One Man and His Shoes (2020) - full transcript

♪♪

♪♪

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.

And I think Nike
knew that.

Bengtson: You know, you had
this ready-made character,

you know, and he could come in
and do these commercials,

which were amazing
for their day.

You know, it's like,
you go back and look at, say,

Converse,
with the Weapon.

They had all these guys, like,
do a rap commercial.

♪ For the kind of moves
that never fail ♪

♪ The Weapon's the choice
of Kevin McHale ♪

♪ The same is true
for Mark Aguirre ♪

♪ When I wear Weapons,
I'm on fire ♪

♪ But what can the weapons
do for King? ♪

♪ Why, I can do
just about anything ♪

♪ You already know
what they did for me ♪

ALL: What?

♪ I walked away
with the MVP ♪

Announcer:
Converse Weapon --

The number-one weapon
in the NBA.

And it's like, you're just being
too literal, almost. You know?

And Spike and Mars,
they're coming out

doing these
black-and-white ads,

and like, they were debuted
during all-star weekend.

And, you know,
I remember getting ready

to watch
the NBA all-star game,

and, like, I was excited
about the dunk contest.

But I was super excited

that there would be
a new Air Jordan commercial.

Oh, money, money, why you want
to do that to me?

Why you leave
me hanging?

I got it.

Oh.

The big thing about what that
campaign taught us was, again,

that you could have fun
with this stuff,

and to look at
the athlete as, like --

this sounds crass,
but as the product.

What makes
this person unique?

Why could only Jordan be in that
campaign with Mars Blackmon?

Yo, Mike, what made you
the best player in the universe?

Is it the vicious dunks?

-No, Mars.
-Is it the haircut?

-No, Mars.
-Is it the shoes?

No, Mars.

Knight: The big thing
in marketing of these shoes

is that you've got to let
the kid know that you get it.

But you can't do it
in an obvious, stupid way.

You've got to do it
in a subliminal way.

You sure it's not
the shoes?

I'm sure, Mars.

-What about the shoes?
-No, Mars.

Using Spike Lee,
that's what that did.

And you just knew right there,
just to see that,

and that magic, you just went,
"This is gonna work.

We're blessed."

That's exactly
what I told Wieden

when I called him after
we were done shooting this.

I said, "Wieden all I can tell
you is, 'we're blessed.'"

Jackson:
And the nine commercials
they did for the 3,

the 4, and the 5 --
brilliant.

It's just brilliant
marketing, man.

You know,
and for Wieden+Kennedy

to let Spike
just do his thing.

You know, and let Spike
and Mars and Michael

develop a relationship.

It worked.
It worked beautifully.

Yo, professor, how does Mike
defy gravity?

Do you know? Do you know?
Do you know? Do you know?

Michael Jordan overcomes
the acceleration of gravity

by the application of his muscle
power in the vertical plain,

thus producing a low altitude
Earth orbit.

A what?
-Do you know what I mean?

Do you know? Do you know?
Do you know?

Knight: What the hell
is Nike doing?

This wasn't Spike
40 years later,

winning academy awards,

and becoming one of the greatest
directors in the world.

This was Spike as a young guy,
you know, coming right off of

"Do The Right Thing,"
and all these things,

where America, again,
was in unrest.

We're in now
the eighties.

And we're putting a black guy
on television

to sell shoes
to white America.

Most sneaker heads
will look at those spots,

and say those are the best
basketball commercials ever.

And I really think those ads
reshaped Nike advertising.

And I think it introduced Nike
into popular culture,

rather than just the top pyramid
of, you know,

high-performance athletes.

I mean, this was the Nike
for the rest of us.

See, that's the thing that
really happened, was Spike Lee.

Spike Lee, in my opinion,

is the father of what you call
this sneaker culture.

He would be the father.

Because no Spike,
no commercials about the shoes.

Let me repeat myself.

This you can buy.

You cannot do this.

Can.
Can't.

Can.

Kent: It ain't the shoes,
it's Michael Jordan, but no.

You believe, now,
it's the shoes.

Spike Lee happened.

When he got in
"Do The Right Thing,"

and said
"my sneakers are broke,"

the sneakers
were a character.

Yo!

Man: Yeah?

Yo, you almost
knocked me down, man.

The word is
"excuse me."

Oh, excuse me.
I'm sorry.

Not only just that but now you
stood on my brand-new [bleep]

Air Jordans
that I just [bleep] bought.

