All language subtitles for One Man and His Shoes b

♪♪

♪♪

Reagan: America is back,
standing tall,

looking to the eighties with
courage, confidence, and hope.

Jackson: We are not going to be
put back into slavery

by our own people, who are
selling dope to destroy us.

Announcer: On September 15th,
Nike created

a revolutionary
new basketball shoe.

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

Man: Government is not
the solution to our problem.

Government is the problem.

Man #2:
Air Jordan, Air Jordan.

Man #3: Air Jordan,
Air Jordan, Air Jordan.

This is something
you can buy.

♪♪

Man #4: Michael!
Michael, you stuck it baby!

Bush: Read my lips.
No new taxes.

♪♪

Woman: People waited in line
all night long

to get the new Air Jordan
basketball shoes.

They literally broke a door
off the hinges.

Several people
were trampled,

while others crawled over them
to get inside.

The shoes cost
about $180.

Man: That's a lot of money to
spend on shoes though, isn't it?

Yeah.

You know it's Michael Jordan,
that's what he do.

All they want
is that shoe.

My son, he just got
to have them.

Man:
Thank you, God bless you,

and God bless
the United States of America.

Letterman: This last season,
my next guest led his team,

the Chicago Bulls,
into the NBA playoffs,

scoring a record of an amazing
63 points in a single game.

He is only 23 years of age.

Please welcome
Michael Jordan, folks.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Hi, Michael.

Nice to see you.
How are you?

Come on over.

My, oh my.

I got one thing
to say.

Yeah? What's that?

I see Adidas shoes.

Yeah.

Why?

Well, now we can't talk about
this, because the last time

we started talking about shoes,
there was a huge deal,

and they had to run up
to the legal department

and wake up
the attorneys.

Now, I know you've got a huge
contract with the company.

Put your feet down.

[ Laughter ]

Now, how much do you --
no stop that.

Or they won't let
any of this on.

Okay.

Now, how much do you get paid
just to wear these shoes?

A lot.

♪♪

♪♪

Well, Nike started as
a running company.

They started in
the running business.

And they were successful
in the running business.

They wanted to grow,
and branch out.

They got into
other sports.

Then, in 1984,
they weren't doing very well.

Dixon: In the early eighties,
that was when they slipped

to number two in America,
to Reebok.

And at that time,
Knight asked the group

"Do you think we should
sell now?"

And they all said "No.
we can figure a way out of it."

Nike was considered to be
kind of like a stepchild

in the shoe game,
at that point.

It was Converse.
It was Adidas.

Other brands were much more
solidly entrenched than Nike.

Nike was just this
little company that could,

that was trying to fight for
a piece of the market share.

Everybody in the business
knew that the main consumer

for athletic shoes
is 16-year-old boys.

So, the biggest sport to get to
the masses is basketball.

Man: So, Nike knew that they
needed to be in basketball,

but nobody really thought
of Nike as a basketball brand,

particularly the kid.

The kid, as they called him,
was the customer

who would buy
basketball shoes.

And a lot of them
were inner city kids.

So, Rob Strasser decided
what we needed was an icon.

We needed to find ourselves
a basketball player

that kids wanted to be.

♪ Like Michael.
Fight to be like Michael. ♪

♪ I want to be,
I want to be like Michael. ♪

♪ Like Michael.
If I could be like Mike ♪

You know the reality is that
black people,

since the beginning of time,
have always made things cool.

Jazz, rock 'n' roll.

I mean, you pick
literally anything,

from a cultural standpoint,

and we have always been
the arbitrators of cool.

And it was really no different
with sneakers.

Williams:
Marketing the Jordan brand

to the African American
community

has been the core of
the success of the Jordan brand.

And so, in order for Jordan
to be as successful

as they have been,
they had to start with

the African American market.

And they had to take that, and
grow it to this massive brand

that it is today.

Telander: In the 1980s,
the African American community

was struggling
to try to find a leader,

try to find something
to believe in.

You could say it was about race,
or skin color, or ethnicity,

but it was mostly,
as always, about poverty.

About economic disparity,
and about hope,

and about a chance
to move ahead,

to actually become part of the
alleged great American ladder,

where you can start anywhere,
and you can make it to the top.

That great myth that we believe
in, here in this country.

Hill: The 1980s was
a volatile time in this country.

You know, growing up
in Detroit, for us,

I mean, we were no different
than New York,

Chicago,
where the influx of drugs

had, overnight, kind of changed
a lot of middle class,

working class
neighborhoods.

