More than just a pricey pair of pumps
WORDS DELWYN MALLETT
IN OCTOBER 1984 Nike struck a deal with a young up-and-coming college basketball player about to turn professional and play his first National Basketball Association game with the Chicago Bulls. The deal would make billions for the company, transform the nature of sporting endorsement, spark a cultural phenomenon and make Michael Jordan the highest-paid athlete in history. Oh, and provoke youths into violent assaults and even murder.
Founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports, it was not until 1971 that the company adopted the name of the Ancient Greek winged Goddess of Victory and introduced the now universally recognised ‘swoosh’ logo – drawn by graphic design student Carolyn Davidson for $35. However, victory in the competition to put shoes on the basketball courts had eluded them and in 1984 they were on the brink of bailing out of the sport due to poor sales.
The venerable Converse brand that invented the basketball shoe in 1916 still accounted for over 50% of the market, upstart Adidas had 29% and Nike trailed behind with 15%. Each season, manufacturers bid to put their boots on the most promising college players to be promoted into the major league and the convention was to spread their promotional budgets across a roster of talents. However, Nike marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro, a compulsive gambler, talked Nike chairman Phil Knight into betting its entire budget on Michael Jordan, arguing that he was going to be one of the all-time greats.
A reluctant Jordan thought otherwise and wanted to sign for the much cooler Adidas. Vaccaro wouldn’t give up and, after a series of phone calls to Jordan’s mother, Deloris, persuaded the family to travel out to Nike’s Oregon headquarters for a presentation.
Sounding as if he should be a hitman for the Mafia, Vaccaro might not have been a killer for hire but he certainly had a killer instinct for a deal, clinching the signing of the century.
Nike offered Jordan an unprecedented $2.5million spread over five seasons but the crucial point was that Jordan would not wear the same shoe as everyone else: Nike would build a shoe and a brand around him and he would receive a percentage for every pair sold. It took three months to land Jordan, but this was the biggest fish in the history of sport.
Nike creative director Peter Moore designed the shoe, which was given its own name, Air Jordan, and featured the white, red and black livery of the Chicago Bulls’ strip. The