And that's all you can say,
is "excuse me"?

-What you [bleep] serious?
-Yeah, I'm serious.

I'll [bleep] you up quick
two times.

Two times.

Who told you to step
on my sneakers?

Yo, man, your Jordans
are [bleep] up.

Damn, man, you might have
to throw them kicks out.

"You broke my Jordans
'cause you stepped on them."

Not "You broke my sneakers,"
"You broke my Jordans."

The Jordans became
a character.

Knight: I asked Michael later
about the Spike Lee time.

He liked the guy.
He thought he was okay.

He didn't particularly think
the commercials were any good,

but he thought
the guy was funny.

Action.
Spike Lee.

No one did for marketing

what Nike and Michael
did for marketing.

Nobody.

Bengtson: I mean, he became
the face of everything.

Falk: We weren't trying
to do anything

other than take advantage
of his personality.

So, his first three deals,

as someone who starred
in the Olympics,

were Coca-Cola,
McDonald's, and Chevrolet.

I mean, you can't get any more
all-American than that.

And the fact that he was
African American

broke all
the barriers.

Williams: Jordan was this 6'6"
black man with a bald head,

very dark-skinned,
dark-complected.

That same guy without the name
Michael Jordan

walking down the streets
of suburban America

would have been seen
as a threat.

And so, how were they able
to make him not intimidating?

So, they had these kind of
Jordan rules of marketing in,

you know,
the way they showed him.

They embodied why Jordan
was able to penetrate,

and get into white America,
because he made white America

feel as if he was
just like them.

And I think Nike,
Hanes, Ballpark, Gatorade

did a fabulous job
of really crafting this brand

to a lot of white people
to accept him into their homes.

Williams:
He made white America feel
as if he was just like them.

And I think Nike,
Hanes, Ballpark, Gatorade

did a fabulous job
of really crafting this brand

to a lot of white people
to accept him into their homes.

Woman: Michael Jordan
used to be a superstar.

Now I'm an Ultra Star.

-Ultra soft...
-Is Ultra Star.

-Ultra clean...
-Is Ultra Star.

Announcer: The ultra
in men's haircare.

-Ultra sexy.

-He's Ultra Star.

Jackson:
You know, so to see a young
black dude come into that space,

and be able to sell America
about everything,

and make it
believable was,

you know,
areas uncharted for us.

You know, Ali was huge,
you know, for us.

Jackie Robinson
was huge for us.

Reggie Jackson was massive,
you know, for a black community.

But at some point,
there was still a disconnect

between, you know,
general America --

especially white America --
and those athletes.

You know, a lot of times,
you had to remove the blackness

for them to remove the blackness

in order for them
to see this person

as being what they would say
just American.

Ever need to
rent a car fast?

♪ Nobody does it better ♪

In order for America to accept
that black person,

there had to be some level of
this person

conforming to
the other side,

and distancing themselves

from their quote,
unquote "blackness."

Nobody has more of what it takes
to get you

into a new LTV
or other fine car faster.

For the non-African American
side of this country

to accept him,
and find comfort in who he was.

And I think it also came with
a sense of authenticity

that Michael didn't try
to sell himself

out of who he was
as a person.

You know, Michael never tried
to be something that he wasn't.

He was like,
"You're gonna accept me

for who I am in America."

And I think America somehow
tapped into that sensibility.

We tapped into
this authenticity.

You can say a lot of things
about Michael Jordan.

He is by no means Malcolm X,
alright?

He chose to be silent
on things.

But you never sensed
that he rejected being black.

Like, you felt like he was
very proud of being black.

And while I know Jordan
will never be considered

to be some kind of
revolutionary,

what he did, in terms
of global marketing,

and giving other black athletes
a blueprint to do that,

was quite revolutionary.

And showing other brands
that you can put a black face

on a Fortune 500 company,
and make a ton of money.

I don't want to say his marking
is overstated,

because, obviously,
that was a big deal.

But at the same time, you know,
I think it can't be said enough,

like,
what he did on the court

still was what mattered
more than anything.

If he didn't perform
on the court the way he did,

those shoes
wouldn't have sold.

♪♪

Bengtson:
The fact that he came out,
and was as good as he was,

and was as photogenic
as he was,

and was as, you know,
transcendent as he was,

that's what made
all the difference.

Those brilliant ads
don't translate

with Michael Jordan
coming off the bench.

It sure as hell
made my job easy.

I mean, you just watch
what he did,

and then you make
a spot about it.

