Michael Jordan joining Nike over both Adidas and Converse was a move that was as unexpected as could be. Nike swooped in and ‘stole’ Jordan’s attention away from the two basketball sneakers goliaths at the time. While it seems as though they had pulled out all the stops to sign Michael, which they did, they also had a few stipulations and clause in mind that MJ had to accomplish before earning every cent of his 5 year/$2.5 million contract.
Advertisement
The University of North Carolina alum was enamored by Adidas and their tracksuits along with any sneakers they had put out. The only reason for why he chose to wear Converse was because Dean Smith and UNC at Chapel Hill were sponsored by Converse.
However, in the movie ‘Air’ it was revealed that the second the buzzer sounded at his collegiate games, he would take his Converse off and immediately switch to his Adidas gear.
Nike gave Michael Jordan certain milestones to accomplish
Nike made sure they did everything in their power to snag Michael Jordan and make him the face of their basketball division. They had a budget of $250,000 according to ‘Air’ to try and sign 3-4 players from the 1984 NBA Draft. Sonny Vaccaro scrapped this idea and forced Phil Knight and company to use the entirety of that budget on one man.
Clearly it worked out for Nike given that he’s generated over $20 billion in sales for them over a single year. However, with all the money that Nike invested in him, they needed a contingency plan. Instead of guaranteeing every dime of the 5 year/ $2.5 million contract, they put in 4 clauses that, if at least one was achieved, would invalidate the contract going into his sophomore year.
- Be named to an All-Star or All-NBA team
- Win Rookie of the Year
- Average 20+ points per game
- Sell over $4 million worth of Air Jordans
Perhaps being ‘afraid’ of losing out on millions of dollars, Jordan breezed through these contract stipulations. As mentioned above, he needed to accomplish just one of these to keep his contract intact.
Knowing Jordan, he wanted to overachieve in everything that he did and at the end of his rookie season, he had average 28+ points per game, won Rookie of the Year, been named to the All-Star and All-NBA second team, and sold $162 million worth of sneakers.
Michael Jordan has 5% royalties on every Jordan item sale
Michael Jordan’s mother had reportedly made sure that her son got an incredible 25% of every Jordan sneaker sale when they had initially negotiated his contract. As time has gone on, his share has gotten diluted given the scale of the company.
Fast-forward to present day and MJ currently gets 5% of every single item sold that has his family’s name on it. this resulted in him making well over 1 billion in a single year.