It was a depressing time,

because a lot of what
those baby boomers

that were there
and fought through civil rights

in the sixties and seventies,
they were kind of seeing

the progress that they made
slip away.

[ Crowd chanting
"Four more years!" ]

Lazenby: Well, you know,
American society

was experiencing
the Reagan years.

And it was the early birth
of the conservative movement

as we know it today,
with neo-conservatives.

Definitely, Ronald Reagan
had lit the fires

for conservative thought.

Reagan: The present recession
is bottoming out

without resorting
to quick fixes.

There won't be a sudden boom,
or upsurge,

but slowly and surely,

we'll have a sound
and lasting recovery,

and an end
to deficit spending.

Garcia: Generally, when you have
Republican leadership,

it shifts and leans towards
empowering corporate America,

privatization
of institutions.

There's less funding
for community programs.

You know,
there was a big divide,

and a gap in the support
for the youth.

Kent: Well, what was going on
in the eighties,

it was communities
within communities

building upon themselves,

and trying to take care
of themselves.

And it kind of started
fragmenting because of crack.

And because crack was
so devastating,

it devastated the neighborhoods
that we lived in.

Man:
By the hundreds, Bronx residents
made themselves heard today

to call for more action
against the crack epidemic --

an epidemic measured
in violence,

broken homes,
and burnt-out youngsters.

Well, the first thing
that you learn about sport

is that sport
is a microcosm society.

And because this was
happening in society,

it's always gonna
seep into sport.

No different than,
you know, what's happening

with the killing
of unarmed black men

has seeped into the NFL
with the Anthem protest.

And when you talk about
the tragic deaths of athletes

like Len Bias,

which I think really
changed everything.

By all intents and purposes
people considered him

the next Michael Jordan.

When he collapsed,
and passed away,

I think it really frightened
a lot of people.

Len Bias was an
all-American basketball star,

the University of Maryland's
leading scorer.

And after four years of college,
he was drafted this week

by the champion
Boston Celtics.

Announcer:
The world champion Celtics use
their first round draft choice

to pick Bias to play for them
after his graduation.

This morning, Len Bias was dead
of cardio respiratory arrest.

No one knows why yet.

There are reports
that traces of cocaine

were found
in Bias' system.

Hill:
The death of Len Bias,

it not only was a sports story
it was an American story

that wind up having
a deep impact

on how people viewed the drug
problem in this country.

And so, this was a death
that affected policy,

and that led to
the mandatory minimums

that wound up
being kind of the gateway

to the huge explosion
in mass incarceration.

So, it wasn't just about
this particular athlete

dying of
a drug overdose.

This was about how this death
shaped American policy

when it came to
criminal justice.

That was coming out
of the 1970s.

Cocaine was a big party drug
in the NBA itself.

In 1984, David Stern
would become commissioner,

and they would begin
all of the drug policy

that eventually allowed the NBA
to raise its profile.

But it took a while for that
to really gain traction.

♪ We're the LA Lakers,
and we're here to say ♪

♪ that the drugs
are killing everything ♪

♪ Cocaine and crack,
it's all got to go ♪

♪ We've got to learn
to just say "no" ♪

♪ I'm Kareem,
the captain of the team ♪

♪ I don't need drugs,
I've got a higher thing ♪

♪ My sky hook makes the team
look good. ♪

♪ But there's a hook we got
to shape from the neighborhood ♪

Telander:
In the eighties, basketball was
starting, for the first time,

particularly at
the highest levels,

to be dominated
by black athletes.

And it hadn't been that way
because of racism

and segregation.

You know, there had always been
the greats, the Wrens,

and the Harlem Globe Trotters.

But people said "That
doesn't really count."

Announcer: The Globe Trotters
have made basketball

into something more like
a ballet than a sport.

Supremely confident,

their choreography
of sparkling precision

that leaves both spectators
and opponents mystified.

Telander: The Chicago Bulls were
a reflection of this new time.

Many of the players were black,
many of the stars were,

and the crowd
was still white.

You could sense, maybe,
if not a tension,

but not a real
kind of community feeling

between the basketball team
and the surrounding area.

Lazenby: I remember going
to Chicago Stadium,

which was located
in blighted neighborhoods,

and there was a real sense
of cultural clash there.

I think, until Jordan
came,

Chicago wasn't really
a destination for anybody.