♪♪

Jackson: If you look at the year
Michael had in '88,

when they released
the 3,

that quietly can be
one of the greatest seasons

anybody has ever had.

You don't win MVP,

scoring title,
Defensive player of the Year,

All-star MVP,
you know what I'm saying?

There's nothing else
that guy didn't win that year,

with the exception of a finals
MVP and a championship.

We had never seen
a season like that.

Everything he was doing
correlated to those shoes.

And we bought into that
because what was the tag line

they were selling us?

"Is it the shoes?
Is it the shoes?"

Mars Blackmon keep ingraining
that in our head.

"Is it the shoes?"

And that concept played into
his entire career,

as far as his shoes
were concerned.

What did Michael do
in those particular shoes?

And the moments he would have
in certain shoes

became their own quote,
unquote, "phenomenon."

Every ring he won attached
themselves to the shoes

he was wearing
when he won those rings.

In the early nineties, he began
challenging for the NBA title.

He began winning
on a big level.

♪♪

♪♪

Jackson: What Michael Jordan
was able to do

on the backs of Julius Erving
and Bird and Magic

was take it to
that Babe Ruth place,

where basketball basically
had become ingrained

in the country's
entire consciousness

to put it
in a stratosphere

that we didn't know
this game could exist.

That's what he
was able to do.

Telander:
I mean, when I was following
the Bulls, there, at the end --

you know, I've been
around rock bands too,

but when I'm following,
there, at the end,

it was like what the Beetles
were -- people screaming.

And then,
you had Michael Jordan.

You had Paul and John
rolled into one.

Jackson: It was equivalent to,
like, you know,

what is the Isley Brothers'
next album?

What's the next
Stevie Wonder project?

What's Michael Jackson
gonna follow up,

you know,
"Thriller" with?

That's what Jordan
was like.

You know, alright,
it was on that level.

You know, it was sort of
a time when a lot of

African American contributions
became much more mainstream.

You know, you had Prince.
You had Michael Jackson.

You know,
and Michael Jordan,

he was basketball's
version of that.

Williams:
You saw Jordan everywhere.

He had so many
brand associations.

And so, it made
you want to be like Jordan.

And so, you had kids
trying to emulate him,

you know,
in everything they did --

not just on
the basketball courts,

on the streets,
but also in their life.

And the Jordan brand,
the sneaker,

it really allowed us
to be able to do that

for the first time.

Telander:
We recognized something
in Michael Jordan instinctively,

that this was beauty,
and that I wanted some of that.

How can I
get close to it?

How can I get
ahold of this?

So, with this rampant
consumerism,

the shoes that had never
been marketed this way,

the advertisement
they had,

you said, "Damn, man,
I can't be Michael Jordan

but I can have this piece
of what he represents."

Williams: I mean, you think
about its impact on even,

you know, pop culture
and hip hop.

I mean, it's hard press
to find any rapper's catalog,

and he doesn't mention
Jordan at some point.

You think about probably
the most beloved black sitcom

of the 1990s,
"The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air."

Right there in the opening
credits, what is he wearing?

You know, the Jordan shoe,
I believe it was the Jordan 5.

♪ Now, this is a story
all about how ♪

♪ My life got flipped
turned upside down ♪

♪ And I'd like to take a minute,
just sit right there ♪

♪ I'll tell you how
I became the prince of
a town called Bel-Air ♪

And also, what had happened
in the last 20 years

are the shoe collectors.

And it became fanatical
to get them.

Powell: So, the retro is
really based on products

that emulate
the original product.

We don't make shoes like we did
in 1985 any longer.

So, we can't make the shoe
exactly like it was

with the Jordan 1.

But we make shoes that look
like the Jordan 1.

So, when we talk about
a retro shoe,

it's a shoe that's very close
to the original product.

And the bulk of the Jordan sales
were coming out of retro.

I mean, I'm confounded by
the rapidity of the whole thing.

I believe I'm the biggest
collector of Air Jordan shoes

in the United States.

Currently, I have 1,175 shoes
in my collection.

They start in a corner
back there,

and they just come all the way
around by the numbers.

I have some spaces
in between.

If I pick up new shoes,
I won't have to just move

all of the cases
all the way around.

But my favorites
are the 8s.

I call them
"the great 8s."

That was his greatest playoff
season of the six championships.

Back in 1985,
I was in college.

I had watched MJ from 1981,
and he went to the NBA.

And then, I saw these
red and white shoes.

