March 25, 2025 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, at the time, no one knew just how great Michael Jordan would be in the NBA, but one underdog sneaker company—yes, Nike was an underdog then—decided to take a chance on him. However, the true turning point came when they focused on a rising director: Spike Lee. The rest is history.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
If you were to think of the most popular sneakers
in sports, the name that comes to mind is Nike.
But this brand wasn't always a top choice for athletes.
In fact, in the nineteen seventies and eighties, Nike was
an underdog compared to other big brands like Adidas and Pluma.
(00:33):
Up next, Nicholas Smith, author of Kicks, The Great American
Story of Sneakers, brings us the story of how Nike
took a chance on a college student to build their brand.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Take it away, Nick, What makes Cinderella special at the ball?
It's that glass slipper. What makes Dorothy return back from
Oz to Kansas?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Cap your hughes together three times and think to yourself,
there's no place like whom.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
It's the red ruby slippers. What makes Michael Jordan fly
through the air? It's that Nike air Jordan. So they
were selling an idea that had been with our culture
for a very long time, that shoes can transform you
into something else.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Nike at the time had some success in the running
shoe market and was trying to move into other sports.
Of course, they were competing with the converses and with
the adidases and with the Pumas in the world that
kind of controlled that market. Now, Naki had made some
inroads in getting college basketball players to wear their shoes,
but by the time those players turned the pros, they
(01:48):
went to one of the bigger brands. So they thought, okay, well,
we need to change a bar strategy. It's the early eighties,
it's nineteen eighty four. Let's look at the draft and
kind of pick the best players that we think and
then can kind of approach them for their their own shoes,
and then you know that that will be our big
success story. Some of the Nike executives said, okay, well,
(02:08):
you know, let's let's not look for let's let's look
at one and that one basketball player that they saw
was Michael Jordan. Now we all know the success that
Michael Jordan had, but at the time he was, you know,
a rookie. He was an unknown quantity, very very good,
but you know, it wasn't clear if it would pan
out or not. So they decided to take a gamble
(02:31):
and make not only a shoe the air Jordan's shoe
after him, but also a line of different products clothing,
and after a couple of years, the Air Jordan shoe
became you know, very very big and very very famous
because Jordan started to become a better, better player. Now,
of course, other brands started to become interested in Jordan,
(02:51):
and Jordan was sure if he was going to, you know,
stay with Nike or move to Adidas or Converse, which
he also liked. And Nike he said, Okay, we're going
to have to, you know, change up our strategy here.
We're going to have to get a new shoe designer
to design a third version of this Air Jordan's shoe.
We're going to have to have a brand new marketing
campaign to go with this. And two of the Nike
(03:13):
executives just happened upon a first time director named Spike Lee,
who made a very inventive first movie, and they thought, okay, well,
let's let's try to get this guy in to write
and direct some commercials with Jordan. And these commercials ended
up being a very pivotal moment for Nike because they
kind of solidified not just the myth of Jordan the player,
(03:36):
but the myth of the shoe. Itself. They were in
black and white. They had you know, a very young
Michael Jordan there, and they also had Spike Lee in
his character that he played in his first movie, Mars Blackman,
this kind of geeky, nerdy, you know, basketball obsessed guy
who you know, was just enamored and in love with Jordan,
even though he loved the New York KNICKSI you know,
(03:58):
saw that Jordan was still, you know, the best player
around in those days. So the commercials were kind of
a you know, a straight man and a joking man,
going back and forth. Jordan's played the you know, I'm
I'm just going to say how it is, and Mars
Blockman was kind of the the goof bowl there. So
one of the first commercials, you know, Spike Lee and
his characters, he's trying to get Jordan to say, you know,
(04:19):
what is it that makes you so great?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yo, Mars Blackman, here with my main men, Michael Jordan. You, Mike,
what makes you the best player in the universe?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Is the vicious stunts? No Mars, is it a haircut?
No Mars. Is it the shoes?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
No mam is it an extra long shirts?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
No Mars is the shoes? Right?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
It's the shoes, Michael, the shoes make you great. And
you're like, no, no, it's not the shoes. But of
course the point of the commercial is is the shoes.
They want you to buy the shoes that Jordan wears,
the same shoes that this professional player that's so electric
that everyone's talking about. You can have the very same
thing that he's wearing on the court.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
It sucks, No, mar Money's got.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
To be the shoes. Shoe you you sure is not
the shoes.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I'm sure, Mark, what about the shoes? Nor Money's got
to be the shoes.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
And this is kind of a very unique way to
approach that marketing in a way that other brands had
kind of touched on but hadn't really nailed it in
the same way that Nike in that marketing was nailing it.