They just didn't have that
transcendent sports team

to make things change.

Lazenby: The Chicago Bulls were
a relatively young franchise

in the early 1980s.

They'd only really gotten
started in 1966/67.

But they were a dismal franchise
in deep financial trouble.

On the outside, the Bulls
were just a sad franchise.

But at the same time, the city
wasn't expecting much from them.

There was always a sense
of the Bulls doing decent --

never big, decent.

Bengtson: You just didn't care.
Like, they didn't matter.

They were a team
that came into town,

and they played,
and no one cared.

Announcer: Chicago hasn't scored
in the last two minutes.

There was a reason that they got
to draft Michael Jordan third.

I mean,
Houston took Hakeem.

The Portland Trailblazers
took Sam Bowie.

Yeah, he went third.

Bengtson:
They were awful.

You obviously don't get the
number-three pick in the draft

unless you're terrible.

And they were
pretty terrible.

Lazenby: Michael Jordan
signing with the Bulls,

the fact that he was
the third player taken,

and the Bulls had that
third choice, was just amazing.

The Chicago Bulls
pick Michael Jordan.

♪♪

Lazenby: People thought, "Well,
you know, I saw this guy play

in college
for North Carolina.

He was pretty exciting."

♪♪

♪♪

Jackson: He was the two-time
Player of the Year

after his freshman year.

But if you really followed
the game, he still wasn't --

to a lot of people, wasn't
the best player in the ACC.

You know, Len Bias was
the best player in the ACC.

That kind of shifted during that
summer with USA basketball.

You know, we kind of knew
the dude was nice.

But it was after the draft

when we find out
how nice he really was.

We didn't know he had
the ability to score like that.

Announcer:
Jordan gets Sims off his feet,
and shoots right over him.

There's Jordan.

14 for Michael Jordan.

Then, Fleming from Georgia,

nice dump pass by Alford
to the acrobatic Michael Jordan.

And some people were like,
"Oh, my God.

We just got, I think,

a great,
great basketball player."

But nobody knew.

The Americans
were so much better

than everybody else in 1984
that it was almost absurd

to make any comparisons
about anything.

Announcer: Jordan again.

Announcer #2:
He's beautiful.

And Nike had
identified him.

Sonny Vaccaro, who was
an executive at Nike,

not even a
high-level executive.

But he managed a lot
of Nike's basketball business.

He got the sense, in watching
Jordan as freshman

at the Final Four

that Jordan was going to be
this cross-over person.

And on Sonny Vaccaro's hunch,

they were already negotiating
his contract with Nike.

♪♪

You know, Sonny is the driving
force who convinced them.

Like, "Look. Don't spread
everything out.

you know, "Trust me,
this one guy --

this Michael Jordan
coming out of North Carolina --

is gonna be the guy."

Announcer:
Michael Jordan.

Everything
seems to be

like a highlight film
when he plays.

Man: Well, Sonny Vaccaro
came to Nike

basically through
the college ranks.

And he had a tournament
called "The Dapper Dan,"

that was held
in Pittsburgh,

that Nike had wanted
to get involved with,

because that was where top
high school kids went to play.

So, if you really wanted to know
who the next basketball player

was gonna be,
you went to Sonny Vaccaro.

You know, he was the one
who convinced them,

"if you pay a college coach
X amount,

they'll wear your shoes.

Give me this budget,
and I'll go get you

the best college coaches."

The deal was this coach,
you sign the coach,

his team wears Nike shoes.

Sonny really knew how to spot
the young basketball stars.

To get them when they're
in high school,

to get them in the Nike shoes,
to get them used to them,

so when they turned pro,
they would go with Nike.

Garcia:
It was brilliant.

Sonny Vaccaro at Nike,

like, he knew what he
was doing, you know?

It was like "Alright, well,
we can't compete with y'all

up there, but we're gonna
kill y'all over here.

And all these cats
that are here

are gonna be those
next Julius Erving,

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
and Tiny Archibald."

Lazenby:
The coaches were stunned.

They didn't think
it was legal.

Is this free money?

And sales were rising
accordingly

with all this
new exposure.

No question that
Nike Basketball,

including Air Jordan,

and including
the rest of it,

would not be where it is
without Sonny Vaccaro.

Phil Knight may not
want to admit it.

Sonny Vaccaro built it.

He and Rob Strasser together
built what is today

known as Nike Basketball.