That was the first shoe I bought
with my own money.

I wear them on the first
of every year.

They are from 1985.

$65.

That was the price.
But back then, $65,

this was the most expensive
basketball shoe in 1985.

Everything that has come after
these was because of this.

And you know, I have
the Jumpman tattoo on my arm.

It's his style of play.
It's his passion.

And it's also what he did
as a basketball player

in these shoes, you know,
is what means a lot to me.

And for me, it's more than just
the shoes, you know?

It's the memorabilia, too.

I have the Wheaties boxes,
and...

[ Rattles ]

I never took the seal
off of it.

It was just a collector's
piece to me.

And now, I have
18 different boxes,

from the mini boxes
to the big boxes.

And I've been offered
tens of thousands of dollars

just for these
cereal boxes.

Original Gatorade bottle.

This has been here
since 1992.

Never popped the top on it.

Wouldn't recommend
drinking this.

I've been doing this for,
you know, 33-plus years.

I don't get free stuff.

This is stuff
that I've bought.

This is all blood,
sweat, and tears.

This is something
that I've taken on since 1985,

that I like to do.

I like to change shoes.

Sometimes, I change my shoes
three or four times a day,

just so I can get a chance
to wear everything.

But 1,175 pairs, I might not
get to wear a shoe again

for three years.

The insurance policy
for my entire collection,

everything -- shoes,
memorabilia, everything --

is over $1 million.

It's just so much history and
passion behind collecting shoes

that I'm in it
till the end.

I'm not gonna stop.

Salman:
I mean, it's addiction.

It's -- You know, anybody
who does stuff like that,

it's partially addiction.

You know, it could be good,
it could be bad,

but it's an addiction.

It becomes a habit.

It becomes, like,
you know, a contest,

and a competition
for a lot of these people.

♪♪

[ Speaks Japanese ]

Ruddy: For sure, I haven't worn
any of the Jordan 1s here.

My intent was not
to wear them.

My intent was to make a line-up
of the shoes,

and to have a nice display
in my home

and so that I could watch them
after work,

like you watch TV,
and just enjoy.

The addiction was fueled
because of Jordan.

Jordan is an amazing guy.

When you look at this box,

it's hard to keep
a box like this,

for 30 years,
in this condition.

That's the original paper.

You see?

You can smell it.
You can smell time.

You can smell history.

Now, when I tell you I spend
$8,000 just for these two shoes.

Yeah, when I have a set back,
I realize, yeah,

it's out of control
to spend that much money.

Yeah.

It's this modern
American story.

I mean, you have -- in the turn
of the 19th century you had,

you know,
your C.W. Post for Post Cereal

and your
John and Will Kellogg,

and how they created Kellogg's,
and your Milton Hershey's.

You say Hershey bar, but you're
talking about Milton Hershey.

You're talking about a man.

You' talking about Ford,
you're talking about a man.

You think about all these brands
that we consume,

and we don't even
make them synonymous

with the people that
created them, but they are.

And now,
for the first time,

black people have that
with the Jordan brand.

And so, I think,
what we were able to see

is something in modern day
that we've never seen before.

Can you really name
another black founded

controlled brand
like that?

That is just synonymous
with one name,

that lives and breathes
on it's own?

I think that's why
the African Americans

love it so much,
and they covet it,

because it's kind of
our brand.

Lazenby:
People all over the globe,

obviously, are collecting
these shoes.

And what happens
when things are collected?

It drives up
the value.

And now, people are taking
these Air Jordans,

they're wearing them
with tuxedos.

Something had happened,
and it all filtered through

the world of Nike

and the world
of Michael Jordan himself.

And if you're a kid, your status
symbol was your $100 sneakers.

You're not buying something
like that to hide it.

The shoes gained, very quickly,
a huge street value

in American culture.

And so, suddenly, it spawned
violence and robbery.

Hill:
The demand of his product,

and products with
his name on it,

had reached a point where crimes
were basically being committed

to obtain product
that he was selling.

Telander:
There's always been style,
and there's always been people

wanting to keep up
with the Jones's.

I mean, you can go back
to caveman era,

you know, somebody's got
a cooler cheetah-skin belt on,

or loin cloth.

If you want that, you might take
a club, and whack him for it.

But here we are,
in a civilized society,

and the Jumpman logo
of the Air Jordans

had become so important
as a status symbol --

kids, teenagers
are seeing this status symbol,

and they're actually killing
each other for these --

for shoes.

