Yall know Michael Jordan made Nike matter and not the other way around

[Ghpstface]

Adidas was clearly the urban "it" shoe at the time. Jordan rocked the Forums in the olympics. Adidas at the time>>>>>Nike. Adidas fukked up, plain and simple. If you look throughout the history of companies, there is always some bad moves here and there.

They could have had a campaign with Jordan + Run DMC

But big corporations were still scared of black people then so that never would have happened

 

[The Devil's Advocate]

Right?

I keep seeing the whole "nike marketing machine" helping Jordan's legacy argument and those people have it backwards

What the fukk was Nike before the Air Jordan? They never cracked a billion in sales before Jordan was signed. They never signed athletes from the big 3 sports before Jordan.

So basically one signing took them from early under-armour status (innovative but not cool at all) to a worldwide cultural institution.


Tl;dr Nike wun shyt before MJ and a fight come wit it

being banned did more that ANYTHING jordan or nike could ever do


nobody cared about jordan's shoes when they first dropped... then the NBA said they don't match the uniform and told him to stop wearing them


nike saw this as great marketing and paid jordan to keep wearing them, even though he was being fined (but not suspended)

they dropped the commercial


THAT had the hood going crazy... "where the fukk can i get those banned jordan's"


that launched the exclusivity and the mystique around them and the rest was history

 

[Ghpstface]

being banned did more that ANYTHING jordan or nike could ever do


nobody cared about jordan's shoes when they first dropped... then the NBA said they don't match the uniform and told him to stop wearing them


nike saw this as great marketing and paid jordan to keep wearing them, even though he was being fined (but not suspended)

they dropped the commercial


THAT had the hood going crazy... "where the fukk can i get those banned jordan's"


that launched the exclusivity and the mystique around them and the rest was history

Good point. Im not saying Nike didnt have great talented people working for them ...its just that they didnt have a good vessel for those talents until Jordan came along

 

[Woodwerkz]

My first pair of Nikes... I was happy as a mothafukka

My first pair was

Couldn't tell us shyt when we put them Bullet Toes


and according to some people...these Cortez were where allowed Nike to grow because they were crazy successful beyond what Nike thought it would be.

Spoiler: One of my favs

I know these ain't Nikes... but was some of my favorite joints back then

..

 

[bigmanharris]

Killed him. LMAO!!!!!!!!!

You do know that Like Mike was a GATORADE campaign right?

Nike would not be in the financial position by 87 or 88 to sign an athlete like Bo Jackson or to fund his marketing campaign without having Jordan become a runaway success first. I believe the last high profile signing they had before MJ was John McEnroe(sp?) the tennis player that used to throw tantrums

 

[Damnshow]

Good point. Im not saying Nike didnt have great talented people working for them ...its just that they didnt have a good vessel for those talents until Jordan came along

nike was a younger company compared to adidas, reebok or puma or converse....they needed that one big signing move to strike real hard, and they did with MJ. But MJ was not the only reason why nike became so big. Their creativity is what got them to this place, they were making better designed shoes than the rest of companies. I mean shoes from the 80s like air force 1 or air max are worn up to this day, their technologies were better, the nike air technology really taking the shoes to the next level.
So we are talking about better looks and better performance. Once MJ joined Nike they had easier chances to sign other top athletes too, they made a great move by expanding their shoes to many sports, not just concentrating on a few. And then they dropped the "just do it" commercial, which made any person from audience, fat or skinny like a muthafukka, to believe in themselves and to start exercising. Those commercials was as groundbreaking as apple company commercials when they made the audience feel like they were in commericlal, by showing scenes from the everyday life situations.

Pick for example reebok, when they had iverson, AI of course was no MJ, but at one point he was the most popular player, the shoes however were ugly, and this day nobody is wearing answer's, besides vintage fans, neither shaqnosis or kamikaze or any popular reebok shoes from the 90s

So basically if nike had MJ and they didn't know how to make good looking shoes, their shoes wouldnt be selling that much even if it was MJ himself on their cover. Innovation is what made nike stand out from the rest of these companies.

 

[Ghpstface]

nike was a younger company compared to adidas, reebok or puma or converse....they needed that one big signing move to strike real hard, and they did with MJ. But MJ was not the only reason why nike became so big. Their creativity is what got them to this place, they were making better designed shoes than the rest of companies. I mean shoes from the 80s like air force 1 or air max are worn up to this day, their technologies were better, the nike air technology really taking the shoes to the next level.
So we are talking about better looks and better performance. Once MJ joined Nike they had easier chances to sign other top athletes too, they made a great move by expanding their shoes to many sports, not just concentrating on a few. And then they dropped the "just do it" commercial, which made any person from audience, fat or skinny like a muthafukka, to believe in themselves and to start exercising. Those commercials was as groundbreaking as apple company commercials when they made the audience feel like they were in commericlal, by showing scenes from the everyday life situations.

Pick for example reebok, when they had iverson, AI of course was no MJ, but at one point he was the most popular player, the shoes however were ugly, and this day nobody is wearing answer's, besides vintage fans, neither shaqnosis or kamikaze or any popular reebok shoes from the 90s

So basically if nike had MJ and they didn't know how to make good looking shoes, their shoes wouldnt be selling that much even if it was MJ himself on their cover. Innovation is what made nike stand out from the rest of these companies.

At the very least they helped each reach their potential, but where do you think nike would be today w/o MJ?

 

[STAN JONES]

Alot of people in this really dont have clue what the fukk they're talking about

nikkas really trying to say Nike wasn't shyt before Jordan

 

[Foxmulder]

It was the perfect storm. The best player and those early air Jordan designs were godly. To this day no shoes is fukking with those Jordan's .

 

[Damnshow]

At the very least they helped each reach their potential, but where do you think nike would be today w/o MJ?

nike would still be number one. Less rich of course without MJ. MJ is probably the most marketable athlete ever. Go to any country and they know who Jordan is.

just saying the mindset that nike had was on another level compared to their competition

 

[Brandsdale]

not necessarily fair to say

Nike branched its marketing to broadcast advertising finally by 1982 and then Jordan was drafted 2 years later

safe to say yeah, there was in their infancy and Jordan happened to fall in place at the right time so who knows whether or not they would be where they are now without MJ or not

for now this thread is only speculation

 

[feelosofer]

Don't get me wrong, Jordan took them to the next level, but Nike shoes were seen as a cutting edge shoe relative to what was out there in the market, very much like UnderArmor is today.

 

[Ethnic Vagina Finder]

I thought I was when I got these for my birthday...

 

[Sccit]

IT GOES BOTH WAYS .. THEY TOOK EACHOTHER TO GREATER HEIGHTS. MJ WOULD NOT BE VIEWED AS THE UNDISPUTED GOAT WITOUT NIKE, MARKETTING, AND SPORTS MEDIA.. PERIOD.

 

[Big Boss]

MJ originally wanted to sign for Adidas (a bigger brand at the time)...