Michael Jordan performing well on the basketball court did not only benefit the Chicago Bulls, but the companies that were associated with him as well. His own Jordan Brand profited massively, reportedly surpassing $5.1 billion in revenue in 2022. Following the 6-feet-6 shooting guard’s retirement, his children tried different ways to carry on the Jordan legacy. His Airness’ sons-Marcus and Jeffrey–tried to follow in their father’s footsteps to become professional basketball players; unfortunately, with little success. Whereas, Jasmine Jordan, MJ’s eldest daughter, chose a different route, trying her luck designing shoes for the Jordan Brand. And she failed miserably as well.
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Jasmine Jordan studied sports management at Syracuse University. Starting off her career as a coordinator of basketball operations for the Charlotte Hornets, Jasmine later became a field representative for the Jordan Brand. The 30-year-old works with popular female athletes like Ariel Powers, Dearica Hamby, and Rhyne Howard, among others. Before working with WNBA athletes, Jasmine tried her hand at designing shoes for Air Jordan. And it didn’t go too well admittedly.
Jasmine Jordan would ask Michael Jordan to send her shoe designs to the brand
Years before deciding to work as rep for the Jordan brand, Jasmine would make an effort to design shoes for the Jordan Brand. As a kid, she would frequently create sketches and request her father to send them to the company.
However, after seeing the “ugly” prototypes, she would give up on her dreams of being a designer. In a recent appearance on BIRTH QUEEN’s podcast, Jordan revealed:
“I literally would like create sketches and then give them to my dad. I’m like ‘send them in, send them in, I wanna see what they think’. They were sweet, they made prototypes of things that I drew up and I was ‘this is so ugly, please don’t produce this’.”
Jasmine, who is a huge sports enthusiast, is now trying to help the Jordan Brand expand, partnering with other women athletes even outside of the WNBA.
Why didn’t Jasmine Jordan play basketball professionally?
Unlike her brothers, Jasmine never pursued playing basketball. According to her, she wasn’t blessed with the skillset that her father possessed. Even though she does love sports and has a deep passion for it, the 30-year-old didn’t play basketball because she “sucked”. On the same episode of the podcast, she stated:
“I love sports. I want to be in and around it in some capacity, I don’t know what it looks like but I need basketball and sports to be adjacent if not in my life.
I played. I retired early cause I suck. Those genes didn’t come to me. The passion is there, that’s what I got. I got my dad’s passion and competitive (spirit) but the skillset… nope. That’s okay.”
Regardless, Jasmine Jordan is making her father proud as she uses different ways to grow the Jordan Brand.