I mean,
the thing I remember best

is still Rick Telander's cover
story in Sports Illustrated.

I feel like the sneakers
were a focal point

because it was something
relatively new.

Telander: I think I've got it
in here somewhere.

I keep all my Sports Illustrated
files up here.

So, that was 1990.

Well, I remember the shocking
aspect of this cover.

You have to look at it.

It's so dark, and you can't tell
what you're looking at.

And then, you realize
it's a guy with a gun,

he's grabbing the shoes that are
hanging over the shoulder.

I haven't looked at this article
in, I would say, 24 years.

It's mind-blowing.

I mean, it really is.

Is it the shoes? Money?
It's got to be the shoes.

It's Mars Blackmon to Michael
Jordan in a Nike commercial.

"For 15-year-old
Michael Eugene Thomas,

it definitely was
the shoes.

A ninth grader
at Meade Senior High School,

Thomas was found strangled
on May 2nd, 1989.

Charged with first-degree murder
was James David Martin, 17,

a basketball buddy."

The kid was murdered,
and left in the woods

for a pair of
two-week old shoes.

It's just...

I don't know.

It's, you know, within it
is something so primitive

and wrong that it --
it's just obvious.

But on the other side of it is,
what led you to this?

What led you to think that that
status symbol could possibly,

possibly be worth
somebody's life?

Like so many problems,

there's an answer
that seems very simple.

Throw the kid away.

Put him jail,
throw the key away.

And there's answers
that are very complex.

And it's always easy
to take the easy answer,

and just crack down more
on the law.

But how about solving
the problems

that lead somebody to this
in the first place,

that would feel so dispossessed
that they would think

that a life
is worth somebody's shoes.

Telander:
What led you to this?

What led you to think that that
status symbol could possibly,

possibly be worth
somebody's life.

Like so many problems,

there's an answer
that seems very simple.

Throw the kid away.

Put him jail,
throw the key away.

And there's answers
that are very complex.

And it's always easy
to take the easy answer,

and just crack down more
on the law.

But how about solving
the problems

that lead somebody to this
in the first place,

that would feel so dispossessed
that they would think

that a life
is worth somebody's shoes.

So, it's really a story
about scarcity.

The idea is that the brand
sells out every Saturday morning

when shoes are released,
and consumers come back

the next Saturday
for another shot at it.

And it's interesting
we're talking about scarcity

with a $3 billion brand.

But they have been able to build
this up over time by making sure

that they never had enough
supply to meet the demand.

Lazenby: Are Nike officials
wringing their hands with glee

over those profits
and growth?

Yes.

But that becomes very,
very awkward

when you consider
the ugly elements of that.

Once upon a time, not so long
ago, shoes were just shoes.

And basketball shoes
were no more glamorous

than any other piece
of sports equipment.

That was before Michael Jordan
learned how to fly.

When his success
went through the roof,

the shoes he endorsed for Nike
went right along with him.

And now, critics say they are
flying just a little too high.

Air Jordans are expensive,
exclusive, and hard enough

to get that some children lie,
steal, even kill for them.

A boy was robbed
after school.

It turns out, the bandit
was after his shoes.

Woman: Part of the problem
is that each store

has a limited amount
of about 150 pairs.

Male:
Reporter: He saw a gun under the
guy's shirt, and then a demand.

Female Reporter:
Each pair costs about $180,

but they resale on eBay
for almost $500.

A neighbor killed him
over a pair of Air Jordans.

He will be
buried tomorrow

on what would have been
his 17th birthday.

Man: Two young men had come home
from Willowbrook Mall.

They had pairs of
the new Air Jordan sneakers.

Two men attacked them with guns
as they pulled up to this house.

One of them jumped out,
ran door to door,

trying to get help,
while the other

jumped into
the driver's seat,

tried to drive away, but he was
shot at least once in the head.

The car careened out of control,
hit the side of this house,

ruptured a gas line,
and then the gunman got away.

All of this,
this attack

was over a pair of
those new Jordan shoes.

Retail value $185.

That may be the price
of a young man's life.

♪♪

Daisy:
My name is Daisy Williams,
and this mall here is the mall

that my son went to purchase
his Air Jordan tennis shoes.

My son left this mall,
headed home,

but he never made it
safely home to me.

Four gentlemen followed him
in their own vehicle,

and they pulled
in front of him,

and got out the car,
and demanded the shoes.

They started
shooting at him.

