The story of Michael Jordan and Nike

Brut America

Before he was a basketball legend, an underdog brand bet everything on him.   This is the story of Michael Jordan and Nike … and the deal that changed sports culture.

Transcript

00:00Let's go.

00:01Let's go.

00:02Let's go.

00:03Let's go.

00:04I need the greatest basketball shoe that's ever been made.

00:11Who's the player?

00:13Michael Jordan.

00:14I'm in a culture now where, you know, saying that a person is a brand is like, accept it.

00:27You know, but before this deal, there was a brand was a, was a, you know, a tire company

00:32or a, you know, or a tool and a person was a person.

00:35This was like a way of fusing those things.

00:42You would have to have a problem.

01:11You would have to have a pretty compelling pitch.

01:14I can tell them the one thing the other companies can't compete with.

01:17Our basketball division is terrible.

01:19I do not love it.

01:20I think it was a risk taker, but then his company had gotten successful selling running

01:23shoes and the idea of the movie is that then the risk is how much are we going to invest

01:29in the basketball?

01:30Because they were last place in basketball.

01:32People didn't wear basketball shoes like they did now.

01:34And so to spend a lot of money, Forbes magazine put out an article after this deal was made

01:41that said the one thing that shows you Nike has truly lost its way is that they spent

01:45$250,000 on an untested.

01:48Michael Jordan has never been on an NBA court.

02:03David Stern banned the color red on shoes.

02:07They had to be either white or black in the NBA.

02:10So we ran an ad that said band in the NBA and the sales just took right off.

02:14On September 15th, Nike created a revolutionary new basketball shoe.

02:20On October 18th, the NBA threw them out of the game.

02:26Unfortunately, the NBA can't stop you from wearing them.

02:43Mike was kind enough to give me a little bit of his time because I wasn't going to make

02:47any movie that involved him at all without seeking out his blessing.

02:52And then when he talked about the importance of his mother, his life, the just the look

02:56on his face and the way he spoke told me what the whole story was right there.

02:59And then he said he wanted Viola Davis.

03:01And I thought, well, that's typically he wants.

03:03It's like saying, you know, you can play on the basketball team as long as you get Michael

03:05Jordan.

03:06So we had to put together a role that was that would not only be fitting and worthy

03:11of her and Mrs. Jordan, but that also was kind of an homage to, you know, moms who in

03:17many, many circumstances are raising young people and really try to prepare them for

03:22a very abrupt shift when they are exceptional.

03:25When they're thrust into a world very quickly, that's a big change.

03:28You sit down with Nike, you're in the NBA, you face a whole lot of different realities.

03:43It's about faith and it's about doing something so great that you create, you change the culture,

03:48your phenomenon.

03:49And that's what happened with Michael and this shoe.

03:51And the shoe is a piece of that greatness and everybody wanted it.

03:54And that's why it's a billion dollar business to this day.

04:24Seriously, maybe it'll grow on me.

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