Divine influence! The love story of Jordan and Nike

As we all know, NBA, as the most influential professional league in the world, has extremely high commercial value and market value. It also greatly promoted the influence of various commercial brands. No matter the brand of shoes, uniforms or Gatorade drinks, they are all driven by the NBA brand.

One of the most popular sports gear brands, Nike's Jorand Brand team, has become a focus of trends. Jordan, who became the chief spokesperson of the Jorand brand, is also the owner of jorand, and is now the owner of the Hornets. After his retirement, Jordan was ranked 1,477th on the rich list and 455th in the country. Jordan himself is worth nearly $1.7 billion.

At that time, Jordan signed a contract with Nike, and Nike gave Jordan 2.5 million dollars of endorsement contract, and 4.5% of Nike shares, 2.5 million dollars of endorsement contract is almost the largest shoe contract at that time, and with this gamble signing, Nike became a success and Jordan became a success.

In 2003, Nike officially decided to turn AJ into an independent brand under Nike, and Jordan could also get two-thirds of the shares. For example, when a pair of AJ worth 1,000 yuan was sold, Jordan could get 666 yuan, with 66% profit. According to Nike, AJ is worth $2 billion a year in sales, so imagine Jordan's earnings.

Jordan's influence is a phenomenon level, is the historical level, after Jordan retired, NBA ratings and attendance sharply declined, the NBA revenue fell terror, the league even nearly shut down, these problems appear only one reason, is Jordan's retirement, the NBA has repeatedly expressed to Jordan hope Jordan comeback, which is one of the reasons for Jordan's two comeback.

If there was no Jordan, there would be no Jordan.

The former is Michael Jordan.

The latter is Nike's Air Jordan brand.

Here, I must first mention one person. In fact, this man is the original promoter of Air Jordan brand!

Back in 1964, Sonny Vaccaro was 24 years old with his college roommate Pat. Dicessare started Dapper. The Dan's Basketball Classic, one of the first widely watched national high school All-Star tournaments. The tournament provides a showcase for high school players and puts them on the radar of college coaches.

Vaccaro, the godfather of sneakers

Vaccaro also used the league to establish friendly relationships with all the top coaches.

Vaccaro, with his connections and enough confidence, went straight to Nike and pitched his idea: Use his relationship with the coach to get them a Nike endorsement deal. Even though Nike was still a $25 million company.

His idea was taken up by a Nike executive, Rob. Strasser agrees. Rob hired Vaccaro and transferred a considerable sum of money into his bank account to sign coaches.

That was easy for Vaccaro, whose influence grew as Nike paid millions of dollars in endorsements to college coaches through Vaccaro's network. Vaccaro's position and influence grew in importance.

In a game between Michael Jordan's North Carolina Tar Heel and Georgetown University, Vaccaro witnessed Jordan's fatal shot. Vaccaro noted that while James Worthy won the Outstanding Player award, it was Michael Jordan who stole the show. And in Vaccaro's mind, a great idea was born.

Jordan's killer shot in the NCAA

Vaccaro believed Jordan had a bright future, and he wanted Nike to sign him before he was famous and build a whole line of shoes around him.

At that time, Nike was flush with money. The company had a $2.5 million budget for shoe endorsement. But the money was supposed to be spread among multiple talented players. This included Buckley, Bowie and others.

But Vaccaro dismissed the idea. He told the Nike executives, "Give it all to Jordan!" At the time, many professional basketball players had shoe endorsement deals for less than $10,000. And Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the only one who could reportedly get a $100,000 endorsement deal.

And remember, Jordan had never played in an NBA game before! This is a big gamble for Nike! In Vaccaro's words: "We gave Jordan as much money as we had. His future is worth the gamble!"

Strasser's trust in Vaccaro was overwhelming. But he remains concerned about the gamble. So he found a good friend of his, David. Falk. They discussed together that they planned to start from Jordan's personal level and package Jordan in an all-round way, from sneakers to autumn clothes, to create an independent product line, and dedicated to advertising and brand promotion.

In August 1984, Nike finally chose "Air Jordan" from among the many possible names Falk had listed for Jordan's shoes and athletic gear

All that was left was to convince Jordan to sign.

Jordan, by this time, did not know Vaccaro. He was just a teenager who wanted to play, and he had no idea what a shoe contract was. At the time, coach Smith had a Converse endorsement deal, so the Tar Heels wore Converse shoes in their games.

Jordan, however, has a fondness for Adidas, which he wears during practice and Converse when he is under contract.

To win Jordan, Nike needed to not only conquer Jordan himself, but also convince the Jordan family to accept Nike's side of the idea.

Michael Jordan's shoes at the '84 Olympics

At the '84 Olympics, Vaccaro's old friend George. Reflin served as an assistant coach for the Olympic team. Vaccaro was introduced to Jordan for the first time. Vaccaro said to Jordan, "I know you haven't heard much about Nike. But I want you to know that we're going to make you your own pair of sneakers."

But that didn't make any good impression on Jordan. Jordan thought Vaccaro looked suspicious. He was not interested in these things of the future, of the present. Jordan said to Vaccaro bluntly, "I want a car."

"As long as you sign this contract, you can buy any car you want." Vaccaro replied. In return, Jordan once again said, "I want a car."

That made Vaccaro think Jordan was hard to handle. He could see that Jordan was actually more interested in signing with Idedas, which Vaccaro had investigated and cleared before he arrived, but it still upset Vaccaro.

"If he wants a car, we'll give him one." Vaccaro figured out that if Jordan cared so much about new cars, he should go get him one. Eventually Nike offered Jordan a new car, a Lamborghini. Although Jordan had not yet signed a contract with Nike, the new car had already been handed to Jordan.

Picture from the Internet

Nike showed enough sincerity to finally impress Jordan's parents. The two sides were finally able to sit down and discuss the contract seriously. Nike offered Jordan a five-year, $2.5 million contract with various signing bonuses, safeguards and annuities. Jordan also gets a 25% cut of every Air Jordan shoe sold by Nike, as well as a 25% cut of any other shoes in the Nike Air line.

Vaccaro told the Jordans at the meeting: "I put my job on the line. Nike put its future on the line. If Michael messes up, we're out of business. But we're still willing to gamble. That's how much we want you." Jordan's mother, Dolores, liked Nike's approach. In her view, Nike treated Jordan like a partner rather than just paying him. Eventually Jordan's mother convinced him. The cooperation between the two sides is officially concluded.

Picture from the Internet

Nike, of course, made such a big bet, but it had an insurance policy: The contract gave it the right to terminate Jordan's contract if he didn't meet at least one of three requirements during his first three seasons. The three requirements are:

In one or three years, Jordan needs to be a rookie of the Year or an All-Star

In his first three years, Jordan had at least one season in which he averaged 20 points per game

3. If the first two requirements are not met, Jordan Shoes will earn $4 million within three years, the contract will continue to perform

The results are clear. In his rookie season, Jordan scored 28.2 points per game, won the rookie of the Year, made the All-Star team... On the shoe side, sales reached $70 million in three months.

It can be said that Nike's "big bet" won alone. Jordan line of shoes, annual sales of $3 billion. Of course, Jordan gets hundreds of millions of dollars a year in dividends.

Nike chose Jordan, and Jordan made Nike.