♪♪

Vaccaro: You know, I'm gonna
give you a surprise.

I'm gonna show you
the one priceless thing

that Michael Jordan
gave to me.

He was playing the
Los Angeles Lakers

the year that
they won the championship.

And Howard White called me,
and says,

"Michael left you
a pair of shoes."

And what do I get?

This is the famous shoe
when he hurt his toe

against the Lakers, playing
for the world championship,

that he wore that night.

And he gave them to me.

In my opinion, the most
priceless Jordan shoes,

because we know there's only one
pair of the ones

he wore in that game.

Announcer: And the Bulls do not
have any timeouts remaining.

Craig Hodges, a three point
specialist, has checked in.

Here's Jordan
on the pull up.

Yes!

And the game is tied at 92
with 3:04 seconds remaining.

Alright, Marv, one thing
is gonna bother the Bulls.

Just during that last play,
Michael Jordan hurt

the tip of his big toe.

They've taken it out,
and taken a look at it,

and it's gonna be painful,
but he'll try to go with it.

Vaccaro: In the mid 1980s --
82, 83 I guess,

Nike was gonna finally sign
a pro player

that was gonna be
a signature shoe --

which was the new term
at that time.

And it was a very good
draft class at 1984,

very good draft class.

And it came down to
selecting somebody.

So, they asked me,
"What do I do?"

And I just said,
"Give it to the kid."

If you're gonna name a shoe
after a high flier,

how in the hell can you give it
two or three?

There's only one chief.

The famous phrase was,
"Will you bet your job?"

I said,
"Give it all to Jordan.

He has what you want."

Announcer: Gordie to Jordan.
Breaks out on him.

Good coverage, defensively.
He still hit it.

Oh, what presence of mind.

Announcer #2: It's amazing what
the freshman can do.

Lazenby:
Nike's executives decided
to plow their entire budget

into this young
Michael Jordan,

who had never played
an NBA game.

Knight: And we didn't even know
who Jordan was.

He played for North Carolina,
which was a Dean Smith school.

Dean Smith was
a Converse guy.

So, we assumed all his guys
were gonna go to Converse.

Well, Sonny convinced us
that we could get this guy.

And so, he set about
to go get him.

At one point, they wanted to
bring Michael out to Beaverton,

sort of like
college recruit.

They wanted to have a campus
visit -- except for one thing.

Michael didn't
want to go.

He said, "David,
I have no interest in Nike.

I don't know anything
about Nike.

If you want to go see Nike,
like you go."

I said, "Well, I don't need
to see Nike.

But you can't make an
intelligent informed decision

until you see the campus,
and see what they have to offer,

and see what the people
are like,

and what the product
is like."

He turned me down.
So, I went to his parents.

I said, "Look,
it's the very first thing ever

I'm asking him to do

since he picked me
to work with him.

You've got to help me.

We can't work together if he's
not gonna at least visit."

They said, "David, don't worry.
He'll be on the plane."

Knight:
The brand that he really wanted
to sign with was Adidas.

He had worn Adidas all through
college, except in the games,

'cause he had to wear
Converse in the games.

The problem was, Adidas never
asked him to come to Germany

for a presentation,
or anything.

Years later, when I went
to Adidas, I asked them,

I said, "Why on earth
didn't you sign Michael Jordan?"

They said
they had no idea

who he was,
or what they'd do with him.

If he wanted shoes,
they'd be more than happy

to give him shoes.

But they weren't gonna
pay him any money.

We went to all
the companies,

and instead of making
a proposal,

I basically said to them,

"We're going to let you meet
with Michael, and explain,

if he picked you,
what can you do for him?"

Which is a really different
kind of a concept.

Instead of asking what
the player can do

for the company,
you know,

we ask what the company
can do for the player.

And truthfully,
most of the companies

weren't prepared
for that.

Converse, at the time, they were
the official shoe of the NBA.

And their pitch to him was
"We're going to treat you

just like everybody else."

Which they thought
was a great pitch

because they had
so many great players.

I was looking for something
more creative, and unique.

So, in terms of Nike,

Sonny said to me, like,
"What's important to you?"

And I said to him, "I know this
is gonna sound really crazy,

but I want you to treat him
like he's a tennis player.

I want him to have his own line
of shoes and clothes.

I want to have commercials.

I want you to market him
like he's playing

an individual sport."

People thought that wouldn't
work in team sports.

And we set out to prove
that it would work.

