Shannon Sharpe and his running mate, Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson, recently took to their nighttime show, “Night Cap”, to discuss the upcoming NFL draft. During the show, the duo drifted off into the ‘sneaker world’, as the discussion shifted from the draft to Michael Jordan, basketball, and signature shoes. Sharpe, who is a devout ‘King James’ supporter, started off the topic by rightfully declaring Jordan to be the trailblazer of ‘lifetime’ sneaker deals.
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Sharpe wasn’t historically off with his statement, as Jordan was, in fact, the first basketball player to be offered a lifetime contract, signing the deal with Nike. Talking about No.23’s contributions to the sneaker world, Sharpe further said, “Once you retired, the shoe deal went away. But it’s no longer like that since Jordan. It lives on. You see Kobe, it lives on.”
While Sharpe did give Jordan credit for paving the way for athletes in the branding space, he also mentioned an oddity about the functioning of Jordan Brand as an entity. The ESPN analyst claimed that His Airness doesn’t allow athletes signed to his Jordan brand to wear his shoes, pointing out that MJ’s personal line is out of reach even for Jordan athletes. Talking about it further, Sharpe said, “Someone was telling me that Jordan doesn’t let you wear. You have to wear the brand Jordan, you don’t get to wear his exclusive shoes.”
Chad Johnson didn’t see any downside in Jordan’s condition, claiming MJ’s exclusive sneakers are “too uncomfortable” to play in any way. His fellow NFL counterpart, Shannon Sharpe, agreed with the sentiment. For Sharpe, the Nike-affiliated brand offers only one value, and that is “fashion”.
The former NFL tight end even claimed that the Jordan brand’s priority was never performance, but good looks and marketability instead. While Sharpe isn’t wrong about the marketing side of the sneaker, to claim that Jordans have never been performance-oriented would be a bit of a stretch.
Jordan Brand signs the future of the league
While Michael Jordan may not allow his athletes to wear his signature shoes, the signees do have a wide variety of other signature shoes to choose from. To begin with, Westbrook, Tatum, Luka, and Zion, all have their own signature shoe offerings with the Jordan brand. Of the four, Westbrook has been with the brand the longest, launching the “Why Not?” and “One Take” shoe lines.
The Jordan Brand’s young trio of Luka, Tatum, and Zion seem to have found success with their signature lines as well, with each of them having already launched two shoes in their respective lines. The brand has also made an effort to acquire more young talent, signing four new players from this year’s rookie class.
The new generation of talent includes Detroit Pistons guard Marcus Sasser, Houston Rockets forward Cam Whitmore, Miami Heat guard Jaime Jaquez Jr., and Orlando Magic guard Jett Howard. From the looks of it, Jordan Brand has done an impressive job accumulating some big names in the sport, ensuring that Jordan’s legacy of greatness continues in the league for generations to come.