They shot my son in the head,
and he crashed into a home.

♪♪

This is the scene,
right there.

This is -- oh, this is --
this just brings chills to me.

I haven't been here -- I haven't
been here in a long time.

There was about
23 shell casings.

The shoes were
on the ground.

Again, there were a pair
of shoes here.

There were a pair of shoes
over there.

If you Google man shot and
killed over Air Jordan sneakers,

it's an actual video
where it shows my son.

It doesn't show my son
sitting in the car,

but it shows the car
still running.

It shows the ambulance
wheeling him around here,

and putting him
in the car.

and you can hear my daughter
screaming, like,

"Let us --
please let us get in with you."

[ Indistinct shouting ]

Woman:
I was at home.

I had just got off the phone
with him,

like five minutes before.
Told him I loved him,

And five minutes later,

his friend called me,
and told me he got shot.

And when we got to the scene,
I just ran up to the car,

and I seen him.

And I just kept saying,
"Josh, you got to get up.

It's your sister."

I just kept saying
he had to get up.

Daisy: And me and my fiance,
his father,

we was standing behind
the yellow tape.

And we say "Let's just see, when
they put him on the stretcher,

will they put
the sheet over him."

'Cause you look at
the movies,

if they put that sheet over him,
we know he gone.

And they took him out.

They had his face
wrapped up.

But they never put
the sheets over him.

And I was like, "Okay,
my son gonna be okay."

Man: Stay back.

And we followed the ambulance
to the hospital.

And at 5:35,
they pronounced him dead.

These were the pair of shoes
that he was buried in --

the Kilroys.

Me and my mom
had to pick out

what he was gonna
be buried in.

And my brother never wore
a suit and tie,

so it was like, we want him
to be buried in something that,

if he was alive,
he would, you know, wear.

That would just make me
feel happy, I guess,

to be buried in the same shoes
that he was buried in.

And Michael Jordan sent us
some shoes, and I have those.

Well, it's just one pair.

Man: Hold on,
hold on, hold on.

Michael Jordan sent you shoes?
-Yes.

But it --
to me, it just was like,

like, if a kid's crying,
you give a kid candy,

they're gonna stop crying.

I just felt like that's what
it -- that's what it was.

But the shoes that he sent,
they were 28s.

They're black and lime green.

When he sent us those,
they weren't out yet.

If I was to wear these
down the street,

if people look and say
"Well, they not even out yet,

and she have them,"
and then I die,

then my mom has another kid
that was buried over --

I mean, that was killed
over shoes.

So, I waited until,
like, a month

after they came out
to wear them.

I'm always going back
to these pictures.

This picture was after
he purchased his shoes,

and they were
in the car.

He actually got out the car,
and just took a picture of them.

And they were --
proceeded to head home,

and not realizing
they were being followed

at that time, actually.

This is my son's blood
in the car.

Looking at the pictures,
I -- I just...

If you don't mind, if we
could stop for a little bit?

♪♪

Woman: I'm not ready for trial,
but I'm just ready for --

for them to see us,
and know who Josh was,

and what they took
from us.

All over a pair of shoes.

Daisy: Alright.
Are y'all ready?

You nervous?

Just take
a deep breath.

You know, we doing this
for Joshua.

Man: We ask almighty God
that you give us the strength.

We ask that you gives us
your spirit.

Joshua cannot be here
with us today.

We thank you for waking us up,
again, once again,

so that we can be here in his
absence, and in his stead.

We begin with a Houston murder
case making national headlines.

Female Reporter: 22-year-old
Joshua Woods was shot and killed

for his new pair
of Air Jordans.

Male Reporter: Daisy Williams
watched with the rest of us

as the prosecution brought us
back to that day in December,

right before Christmas.

He raises the, gun and fires,
and then fires and fires

and fires,
as the car looses control,

and crashes into
the neighbor's house.

I mean, it's just ludicrous
to think that anybody would take

another human being's life
over pairs of sneakers.

Daisy:
My son is not the first one,
and I hope and pray

to the good lord
that he's the last one.

But we got to do something.

Nike, they have a responsibility
in this.

And they have
to do something.

And if nothing happens,
we'll see more cases like this.

You'll see more mothers
and fathers like me.

You'll see more
mothers and fathers

like the accused killers.

The Woods family says that
they want Nike to reconsider

how they market
their Air Jordan sneakers,

so that something like this
never happens again.