Prior to Jordan,
the endorsement business --

particularly the basketball
endorsement business --

was pretty much
team-orientated.

Converse had Julius Erving,
Magic Johnson, Larry Bird.

All three of those guys
wore the same shoe.

They wore
Converse shoes.

Basketball shoes in America
were sort of a closed business.

Converse, which had
the Chuck Taylors,

the canvas and rubber shoes,

they'd had the business
for so long.

There were no great
endorsement deals.

Converse simply gave the Celtics
and other NBA teams --

a lot of NBA teams
had to pay for their shoes,

but they simply gave them,

so that they would have
shoes to wear,

and fans would see them,
and magazines

would take
their photographs.

And it was
a nice little business,

but it wasn't a
big-money business.

Stern: Converse had
all of our players,

but they were not
too keen on marketing.

And then, when Michael
came along,

Nike understood that this was

an opportunity
to use his connection

to the league, and his prowess
as a basketball player,

as a stepping stone
to grow the industry.

♪♪

There are obviously NBA players
who had shoe contracts.

But that was all
relatively restrained.

You know, a lot of them
were for $9,000 or $10,000.

Kareem was probably getting
in the neighborhood

of $100,000 a year.

Hill:
It wasn't seen as something
where athletes were necessarily

shaping culture
the way shoes shape culture now.

And so, this idea that
there was gonna be

this whole marketplace
of athletes pedaling shoes

was just kind of
unheard of,

and to some degree,
considered to be ridiculous.

Pre-Jordan it was, you know,
"Here's our shoe.

You're endorsing it.
We'll pay you to do that."

And that's basically
where it ends.

They would be
in commercials.

They would maybe get
a shoe in their color.

But it was
nothing special.

It's reinforced
for me.

And me.

Hey, maybe it was made
for both of us.

Must be magic.

Now that's who this shoe
was made for.

[ All laugh ]

Announcer:
The Converse Star Tech, with
the unique uni-saddle design.

You had Larry Bird and
Magic Johnson with Converse.

You had Dr. J
with Converse.

I mean, Dr. J
was the first superstar.

♪ Hey, hey, Dr. J ♪

He was the first elevation
of the sneaker game,

wearing Dr. J Converses.

♪ Are you a member
of the human race ♪

♪ Hey, Dr. J, are you
wearing magic shoes? ♪

Announcer:
He's wearing Converse,
the shoes of the stars.

Kent: But if you really
want to look at it,

the guy who changed
the game was Clyde,

because he was the first
coolest basketball player.

He was the guy
you wanted to be like.

He was the guy
you wanted to dress like.

♪♪

When you saw him
you saw the mink coats,

you saw the Rolls-Royces,

he looked like
the hustlers.

He looked like
a superhero.

And then, he has his name in
gold on the side of a sneaker.

So, everything else after that
was a byproduct of him

being the coolest first.

But it's like the player
had to be cool, as well.

Like, was Magic Johnson cool?

Not really.

Was Larry Bird cool?

Was Abdul-Jabbar cool?

Not really.

But then, Michael Jordan
is semi-cool.

But then, his sneaker becomes a
character, and then that's cool.

So, he reluctantly agreed.

Knight:
He comes to Oregon.

And then, we started showing him
the things

that we wanted to do
with him,

including making a red,
white, and black shoe.

And he said, "So, you want me
to play in this?"

We said "Yeah. That's the idea.
You play in the game,

because they see you playing
the game, they buy the shoe."

We played a tape using
the Pointer Sisters song "Jump."

with a highlight reel
of him,

And at the end,
we showed the wings

and the Jordan trademark.

But mostly, what we had was,
we had a program.

We were gonna make
Michael Jordan

a marketing superstar.

♪♪

He was impressed with
the boldness of the idea.

And we went to dinner that night
with his parents.

And at the end of the dinner,
his mother leaned over and said,

"Don't worry about it
Michael will be wearing Nike."

So, the deal was
a five-year deal.

Michael got a certain amount
of guaranteed money

over a five-year period.

On top of that,
he got a very large annuity

that would start
paying him

after he retired
from basketball --

over $1 million
a year.

And he obviously got royalties
on the shoe.

And it was a deal that,
actually,

I believe, that we proposed
to Michael,

that they didn't
propose to us.

We proposed to Michael
to sort of take the price down,

how much cash
we'd actually have to put out.

Falk: I asked Nike what
their expectations were.

