Directed by Ben Affleck and starring Matt Damon, ‘Air’ is set to premiere on April 5, 2023. It tells the story of how Michael Jordan collaborated with Nike to change basketball and sports marketing forever.
Damon plays Nike salesman Sonny Vaccaro, while Affleck plays Nike’s billionaire co-founder Phil Knight and Chris Messina plays Jordan’s agent David Falk, while Jordan‘s character does not appear in the movie.
Sonny Vaccaro’s story
Back in 1984, Vaccaro convinced Nike to reach a deal with NBA rookie, Jordan. They offered him a 15-million dollar, five-year contract and created the now iconic ‘Air’ Jordan brand.
“Signing with Jordan was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life,” noted Knight.
Why didn’t Michael Jordan sign with Adidas and end up at Nike?
Jordan won six NBA titles and his five MVP prizes. He decided to commit to Nike because Adidas was looking for players to compete with Converse, which had stars Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Julius Erving.
As Guillermo Garcia reported in MARCA, on April 1, 1985, Nike released a white, red and black sneaker that is now retro: the Jordan 1. This is the pair of boots that Jordan used in the dunk contest of that same season.
They came out with a retail price of 65 dollars, but their market value that has multiplied by three nowadays. The sneakers went on sale in just six states and exceeded any expectations from the off.
Nike expected to sell 100,000 pairs in the first year, but in just one month they had sold more than 450,000 pairs. Nowadays, a Nike Air Jordan 1 ‘Legends of Summer Black’ model is priced at around 7,000 dollars, while last year, Jordan released the Air Jordan 37.
“Jordan Brand is my DNA,” he noted.