Man: And for those who don't
understand the process

by which Nike markets and sells
these Air Jordans,

what they do is, they create
a propaganda campaign...

Is it the shoes?

Money, it's got to
be the shoes.

...that stirs up the minds
of young people,

and makes them want
these shoes so bad.

But then, they put out
only a few of them.

Man #2:
One pair per customer.

And it's like,
if you have birds,

let's say,
on your porch,

and you throw out a few seeds.
Well, what's going to happen?

Those birds are hungry.

If they really want to
eat bad enough,

they'll begin fighting
one another.

And unfortunately, this
propaganda scheme by Nike,

that has been endorsed
by Michael Jordan,

is working on so many inner-city
youth across America.

And in this particular case,
it went so far

that a young man
lost his life.

Daisy:
That's a good question.

I actually extended
an invitation to them

to be here today.

Unfortunately,
I don't see them here.

Man: Nike is not here
because Nike doesn't care.

Michael Jordan isn't here
because he cares even less.

They will take
Joshua Woods' money,

but when he loses his life
for the very shoes

that he purchased
from them,

all of a sudden,
we don't hear from them.

In corporate America,
unfortunately,

profit is more important
than human life.

And maybe that's
trickling down

into the younger generation
here in America,

why they think that materialism
is more important

than human life.

Woman:
It just hurts.

'Cause you never think
somebody's life

will be taken
over a pair of shoes.

And it's like,
when my daughter gets older,

and when his son gets older,
we have to tell them,

you know, the real story,
like, why he was taken away.

And that hurts.

How do you explain to a kid that
their father and their uncle

is gone
over a pair of shoes?

It doesn't make sense.

Daisy: I was born and raised
here in Houston.

My children, my son
and my daughter,

was born and raised here.

I didn't ask for this.

This was brought to me.

And most people, they wouldn't
have survived this.

I am in no way, shape, or form
blaming Nike for my son's death.

But they can
say something.

If your son,
or if your daughter,

was Joshua Woods,

whatever you would do
if that if was your child,

that's what
I'm asking you to do.

♪♪

Telander: I thought,
when it happened,

that this was likely a --
just a flash point.

But it hasn't passed.

It's as though the Air Jordan,
the Jumpman,

has become
almost like a symbol.

It symbolizes
so much more.

It symbolizes something that can
actually make people happy.

It's at the root
of all advertising.

It's advertising
that worked too well.

Bengtson: I mean, the fact is
it's still going on now,

and, you know,
it's kind of unfortunate that

Rick wrote that cover story
25 years ago,

and you're still seeing
this stuff happen now.

Williams:
Jordan's sneakers,

they're jewels
in the eyes of young black kids.

And when you have
these types of jewels,

and you wear these types
of jewels on your feet,

especially in
the neighborhoods

where wealth and status
is scarce,

but heavily coveted,

you have things
like this happen.

Hill: The truth is,
when you have people,

especially these people who are
within proximity to one another,

in a community
that's underserved,

that every signal,
every message that they get

is that people don't care about
what happens to you.

They don't care about
offering you any opportunity

to achieve this American dream,
then, you begin to take on,

as they say,
the traits of the oppressor.

It becomes sort of
a self-fulfilling prophecy,

where nobody else thinks
my life is worth anything,

so why should I think somebody
else's life is worth something?

And so, unfortunately,
things like Jordans

become very big
status symbols

in communities of color,
and communities

that are historically
and presently underserved.

And the value of life
is just not as appreciated

when, you know, you're hearing
from every corner of society

how much
you're not worth.

It's hard for you to look
at yourself as worthy,

and certainly see that worth
in somebody else.

Jackson: You can't ever
look at a place

that's gonna teach you wrong
to treat you right.

Our history here in America
has not been one of correctness,

as far as treatment
is concerned.

So, to ask a subculture
inside this business,

you know, model that America
has built on our backs,

to a large degree.

All of a sudden, we start
wilding out on each other

for that,
to ask America to step in.

You know, yeah, Michael Jordan
could probably have taken

a stronger stance on this,
but at the end of the day,

we're still asking Nike
to do something.

Lazenby: The real problem is
they don't want to address it

in a meaningful way.

It is a big challenge, but there
has to be something meaningful

to find a way
to stop this trend.

Lazenby: The real problem is
they don't want to address it

in a meaningful way.

It is a big challenge, but there
has to be something meaningful

to find a way
to stop this trend.

Telander: Where does
the responsibility lie?

And really,
you do start at the top.