And whether this was conscious at the time or not,
they were tapping into a very old idea, the idea
of a magic shoe. And when players like Magic Johnson,
(05:35):
Larry Bird, Michael Jordan became really big, you wanted to
emulate them as much as possible. And it wasn't just
on the basketball court, it was you know, in the
school yard, walking down the Street. You know, in your
spare time, you wanted to have that association there with
somebody famous. I mean, it's kind of the oldest idea
now is you know what we like is because we
(05:57):
saw it on somebody else that we want to emulate.
You know, people wearing a certain sneaker want to kind
of capture that cool that whatever is having that sneaker has. Now,
in those days, of course, it's say it's an athlete,
because you know, athletes were sneakers. But over time it
became musicians, it became celebrities. You would start to find
(06:18):
them on TV or in the movies or other sorts
of things. So, of course in the nineteen seventies, Charlie's
Angels is a is a big, big show, and Farah
Fawcett is probably the biggest star on that show. Well,
in one episode, she's i think escaping from a bad
guy on a skateboard and she's wearing a pair of
white Nike sneakers, same pair incidentally that Forrest Gump war
(06:39):
in the movie To Run across America. Well, of course,
you know people watching this episode, are people seeing the
posters or anything of Farah Fawcet in those sneakers immediately
wanted a pair because of that connection there to you know,
a very famous celebrity. And after a while, more and
more brands started to sponsor more and more non athletes.
And you know, this is what leads up to the
(07:00):
world of today where if Rihanna has a sneaker deal,
you're not looking at it weird, like, oh, well, she's
not an athlete. You're like, oh, yeah, of course she's Rihanna.
Of course she would have her own sneaker line.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And a terrific job by Madison Derek Out on the
production and storytelling, and a special thanks to author Nicholas Smith.
A terrific business, culture, sports and history story all wrapped
into one, the story of Air Jordan. Here on our
American Stories. Here are in our American Stories, we bring
you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love.
(07:36):
Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to
be told. But we can't do it without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love our stories in America like
we do, please go to our American Stories dot com
and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot,
help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our
(07:57):
American Stories dot com.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
If you were to think of the most popular sneakers
in sports, the name that comes to mind is Nike.
But this brand wasn't always a top choice for athletes.
In fact, in the nineteen seventies and eighties, Nike was
an underdog compared to other big brands like Adidas and Pluma.
(00:33):
Up next, Nicholas Smith, author of Kicks, The Great American
Story of Sneakers, brings us the story of how Nike
took a chance on a college student to build their brand.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Take it away, Nick, What makes Cinderella special at the ball?
It's that glass slipper. What makes Dorothy return back from
Oz to Kansas?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Cap your hughes together three times and think to yourself,
there's no place like whom.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
It's the red ruby slippers. What makes Michael Jordan fly
through the air? It's that Nike air Jordan. So they
were selling an idea that had been with our culture
for a very long time, that shoes can transform you
into something else.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Nike at the time had some success in the running
shoe market and was trying to move into other sports.
Of course, they were competing with the converses and with
the adidases and with the Pumas in the world that
kind of controlled that market. Now, Naki had made some
inroads in getting college basketball players to wear their shoes,
but by the time those players turned the pros, they
(01:48):
went to one of the bigger brands. So they thought, okay, well,
we need to change a bar strategy. It's the early eighties,
it's nineteen eighty four. Let's look at the draft and
kind of pick the best players that we think and
then can kind of approach them for their their own shoes,
and then you know that that will be our big
success story. Some of the Nike executives said, okay, well,
(02:08):
you know, let's let's not look for let's let's look
at one and that one basketball player that they saw
was Michael Jordan. Now we all know the success that
Michael Jordan had, but at the time he was, you know,
a rookie. He was an unknown quantity, very very good,
but you know, it wasn't clear if it would pan
out or not. So they decided to take a gamble
(02:31):
and make not only a shoe the air Jordan's shoe
after him, but also a line of different products clothing,
and after a couple of years, the Air Jordan shoe
became you know, very very big and very very famous
because Jordan started to become a better, better player. Now,
of course, other brands started to become interested in Jordan,
(02:51):
and Jordan was sure if he was going to, you know,
stay with Nike or move to Adidas or Converse, which
he also liked. And Nike he said, Okay, we're going
to have to, you know, change up our strategy here.