And their expectations were,
in the five-year deal,

by the end of year three,
they'd hope to sell $3 million

worth of shoes
heading into year four.

That was their expectation.

And they sold $126 million
the first year.

Where I think we made a mistake
is, we didn't put a cap on it,

and we didn't say "Okay, after
so many thousands of pairs,

the royalty rate
goes down."

The thinking was, "Look, if he
sold that many shoes, great."

As it turned out,
that's what happened.

They sold so many shoes they
didn't know what to do with it,

and Michael made
a lot of money.

Falk: By the end of year three,
they'd hope to sell $3 million

worth of shoes
heading into year four.

That was their expectation.

And they sold $126 million
the first year.

Where I think we made a mistake
is, we didn't put a cap on it,

and we didn't say "Okay, after
so many thousands of pairs,

the royalty rate
goes down."

The thinking was, "Look, if he
sold that many shoes, great."

As it turned out,
that's what happened.

They sold so many shoes they
didn't know what to do with it,

and Michael made
a lot of money.

Falk:
Now, if I would have known that,
I probably would have asked them

to pay him a dollar a year
and 50/50 on the royalties.

Now, had we done that,

maybe they wouldn't have
pushed the line.

The most important aspect
of his deal

wasn't the money
or the royalties.

I forced them to spend
$1 million.

in the first six months
to promote him.

I think we agreed
that we would pay him

close to $1 million,

and that we would put close to
$1 million into marketing.

And then,
the fun stuff started.

And the fun stuff was, "How are
we gonna market this guy?"

We all talked about how he used
to soar in the air.

David Falk, to his credit, said
"I've got a name for this thing.

it should be called
'Air Jordan.'"

Rob immediately
wants to use the name.

I said,
"Well, why don't we think
about it for a little while.

There's an airline
that's called "Air Jordan.'"

But no, Rob was going
with Air Jordan.

Michael always tells me
it's the first

and the last great idea
I ever had.

After that, I went and saw him
in Washington D.C.

In that conversation, he told me
that he didn't want to wear

red, white, and black.

And when I asked him, I said,
"Well, what's the reason?"

He said, "They're
the devil's colors."

I said, "Well, they're
the Chicago Bull's colors,

so you better go talk to the guy
that owns the Chicago Bulls.

'cause I can't
change them."

I mean he wanted to wear
Carolina blue,

which was the color
of his school.

And I said,
"We'll make you a pair,

you can wear them
on Saturdays.

But you're in red,
white, and black.

You know, that's just the way
it's got to be."

Jackson: The ideology behind
doing this came a long time

before the shoe
was first launched.

You know, these conversations
with Jordan

getting his own shoe
came his rookie year.

But they waited before
they actually launched it.

And the lead up to that
was beautiful,

because what they did is
put the shoes on Jordan,

so you could see
him playing.

Bengtson:
You know, the build-up of
that shoe before it released

at retail
was five or six months long,

which was fairly unheard of
back then.

And I think the idea of
a new shoe model

being such a big deal,

and being such a big deal
to people other than athletes,

was something
really different.

Knight: The first time
he wore the shoes,

he wore them in New York

at an exhibition game --
a pre-season game.

They're out doing
their warm-up drills,

and all of a sudden, there's
a bunch of kids start gathering.

And they're all pointing
at his shoes.

David Falk happens to be
sitting in the arena,

and he wants to know
what all this is about.

"What's going on here?"

And they tell him, "Oh, Jordan's
got on these crazy shoes."

And sure enough,
the shoes get banned.

At that time, David Stern,
who was head of the NBA,

had a rule
that only white footwear

was allowed on the court.

Stern saw these shoes, and said,
"That's against the rules.

You can't do it."

Bengtson: The original
Air Jordan was just a project

that was kind of unprecedented
in the way Nike worked.

You know, they signed Jordan
that summer, and wanted to get

a signature shoe on his foot
in that first season,

which really compressed
the amount of time

they had to get
this shoe done.

So, in the meantime,
he had to wear something else.

and what he ended up wearing
was the Nike Air Ship.

And that was the shoe

that originally drew
the ire of the NBA,

and basically
banning the shoe.

Stern:
We told Michael and Nike that,
whatever shoe he was wearing

didn't conform,
so would they please change it.

And Rob said, "So, what are
you gonna do, fine him?"

He goes "Yes.
I'm gonna fine him."

And Rob said,
"Go ahead and fine him.

