Get Rich or Die Tryin’. In the wake of that record’s multiplatinum success, everything that Jackson and his group G-Unit (also comprising, at the time, Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks, and Young Buck) touched was gold. In addition to a non-stop slew of solid-gold hits, G-Unit had their own record label with Interscope, their own clothing brand with Ecko, and yes, their own sneaker line with Reebok. While G-Unit and Reebok would go on to drop other popular silhouettes like the G XT cross-trainer and G-Unit Boot, none could ever compare to the runaway success of the original G6 tennis shoe, with its luxe, pared-down, exceedingly versatile look.
“Creating it the first time was special,” 50 recalls of the shoe. “I worked with Todd [Krinsky, now Reebok’s CEO] and the team on everything and they really let me make it mine. It wasn’t just a sneaker—it became part of the culture.”
That’s no exaggeration—it’s hard to overstate the grip G-Unit had on hip-hop and youth culture at large in the early aughts. Everything associated with the group’s style became aspirational—the spinner chains, the white tank tops, and especially the ultra-clean G-Unit kicks. They were just as captivating to me and my middle-school classmates as they were to our older brothers and college-aged camp counselors. For a lot of us, Reebok G-Units were an introduction to sneakers as an object of cultural currency, not just something bought out of necessity, like notebooks and pencils, the week before a school year started.
The partnership eventually fizzled out around 2006. But over the ensuing two decades, as sneaker culture continued to explode and evolve, the shoes remained an object of fascination. Given just how tied to a specific era they were, though, there was no telling if the G6s would ever see the light of day again. But nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and for years fans and media members alike have waxed poetic about the G-Unit sub-brand and hoped to see its return someday.
According to 50, that love didn’t go unnoticed, and he’d pushed for a return for some time. “We’ve been talking about it for a while,” he says, noting that Reebok’s break away from Adidas in 2022 and its subsequent reset has helped. “Reebok is back, the G-Unit fans are still here, and there’s a whole new generation discovering us. The timing just felt right.”
So when the moment arrived, they didn’t overcomplicate things. The G6 is back as a note-perfect reproduction of the original shoe. No bells, no whistles, no retooling it for the modern era. It features the same clean white leather, suede toe cap, G6 lace charm, red, white, and blue accents, and that classic G-Unit script logo on the side. The shoe dropped today for $130 via Reebok and select retailers. They sold out the first time around in 2003, and you can bet they’ll be going for a repeat performance this year.
As for Jackson? It’s hard not to look back in a moment like this one. He burst onto the scene 23 years ago as one of the most exciting rappers in the world and brought his boys up with him. They burned bright and eventually burnt out (the group has disbanded a few times and hasn’t released music together since 2015). Since then, 50 Cent’s ended up a savvy businessman (his legendary $100 million Vitamin Water deal) and a successful TV mogul (the aforementioned Power universe). With what he knows now, is there anything he’d go back and tell 2003 Curtis Jackson?
“Keep doing it your way,” 50 says. “And don’t let nobody tell you what you can’t do.”