We're going to have to get a new shoe designer
to design a third version of this Air Jordan's shoe.
We're going to have to have a brand new marketing
campaign to go with this. And two of the Nike
(03:13):
executives just happened upon a first time director named Spike Lee,
who made a very inventive first movie, and they thought, okay, well,
let's let's try to get this guy in to write
and direct some commercials with Jordan. And these commercials ended
up being a very pivotal moment for Nike because they
kind of solidified not just the myth of Jordan the player,
(03:36):
but the myth of the shoe. Itself. They were in
black and white. They had you know, a very young
Michael Jordan there, and they also had Spike Lee in
his character that he played in his first movie, Mars Blackman,
this kind of geeky, nerdy, you know, basketball obsessed guy
who you know, was just enamored and in love with Jordan,
even though he loved the New York KNICKSI you know,
(03:58):
saw that Jordan was still, you know, the best player
around in those days. So the commercials were kind of
a you know, a straight man and a joking man,
going back and forth. Jordan's played the you know, I'm
I'm just going to say how it is, and Mars
Blockman was kind of the the goof bowl there. So
one of the first commercials, you know, Spike Lee and
his characters, he's trying to get Jordan to say, you know,
(04:19):
what is it that makes you so great?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yo, Mars Blackman, here with my main men, Michael Jordan. You, Mike,
what makes you the best player in the universe?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Is the vicious stunts? No Mars, is it a haircut?
No Mars. Is it the shoes?
Speaker 1 (04:34):
No mam is it an extra long shirts?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
No Mars is the shoes? Right?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
It's the shoes, Michael, the shoes make you great. And
you're like, no, no, it's not the shoes. But of
course the point of the commercial is is the shoes.
They want you to buy the shoes that Jordan wears,
the same shoes that this professional player that's so electric
that everyone's talking about. You can have the very same
thing that he's wearing on the court.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
It sucks, No, mar Money's got.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
To be the shoes. Shoe you you sure is not
the shoes.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I'm sure, Mark, what about the shoes? Nor Money's got
to be the shoes.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
And this is kind of a very unique way to
approach that marketing in a way that other brands had
kind of touched on but hadn't really nailed it in
the same way that Nike in that marketing was nailing it.
And whether this was conscious at the time or not,
they were tapping into a very old idea, the idea
of a magic shoe. And when players like Magic Johnson,
(05:35):
Larry Bird, Michael Jordan became really big, you wanted to
emulate them as much as possible. And it wasn't just
on the basketball court, it was you know, in the
school yard, walking down the Street. You know, in your
spare time, you wanted to have that association there with
somebody famous. I mean, it's kind of the oldest idea
now is you know what we like is because we
(05:57):
saw it on somebody else that we want to emulate.
You know, people wearing a certain sneaker want to kind
of capture that cool that whatever is having that sneaker has. Now,
in those days, of course, it's say it's an athlete,
because you know, athletes were sneakers. But over time it
became musicians, it became celebrities. You would start to find
(06:18):
them on TV or in the movies or other sorts
of things. So, of course in the nineteen seventies, Charlie's
Angels is a is a big, big show, and Farah
Fawcett is probably the biggest star on that show. Well,
in one episode, she's i think escaping from a bad
guy on a skateboard and she's wearing a pair of
white Nike sneakers, same pair incidentally that Forrest Gump war
(06:39):
in the movie To Run across America. Well, of course,
you know people watching this episode, are people seeing the
posters or anything of Farah Fawcet in those sneakers immediately
wanted a pair because of that connection there to you know,
a very famous celebrity. And after a while, more and
more brands started to sponsor more and more non athletes.
And you know, this is what leads up to the
(07:00):
world of today where if Rihanna has a sneaker deal,
you're not looking at it weird, like, oh, well, she's
not an athlete. You're like, oh, yeah, of course she's Rihanna.
Of course she would have her own sneaker line.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And a terrific job by Madison Derek Out on the
production and storytelling, and a special thanks to author Nicholas Smith.
A terrific business, culture, sports and history story all wrapped
into one, the story of Air Jordan. Here on our
American Stories. Here are in our American Stories, we bring
you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love.
(07:36):
Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to
be told. But we can't do it without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love our stories in America like
we do, please go to our American Stories dot com
and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot,
help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our
(07:57):
American Stories dot com.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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