High Flyer
Michael Jordan, also known as “His Airness” is a legendary NBA player that some consider the GOAT. When Jordan was in college, he won a NCAA championship. In 1982, he averaged 54.0% shooting, and he was picked for NCAA All-American First Team (basically an All Star Game for college players). With all this talent, he stood out to companies like Converse and Adidas, even an upcoming company Nike. When he was a rookie, he had his mind set on signing with Adidas. Instead, his mom convinced him to consider Nike. It wasn’t the biggest name in the shoe industry in 1984, but everything changed once Jordan came along.
The first shoe contract he signed was with Nike, which was a 5 year $2.5 million contract,which was a better deal than Adidas was going to offer him. Along with the contract amount, Jordan received a 25 percent royalty on Air Jordans sold with his image. Nike wasn’t doing good until a sports executive named Sonny Vaccaro got a deal with Jordan. He suggested they make a shoe for Jordan as a way to convince him to join their company. Vaccaro knew Nike was looking for an athlete to make their name known and Jordan was that athlete. Originally, Jordan wasn’t considering Nike as an option, but his mother Deloris convinced him to go and talk with them. Because Nike wasn’t doing much with basketball players, she thought later on he might be able to negotiate for a better deal because of his skills. Since they didn’t really have big name athletes, Jordan came along and made them a big name. From that the Air Jordans were born.
When people think about Michael Jordan they think about dunks. When Jordan dunks some people describe it as “soaring through the air,” so that’s how the name Air Jordan was born. The first pair of Jordans came out in 1985, and they were so popular Nike made $126 million in a year.
In total there are 38 Air Jordans sneakers, but one of them stood out from the rest, the Air Jordan 13 ‘Bred. In his incredible career, Jordan won six NBA championships, and did two three peats(won a title for three years straight) In Game two against the Utah Jazz, Jordan wore the Air Jordan 13 ‘Bred, and during that game he scored 37 points and the Bulls won that game. Eventually in that series, Jordan went on to win his sixth championship in the NBA.
Unfortunately, he was fined $5,000 a game for wearing Air Jordans, because it didn’t follow NBA rules. The rules are the shoe had to be 51 percent white and some Jordans weren’t. But since Nike was serious about Jordan, they paid his fines. The company continued making Air Jordans even after Jordan’s career was over. Later on in 2023, there was a movie starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Tucker, and Viola Davis, about the upcoming Nike company. The impact of the Nike and Michael Jordan deal gave other future celebrities a chance to get large sponsorships with shoe, food, drink, and clothes companies.
