From controversial basketball shoes to a multi-billion dollar brand, take a look at the evolution of Air Jordan sneakers on MJ’s birthday.
Before Air Jordans became the de facto basketball shoe, Converse All-Stars were the official sneakers of the NBA. Can you imagine Lebron James even stepping onto the court in a pair of Converse, let alone playing a full game in them? It seems almost criminal now that basketball stars were ever shooting hoops in the simple, flat soled silhouette, especially when we are so conditioned to seeing them in the ever-evolving color coated models of Air Jordan sneakers. Since its debut in 1985 the Michael Jordan-owned label has unveiled a new shoe every year, each time with more anticipation than the last. It’s fitting then that the man who redefined the basketball game on court is the same man who redefined the sneaker game off of it.
Falk’s deal demanded that the Chicago Bulls player have his own shoe line and annual drop schedule of one new shoe per year. Nike had just come out with its new “air sole” technology and since Jordan spent much of his game time in the air scoring dramatic dunks, Falk decided the name “Air Jordan” would befit the line. The idea that a basketball player would have his own shoe seems commonplace now, but then the arrangement was highly controversial. The NBA liked Converse shoes because they were all white, accented only by team colors to complement each set of team uniforms. Every player was meant to wear the same shoe to match their jerseys as a way of “equalizing players and promoting a team atmosphere,” according to the NBA at the time. In fact, it was a rule that players only wear white or black shoes and match their teammates. The underlying purpose behind the rule was to ensure emphasis was placed on franchise culture and administrative establishment rather than on the individual celebrity of especially valuable players.
Some of Michael Jordan’s greatest accomplishments as an NBA All-Star were fighting for more player’s rights within the NBA, which had a history of purposely undervaluing and silencing its players. The birth of the Air Jordan line in the form of the iconic black, red, and white pair of Air Jordan 1s he wore to a Madison Square Garden preseason game in 1985 was the spark to making these changes.
Of course the NBA notified both Jordan and Nike that because his new shoes clashed with his teammates’ they were banned from game courts. This did little to stop the player-corporation-duo though. Nike stuck back with an ad capitalizing on the scandal with Jordan cast as the star. The camera pans down the player from head to balck and red shoe. A voiceover states that “on October 15th, Nike created a revolutionary new basketball shoe.” The camera lands on Jordan’s Air-clad feet. The narrator continues: “On October 18th, the NBA threw them out of the game,” just as black metal bars slam overtop the sneakers. The narrator finishes, “fortunately, the NBA. can’t keep you from wearing them. Air Jordans. From Nike.” The marketing scheme deployed by Jordan’s agent and Nike’s advertising firm Chiat/Day was intended to give Jordan his own individual identity as a player, exactly what the NBA did not want.