Nike will cover him."

It became the shoe
that was banned by the NBA,

with the implication
that it was

because it made Michael
such a good basketball player.

Announcer: On September 15th,
Nike created a revolutionary

new basketball shoe.

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

Fortunately, the NBA can't
stop you from wearing them.

♪♪

Lazenby: Nike officials
reacted with glee to this,

because that meant that,
if something is outlawed,

it becomes very precious.

Williams: Typically, when you
brand a product, you start with

what we call "functional
benefits of consumption."

You want to give people
a sense that, again,

this somehow
solves a problem

or it somehow makes you better
at something you're doing.

And that was the first thing
we did with the Jordan brand,

was "Hey, we gave you the sense
that you would be

a better basketball player
if you were to wear these shoes,

and that the NBA band
these shoes

because it gave
Michael Jordan

some type
of competitive advantage."

And then,
you look on television,

and you see this man
doing things

that you'd never seen an athlete
do, ever, you believe in it.

They gave Nike
the best publicity ever

when they banned
the Air Jordan,

which only made them hotter
in the streets.

Knight:
There's no question of the fact
that the shoes were banned

helped the sale
of the shoes.

Kids like that stuff.

Particularly the inner city kid,
he loves that stuff.

"I'm wearing something
I'm not supposed to be wearing.

Perfect."

[ Laughs ]

Couldn't be better.

And, all of a sudden,
overnight,

it was just like
everybody wanted them.

They were being sold
on the street corners

for hundreds of dollars.

Knight The first time we showed
Footlocker, for example --

which is the biggest
retailer in America --

they only wanted 5,000 pairs
for all their stores.

Within a week, they called,
and wanted 150,000 pairs.

-Nike!
-Adidas!

Competition is the name
of the game at Footlocker,

with the biggest selection
of big names ever assembled.

So, whether your game
is serious or social,

we'll find the right shoe
for you.

You know, you don't tell people
not to do something,

because they want to do it --
particularly that age group.

And that just shows you
the personality

of the kid
who's buying the shoe.

He wanted to
break the rules.

Kent: The shoes were
anti-establishment,

you know what I'm saying?

So, the hood is
anti-establishment.

It's almost like they were made
to be for each other.

Knight: The ban helped,
no question about it.

I mean Rob Strasser wrote David
a thank-you note.

And as Rob was leaving
his office,

he said, "I have one thing
to ask that you do."

And Rob turns around,
and says, "What?"

"Can you send me a pair
of the banned shoes?

My son wants them.
He thinks I'm a jerk."

[ Laughs ]

Bengtson:
The Air Jordan was something
that kind of transcended

all these different borders

that hadn't really been
transcended before.

The fact that it comes out after
he plays in the All-Star game,

after he's in
his first dunk contest,

by the time that shoe
finally hit the market,

they were just gone.

Knight:
I think we sold over a million
pairs of shoes in one year,

which is -- in those days
was a lot.

It wasn't started slowly
and built to a big fire.

It started as
a giant fire.

I mean, it just was -- there was
a big fire from day one.

Flight Attendant: Good morning,
ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to flight 23.

Please make sure your seat belts
are securely fashioned,

and extinguish
all smoking materials.

Knight: Then, we had done it
for the first year.

Then everybody's going,
"What are we gonna do now?"

It became so big that
we were worried about it --

just the air would just
go out of it.

Bengtson: You know, if the
Air Jordan 1 was a shoe

that Nike had to get together
in a hurry,

and really rush
to get to market,

and get on Jordan's feet,

the Air Jordan 2
was kind of the opposite.

The Air Jordan 2 came along,
and it was like,

that shoe was pumping,
you know?

It was fly.
It was sleek.

It was well-built.
It was well-designed.

It was the first shoe
that didn't have

the Nike swoosh on it.

♪♪

That was a game-changer,

you know, in terms of,
like, my community.

You know, for sneaker
connoisseurs and ball players,

like, the Jordan 2 was, like,

"Oh, okay.
They got it right now."

Announcer: Air Jordan.
It's all in the imagination.

♪♪

The Air Jordan 2,
when it came out, it was a risk

that most sneaker companies
back then didn't take,

or wouldn't take.

It was almost twice
as expensive.

It was made in Italy.

Bengtson: And you could almost
look at the Air Jordan 2 --

even though it came out
in 1986, a full decade

before Jordan split off
into its own brand --

being sort of
the first sign

that Air Jordan was a thing
in and of itself,

that didn't necessarily need
that Nike swoosh.