So, if the Air Jordans are in
the image of Michael Jordan,

shouldn't he have some say
about what's going on?

And part of the criticism
of Jordan is legitimate,

that he has not been
a social leader.

And other people say --
and I could argue, too --

why should he be?
He did enough on the court,

he did enough
as a businessman,

to transcend
any kind of criticism

you might want to lay on him
for not having gone out there,

and marched,
and had some big social program.

You know, why don't you
help these kids

instead of
exploiting them?

Knight:
I always wondered if it's one
of the things that he regrets,

that he didn't step in
at a certain time,

and say,
"Hey, knock it off."

I don't know what kids
would have done,

but it couldn't
have hurt.

You know,
could he have done more?

Yeah, he could
have done more.

You know, but Nike,
as a company,

should have done more, too,
possibly, if they really cared.

Nike has a history of standing
by their athletes, right?

And when they
get into trouble,

unless they're really
in trouble,

like Lance Armstrong,

they stand with them
very late in the game.

Brands used to be afraid
to share their values.

And now,
the consumer says,

"No, I want the brand to tell me
what their values are."

And I think this is a piece
of that corporate ethos now.

Nike will certainly
more than not

be looked at
on the right side of history --

as long as people
aren't naive

as to why they're on
the right side of history.

Not on the right side
of history

because they felt some deep
moral obligation.

They're on the right side
of history

because it
made them money.

They understand,
especially as a company

that was kind of built
on rebellion,

that they understand

that rebellion
is an attractive quality.

It's attractive
in the marketplace, you know?

The kids -- You needs kids
to certainly buy the shoes,

but you need them to push it,
and push it,

and make it
a cultural staple.

And so,
Nike understands that

so it makes all the sense
in the world for them to appear

as if they care
about social justice.

Bengtson: Obviously,
the responsibility spreads out.

You know, obviously, there's
some degree of responsibility

on virtually everyone, from the
company down to the criminal.

You know, when I look back
at the way

that first Air Jordan
release happened,

and when they released it
in 1985,

the initial supply
sold out immediately.

You know,
stuff was just gone.

And people were getting robbed
for their Air Jordans

back then, in 1985.

Or people were getting offered
an absurd amount of money

for them in the street,
immediately after buying them,

'cause they just
couldn't get them.

So, you know,
Nike's response to this

was kind of what people
want them to do now.

They made more.
They made a lot more.

And that second wave
of Air Jordans came out,

you know, which I'm sure
did help to a degree.

And a lot of people
did buy them

who couldn't have gotten them
the first time.

But unfortunately, a lot of them
sat, too, you know?

And there were original
Air Jordans

available two years later,

three years later,
for virtually nothing.

Nike, first and foremost,
and Jordan first and foremost,

I mean, they're
billion-dollar businesses.

You know, they didn't get
that way by doing things

like over-production.

You know, and I think they've
kind of honed their tactics

to the point where,
you know,

they know that, yes,
they're never gonna make enough

for everybody
who wants them to get them.

But I think
they also understand,

if they make so many
that they don't sell through,

and they wind up going on sale,
it ends up hurting their brand.

Williams: Nike has been very,
very passive,

and kind of, for the most part,
stood back on this.

But Nike also, you know,
has a little blood

on their hands, too,
when it comes to this.

Because they kind of created
this sense of urgency --

this is sense of demand.

And I think that type of
mindset has kind of carried on

through the entire legacy
of the brand.

I don't think it was intentional
by Nike, at all.

However,
they kind of created,

from the start, of,
"This is something rare.

This is something you have
to get your hands on."

Telander: The desire to have
what somebody else has

because you don't have it
is still there.

And, yes, there are still crimes
for these shoes,

for these products.

The things that
you walk in,

the things that you need
just to get through a day,

those things have taken on
a significance

that they never had,

and it's all because
of Air Jordans.

♪♪

Letterman: Alright, now,
Michael, is this shoe.

Now, of course, we can't show
what kind of shoe this is.

That's okay. The color
will stand for it.

But is this the shoe that
the NBA wouldn't let you wear?

Yeah.

Now, why wouldn't
they let you wear it?
Just because it's ugly?

[ Laughter ]

It's just a joke.

It's just a joke,
you know what I mean?

And here, we have the new
improved Air Jordan.

With some white in it.

Yeah, with some white in it.

Now, you get
a little something

for each of these sold,
don't you?

Yeah.
You working at it.

What a deal.
What a deal.

♪♪

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