“Michael Jordan first came to the attention of the American public as a college freshman with his performance in the 1982 NCAA championship game, hitting the game-winning shot for the University of North Carolina over Georgetown. Two years later, Jordan decided to forgo his senior year and declared himself eligible for the National Basketball Association’s draft, becoming the third player selected, behind Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie.
While he hadn’t been selected number one overall, Jordan’s high-flying talent was regarded as uniquely sublime. As was routine, his agent looked to get his player a shoe deal as an ancillary source of income.
Endorsement deals were common enough but minor for most. Numerous college teams by this time wore Nikes, with the coaches receiving the endorsement money. Tennis stars, given that it was a single-player sport, had some of the biggest shoe deals. Nike had John McEnroe. But most other types of athletes had relatively modest deals. The biggest shoe deal for a basketball player belonged to Jordan’s onetime teammate at the University of North Carolina, James Worthy, who had an eight-year deal with New Balance at $150,000 per year.
As a fan of the brand, Jordan wanted to sign with Adidas. After being pressed by both his agent and his father, Jordan relented and made a trip to Oregon to Nike’s headquarters. There Nike made a pitch to Jordan, offering him $500,000 per year for five years, along with royalties from shoe sales. In addition, Nike offered to design a special shoe branded for Jordan with his design input.
All this was a part of a revolutionary leap forward for African Americans. When Jordan was a toddler in 1966, North Carolina didn’t allow blacks on its team. The tremendous running back Herschel Walker, celebrated in the South in 1980, wouldn’t have been able to play on the University of Georgia’s football team just ten years earlier. And now here was a company offering nearly the equivalent of Jordan’s basketball salary to market shoes.
To justify the expenditure, Nike expected $3 million in first-year sales. The company designed a bold red and white shoe with a black swoosh.
When Jordan suited up for his first game, the NBA banned the custom-designed shoe on the grounds that it didn’t match the Bulls’ uniform. Jordan wore it anyway. The league fined him $5,000 per game. For Nike this became the perfect marketing campaign.
When the shoe finally went on sale to the public six months after it premiered on Jordan’s feet, the demand was frenzied. Sales of the first Air Jordan exceeded $100 million by the time it was replaced by the Air Jordan II in 1986.”
~Bhu Srinivasan’s “Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism”
Credit: Tosin Adeoti
