Michael Jordan had quite a few ups and downs in the first few years of his NBA career. On the court, he dealt with a broken left foot in his sophomore season but off the court, his search for the perfect shoe brand became a bit tumultuous. While he did sign with Nike for an unprecedented amount of money, he initially was in love with Adidas and had Converse as a second option. To make matters worse, even after having signed MJ, they couldn’t seem to keep him happy, leading to the introduction of Tinker Hatfield.
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Jordan’s ‘Air Jordan 1s’ flew off shelves. Phil Knight set the goal for sales at $4 million in the first year and instead $162 million in revenue had come pouring through. While the AJ1s were an absolute success, Jordan felt dissatisfied with the 2s. When it came time to design the Air Jordan 3s, Nike was placed in a tough spot.
Peter Moore and Rob Strasser, two men who were instrumental in pitching Jordan the idea of coming over to Nike had left the company abruptly and started their company, ‘Van Grack’. On top of leaving Nike, they were trying to lure MJ away from Nike at the same time.
Nike dropped the swoosh and replaced it with the Jumpman logo
Michael Jordan was unhappy with Nike ahead of them getting ready to pitch him the ‘Air Jordan 3s’, Peter Moore, the man who designed the AJ1, took his designs for the 3s along with him. With only a couple weeks left to show Jordan his newest signature model, the company brought on Tinker Hatfield.
Hatfield’s idea was simple: don’t just have Michael be another athlete on their payroll. Make a whole brand around him known as the ‘Jordan Brand’. Make him the face of Nike basketball even more so than he already was. His idea to take this forward? Take out the Nike ‘Swoosh’ that cost Phil Knight $35 to get the design for and replace it with the ‘Jumpman’ logo, front and center.
Michael, wanting to be in the spotlight because he knew he deserved to be in it, loved this idea, naturally. Soon enough, the ‘Jumpman’ logo was the only logo showcased on his line of sneakers and since the 7s, the swoosh has completely disappeared from his shoes.
This was a monumental decision by Hatfield and his crew because if MJ was unhappy with yet another model, he was ready to leave Nike altogether as he was 2 years away from his contract expiring anyway. It also didn’t help when Jordan showed up to a meeting 4 hours late because he was out golfing with Moore and Strasser.
Michael Jordan gives more credit to George Raveling than Sonny Vaccaro
While Sonny Vaccaro is the main character in ‘Air’ as the story revolves around his belief in Michael Jordan more so than anybody, Michael himself has said that another man was just as instrumental, if not more, in bringing him to Nike.
George Raveling was an assistant coach for the Team USA basketball squad at the 1984 Olympics. Jordan was a part of this group as he had not entered the NBA yet. During their time together, the two got close and given that Raveling and Vaccaro shared a tight bond, the former would consistently try to convince MJ on wearing Nike gear.
Jordan was enamored by Adidas at the time and only wore Converse because the University of North Carolina was sponsored by Converse. Nike was out of the question for the 6’6 guard. However, Raveling’s belief in the company was what kickstarted Jordan’s intrigue.
