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What Prompted Michael Jordan To Launch His Shoes

In Fashion
March 06, 2021
What Prompted Michael Jordan To Launch His Shoes

Nike spotted a new talent, a passion, and a potential opportunity to grow their brand after Michael Jordan was selected third overall by Chicago Bulls in 1984. The then 21-year-old basketball champion, however, wasn’t ready for the Nike deal. He was determined to wear Adidas. Nike was mostly known for track shoes. Converse was the most common brand with the NBA champions then. 

Although Jordan fixed his gaze on Adidas, David Falk was more for the Nike deal. He argued that Adidas was dysfunctional, and they confessed that they couldn’t make a shoe at the time. Falk considered Nike a better option since it was the upstart. 

Finally, Jordan agreed to sign the deal with Nike, which led to Jordan sneakers history, a story that really changed the game for both Michael Jordan and Nike. It was the beginning of the champion’s sneakers brand, Air Jordan sneakers. The line attracted many sales to the company, putting Nike ahead in terms of popularity and revenue. In 2018 alone, the company realized $2.9 billion in revenue from the Jordan Brand line.

Also, Jordan remains the highest earner( above current players) from sneaker-income 16 years after retiring from professional basketball. In 2019, the ex-champion earned $130 million from his deal with Nike. This is over four times more than his closest first runner-up, Lebron James, who earned $32 million. Almost five times more than the third-highest earner, Kevin Durant, $26 million.

So what prompted Jordan to change his mind?

Jordan hated how the shoes looked and even laughed at the “Air Jordan” name (Falk’s idea). He wasn’t willing to attend the meeting with Nike. According to Falk, he asked the champ to just go and listen to the company’s pitch but couldn’t even get Jordan to board the plane and visit Nike. He says he had to call his parents to convince him.

According to Jordan, it was his mother who convinced him and made him attend the meeting. The meeting made him change his mind immediately, and he decided to give Nike a chance. The company was offering him a whopping 25% royalty for a five-year deal. That was enormous considering that the best players then got about 10%, and Jordan was a rookie who hadn’t built a name. 

As part of the deal, the champion also acquired his own shoe line, Air Jordan.

Due to Jordan’s success, the brand took off almost immediately. According to Falk, Nike expected to hit $3 million in sales from Air Jordan by year four while they signed the deal. However, the agent says that they enormously surpassed the expectation in the first year, with sales totaling $126 million.

The start of the Jordan sneakers

After the deal, the Air Jordan (AJ) shoe line started creating fabulous designs. These were primarily designed for the six-time NBA Finals MVP and Hall of Fame basketball player Michael Jordan. Nike’s designers, Peter Moore, Bruce Kilgore, and Tinker Hartfield, were at the forefront of the creations. Nike exclusively designed the champion’s shoes in 1984 and then started releasing their products to the public in 1986.

Since their first release, the brand has become household notoriety with notable limited releases, star-struck collaborations, and introduced retros (re-releases) of the AJ lineups.

Sometimes abbreviated as AJ, Air Jordan is an American brand of basketball shoes, style clothing, and athletic casual produced by Nike. It was first created exclusively for Jordan by Peter C. Moore in late 1984. The first piece in the Jordan Brand, Air Jordan I, featured red and black colorway of the Nike Airship. However, the line was banned by then NBA Commissioner David Stern for not adhering to the 51% white color rule required by the NBA regulations.

After the ban, Jordan and Nike decided to introduce AJ I in colorways containing more white, like “Black Toe” and “Chicago.” They then released the shoe to the public, using the ban as a marketing tool. In their advertisement, they hinted that the shoe was outlawed for offering an unfair competitive advantage. And they made excellent sales.

After the first original release in 1985 and 1986, AJ I got a sequence of other re-releases (retros) in 1994, 2001 to 2004, and 2007 to the latest.

More to come

The success with AJ I inspired Niche to release another Air Jordan in 1986. Compared to its predecessor, AJ II was more unique since it was made in Italy, more comfortable, and had more white. It also featured an artificial lizard skin and gliding lines that looked like a sports car detailing. It was then released to the public from 1986 to 1987 and then re-released in 1994, 2004 to 2005, 2010, 2014 to 2018. Its aesthetic was then passed down to the subsequent Air Jordan lines.

After that, Tinker Hartfield, Nike’s office and store designer, created the AJ III line in 1988. This line came when Jordan wanted to leave Nike, but the shoe changed his mind yet again. AJ III was the first in Air Jordan sneakers history to feature an elephant pattern trim, a new Jumpman logo, an air unit visible on the heel, and a tumbled leather gave it an extreme luxury look. They were Michael Jordan’s favorite, and he wore them on the 1988 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, plus several other events in his career. The line recorded poor sales in their first reintroduction in 1994. However, the sales got much better during the second reintroduction in 2001. 

The AJ III has gone through numerous retros and re-releases in different colorways to celebrate different occasions. These include Red Cement on February 15, 2020, Black History Month in 2011, Black Flips on December 3, 2011, and much more. Other retros include 1994, 2001, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2016 to 2020.

The sequence of new releases, re-releases, and reintroductions have since continued to boom the Air Jordan brands. Recently, they have over 33 Air Jordan series plus other productions. These include the Jordan packages (Spizike, Old Love New Love, Defining Moments Series), Air Jordan Sixty Plus, and many others. In total, the releases from this brand can go beyond 60 lines.

The success of the Sneakers

Air Jordan Sneakers have sold well and benefitted both Nike and Jordan with great revenue. The most significant sales attractor of the brand was Michael Jordan’s success in his basketball career. It feels fantastic to wear a favorite of the champion, and most of his fans rushed to the stores to get hold of his designs.

The quality of the products is also the main factor. The company says part of their revenue comes from buyers who were not yet born during Jordan’s reign on the basketball courts. 

The company also never took their marketing for granted and made good collaborations with advertisers. In their time, the Air Jordan lines offered some of the most humorous and successful adverts.

While the brand grew with several releases and products in the market, Nike doesn’t own any manufacturing company. As a result, they only create the shoes’ designs and take a head lead in marketing. They then contract manufacturing to other companies but dictate standards of the products and production terms.  These include factories in Indonesia, Vietnam, and China.

Sponsorships

The brand supports sporting activities in different ways. First, they are the sole equipment provider for the University of Florida, University of North Carolina, University of Michigan American Football, and the University of Oklahoma. They also support different teams and players.

They also partnered with UNFC to help underprivileged youths afford higher education.