Knight:
Well, here's the first poster
we did with Michael Jordan,

which basically was to announce
that he is arriving in Chicago.

This is my favorite shoe
of his.

And this is
the Chicago skyline,

and he's obviously flying over
the skyline into the city.

This was one of the interesting
things about Michael Jordan.

He gave me my own poster
for Christmas.

Maybe that's why
he's a billionaire.

Now, the brilliant thing
about Nike

is that they are
a marketing company,

first and foremost.

Their relationship
with Wieden+Kennedy,

and the ideas behind that
is what makes them special.

And Wieden+Kennedy
really hadn't stepped in

as a marketing group
behind pushing Jordan.

But starting with 3,
they did.

A lot of the things
that made Jordan special

is that the grassroots aspects
of how they approached things.

So, Wieden+Kennedy
tapped into that.

What's happening at
the grassroots level,

as far as, like, you know,

African American society
is concerned?

Who's that new cat?
Who has that fresh breath?

What's that new visual?
What's that new voice?

And their new voice
was in a character

that Spike Lee had created.

You know, when he did with
his first feature film,

"She's Gotta Have It."

You know, is there anyway
to tap into him"

"She's Gotta Have It"
was a love story

not only between Mars Blackmon
and Nola Darling,

but between Mars Blackmon
and his Air Jordans.

And he sort of couldn't decide
between the two.

He kind of wanted
to have both.

You know, I think a lot of kids
in the eighties

could identify with that.

He knew that before a lot
of other people,

you know,
which I think is why

Spike was able to become
as successful as he did.

And -- you know, and I think
Nike and Wieden+Kennedy,

and I think it was Jim Riswold
at Wieden, who recognized that.

Riswold: It was 1987,

and Bill Davenport and I
were down in L.A.

finishing our first spot
with Michael Jordan.

And back then,
all spots with Nike

seemed to be "show
the athlete sweat,

and put a product shot
at the end,

and call it a day."

Announcer: Today at Nike,
we know even more.

We developed one of the most
sophisticated sport

research labs in the world
to let us see,

in detail,
the peculiarities of style,

the dynamics
of foot strike.

And at Nike, we're putting
that knowledge to work,

making shoes that actually
help athletes to run faster.

Riswold: So, we were down there,
doing that commercial.

And we went to a movie.

And there was a trailer
at the beginning of the move

with a guy we'd never heard of
called "Spike Lee,"

selling tube socks
on the sidewalk.

Three for $5.

Hi. I'm Spike Lee.

When I'm not directing,
I do this.

It pays the rent,
puts food on the table,

butter on my
whole wheat bread.

Anyway, I have this new comedy
coming out.

It's a very funny film --
"She's Gotta Have It."

Riswold: That was
a great trailer.

So, you get back to Portland,
and that movie is playing.

And it's about three men
pursuing the same woman.

And one of those men is
the Mars Blackmon character.

And he finally gets the time
to sleep with

the woman of his dreams,
Nola Darling.

And while doing so, he won't
take off his Air Jordans.

Blackmon: Stop. Stop.
No, stop. Stop.

Knight:
He's boffing this girl in bed,
and he's wearing Air Jordans.

And I went "Great," you know,
"nice promo."

And Bill and I
look at each other like

"Are you thinking
what I'm thinking?"

They said, "We ought to do
a TV commercial with him."

We called Spike up.

And that was back when
he answered his own phone.

"Would you be interested
in playing your role,

and directing
Michael Jordan

in a series of Mars Blackmon
and Michael Jordan commercials?"

And I think we could hear him
pee his pants

on the other end
of the line.

"Do I get to
direct him, too?"

-Nola?
-Yes, Mars.

-Nola?
-Yes, Mars.

Is it because he do a vicious
high-flying 360 slam dunk?

-No, Mars.
-Because he's taller than me?

No, Mars.

Because he's loved, adored,
and worshiped by millions?

-No, Mars.
-Nola, what is it?

It's because he's got
the new Air Jordans, Mars.

Oh sweat, oh sweat,
oh sweat.

Nike, you got to
hook me up.

Spike Lee and
the Mars and Mike campaign

of the 1980s,

playing the character
Mars Blackmon, of course,

from "She's Gotta Have It,"
played an integral part of

making Michael Jordan
believable

while still having
that sense of integrity.