We all know about Micheal Jordan — The Greatest Basketball Player to have ever existed but do you know about the rise of his shoes: Jordans? The collaboration between Jordan and Nike has been one of the most successful business ventures to date with over 4700 million shoe sales in 2021. Today we will be looking at the story behind the sneakers.
The Introduction
In 1984 Nike had signed Micheal Jordan to a five-year deal worth $2,500,000, triple the highest sports contract at the time. Nike had also made the upper portion of the first Jordan shoe black instead of white which violated the NBA policy. This meant that if someone were to wear the shoes in a game, they would be fined $5000 per game. Nike took this as a marketing opportunity and told Jordan to wear the shoe while they footed the fine.
The Impact
When MJ won game after game and broke record after record, not only did it boost his career but Nike's bottom line as well. The shoes were not only seen as rebellious and “hip” due to the design violating Nike's policy but as a shoe that gives you an advantage, a shoe that makes you “Micheal Jordan — The Greatest Basketball Player”. The original Jordans was iconic with most people being able to recognize them immediately.
Some sneaker enthusiasts say that Jordans have shaped the sneaker culture of today. It is because of the Jordans’ success that sneakers were taken more seriously. Today we have some of the largest celebrities all trying to jump in on the sneaker game with Kanye West having the most success after MJ.
The Difference
As I mentioned earlier, lots of different celebrities have made sneakers but nowhere near as successful as the Jordans. The average Jordan can be resold for over 2x its value but Kanyes’ Yeezy can barely be resold for 1.3x its value. This is not only due to Micheal Jordan and his success but the team behind the shoes. Take the Air Jordan 3s, an iconic shoe that mixed the Air Max technology with a fresh new design that had never been done before (for the time). This created demand for the shoe that no other shoe could compete with leading to the extremely high resell value.
Conclusion
Air Jordans were launched into fame by the rebellious actions taken by Nike and then guided by MJ to the point where a pair of Jordans can be resold for over $2000. Who knows, maybe a pair of Jordans will be sold for over $100,000.
