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Nike: Shoe Dog. Phil Knight’s managerial prowess

Antonio Castiglione
Geek Culture
Published in
3 min readApr 17, 2023
Image by Pixabay

These days, the film Air, which tells the story of how Nike managed to get Michael Jordan’s sponsorship, is in cinemas.
Set in 1984, Beaverton (Oregon). In the Nike headquarters when the manager Sonny Vaccaro, a basketball expert, is looking for young talents to whom he can propose a sponsorship contract, at the time with a market share in the basketball sector clearly inferior to giants such as Converse and Adidas. Sonny decides to invest the entire budget made available to him by his CEO Phil Knight to close a contract with the emerging basketball star: Michael Jordan. To succeed in his goal, Sonny had to overcome the resistance of Jordan’s manager and Michael himself, as well as his mother, who at the time was much more attracted to the lure of Adidas. Sonny’s strategy proved risky but successful, inventing a shoe and a line of clothing, Air Jordan, designed exclusively for the champion.

In addition to the fascinating historical period marked by Reganian hedonism and the resourcefulness of Sonny Vaccaro, what most caught my attention is the role of Nike’s CEO,Philip

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Antonio Castiglione
Antonio Castiglione

Written by Antonio Castiglione

Product Manager, Innovation, Project Management, startups @AboutASicilian https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoniocastiglione/

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