Michael Jordan’s colourful history with Nike makes for some legendary sneaker stories these days, but the tension back when things were rocky can’t be understated. At a point, the highly decorated athlete was set on leaving Nike for good. It’s kind of odd to think of a big-named athlete leaving a partnership with Nike today, but you’ll have to remember that Nike, at this time, was a total underdog next to the competition. So, why did he want to leave, and what stopped him from a dramatic exit?
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Back in 1984, Michael Jordan was brought on board with Nike after a long process to get the athlete to sign a sneaker deal. He was never excessively thrilled with the company. Still, the presence of key personnel like designer Peter Moore, and former VP of Marketing, Rob Strasser, made him choose the swoosh over giants of the industry like Adidas or Puma.
Unfortunately, things would start to crumble a little under a year later. Strasser and Moore left the company, and Jordan’s initial deal was due to run out in 1988. He started to entertain meetings with competitors. While Nike was still struggling to create any successful marketing campaigns, Adidas was taking the advertising world by storm and making waves across urban fashion. Converse was also a juggernaut in the 80s, serving as home to the NBA’s biggest stars at the time, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
Nike and Jordan were misfits as far as the sneaker game was concerned. A company putting all their faith in a 21-year-old yet to even appear in a professional game was absolutely unheard of. Without Moore and Strasser, Nike needed to ignite some much-needed faith in its star player somehow. Enter Tinker Hatfield. Designer of the Air Max 1 and a young innovator. At the time, Hatfield did not have the pull to automatically bring Jordan’s interest back, so he only had one tool in his arsenal to bank on. Design. That’s where the legendary Air Jordan 3 came in.
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Up until the Jordan 3’s, Nike had never featured the iconic Jumpman logo on a design. Conceived by Peter Moore, the Jumpman didn’t seem to be part of their ideas for iconography. Yet, it would seem like that ended up becoming their secret ingredient for Jordan’s belief in the company. Nike executives obviously weren’t thrilled with the Jumpman logo over the patented swoosh design, but Tinker Hatfield trusted his guts on this one. He presented the prototype to Jordan who loved it. The Jumpman combined with the elephant print on the Jordan III displayed just how serious Nike was about keeping MJ.
According to Hatfield, influence from both of Jordan’s parents also played a key role in swaying his decision towards Nike. On the day the Jordan III was revealed to Michael, he delayed his meeting with Nike for 4 hours due to a game of golf. The company still welcomed him with open arms, and were ready to discuss business. Michael’s mother, Deloris Jordan told him off for this behaviour and made him listen to Nike’s pitch. Even when he already seemed convinced it wasn’t going to work. Meanwhile, MJ’s father, James Jordan, pointed out that His Airness would be better off with Nike as they had his best interest at heart.
After the dramatic circumstances surrounding this meeting, Michael went on to stay with the company and put more effort into his role as an ambassador. He also closely collaborated with Hatfield on the Jordan III in preparation for its release in 1988.
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