AN INTRODUCTION TO NIKE’S AIR JORDAN RESEARCH BOOKLET
THE HISTORY OF
NIKE
Bill Bowerman was a nationally respected track and field coach at the University of Oregon, who was constantly seeking ways to give his athletes a competitive advantage. He experimented with innovations in running shoes, but the established footwear manufacturers of the 1950s ignored the ideas he tried to offer them, so Bowerman began cobbling shoes for his runners. Phil Knight was a talented middle-distance runner from Portland, who enrolled at Oregon in the fall of 1955 and competed for Bowerman’s track program. He made a cold-call on the Onitsuka Co. in Kobe, Japan, and persuaded the manufacturer of Tiger shoes to make Knight a distributor of Tiger running shoes in the United States. When the first set of sample shoes arrived, Knight sent several pairs to Bowerman, hoping to make a sale.
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Instead, Bowerman stunned Knight by offering to become his partner, and to provide his footwear design ideas to Tiger. They formed Blue Ribbon Sports, pledged $500 each and placed their first order of 300 pairs of shoes in January 1964. Knight sold the shoes while Bowerman began ripping apart Tiger shoes to see how he could make them lighter and better, and enlisted his University of Oregon runners to wear-test his creations. But Bowerman and Knight each had full-time jobs so hired Jeff Johnson to become the first full-time employee of Blue Ribbon Sports in 1965. Johnson created the first product brochures, print ads and marketing materials, and even shot the photographs for the company’s catalogues. He also designed several early Nike shoes, and even conjured up the name Nike in 1971.
The new Nike line of footwear debuted in 1972, in time for the U.S. Track & Field Trials, which were held in Eugene, Ore. One particular pair of shoes made a very different impression on the dozen or so runners who tried them. They featured a new innovation that Bowerman drew from his wife’s waffle iron – an outsole that had waffle-type nubs for traction but were lighter than traditional training shoes. With a new logo, a new name and a new design innovation, what BRS now needed was an athlete to endorse and elevate the new Nike line. Fittingly for the company founded by Oregonians, they found such a young man from the small coastal town of Coos Bay, Ore. His name: Steve Prefontaine. Prefontaine electrified the packed stands of Oregon’s Hayward Field during his college career from 1969 to 1973. He never lost any race at his home track over the one-mile distance, and quickly gained national exposure thanks to cover stories on magazines like Sports Illustrated and his fourth-place finish in 1972 in the 5,000m in Munich. Pre challenged Bowerman, Johnson and BRS in general to stretch their creative talents. In turn, he became a powerful ambassador for BRS and Nike after he graduated from Oregon, making numerous appearances on behalf of BRS and sending pairs of Nike shoes to prospective runners along with personal notes of encouragement. His tragic death at age 24 in 1975. But Prefontaine’s fiery spirit lives on within Nike; Knight has often said that Pre is the “soul of Nike.”
THE ‘SWOOSH’ LOGO WAS DESIGNED BY GRAPHIC DESIGN STUDENT CAROLYN DAVIDSON 3
MICHAEL
JORDAN Michael Jordan was born on February 17th, 1963, from Brooklyn, NY. In 1981, Jordan accepted a basketball scholarship to North Carolina. He made the game-winning jump shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship game against Georgetown, which was led by future NBA rival Patrick Ewing. Jordan later described this shot as the major turning point in his basketball career. After winning the Naismith and the Wooden College Player of the Year awards in 1984, Jordan left North Carolina one year before his scheduled graduation to enter the 1984 NBA Draft. The Chicago Bulls selected Jordan with the third overall pick, after Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie. He quickly became a fan favorite even in opposing arenas, and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the heading “A Star Is Born” just over a month into his professional career. Jordan was also voted in as an All-Star starter by the fans in his rookie season. On October 6, 1993, Jordan announced his retirement, citing a loss of desire to play the game. On March 18, 1995, Jordan announced his return to the NBA through a two-word press release: “I’m back”. The next day, Jordan donned jersey number 45 (his number with the Barons), as his familiar 23 had been retired in his honor following his first retirement.
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JORDAN PLAYED FOR THE RED BULLS FOR NINE YEARS
ENDORSING
JORDAN NIKE AND JORDAN HAD A FIVE YEAR DEAL WORTH $2.5 MILLION
There was a segment of the basketball population that didn’t completely buy into Michael Jordan when he was at North Carolina, where, as common logic had it, the only one who could stop him was Dean Smith, a rigid fundamentalist whose teams often held the ball. Though that impression would endure in some quarters until 1991, the year Jordan won his first championship with the Chicago Bulls, the basketball cognoscenti watching the L.A. Games saw what it really had in Jordan. He was a player who could break a zone with a jumper, lock down a high-scoring opponent, run the offense from the point if he had to. In 1984, after winning a national title at the University of North Carolina and a Gold Medal at the Olympic games in Los Angeles, Michael Jordan was selected 3rd overall by the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Draft. It was then when Nike began negotiations with Jordan. Jordan had always worn Converse, the sneaker of choice for both his college coach and the United States Olympic Committee, and the historical choice of most basketball players. Jordan has since said that he, like many players, believed that Adidas made the best product. Nike needed to make a major move since the running boom of the 1970s had petered out. It was a company that prided itself on taking chances, so it had decided to blow its entire marketing budget, $500,000, on advertising that would feature Jordan, plus what it would have to pay him to wear the sneakers. Still, Jordan was resistant to Nike, which he had never worn and knew very little about. At that first meeting, Peter Moore, Nike’s head designer, showed Jordan sketches he had made of Air Jordan shoes, warm-up suits, and apparel, all of it in black and red. After the meeting Jordan admitted that he was swayed, and negotiated a five-year $2.5 million deal, and from this Air Jordan was created.
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ORIGINAL AIR
JORDANS
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THE ORIGINAL BLACK AND RED SNEAKERS BROKE THE BASKETBALL DRESS CODE AND CAUSED JORDAN A FINE FOR EVERY GAME
In 1985, Nike gave Jordan and his signature line of sneakers and apparel a unique logo - clearly, this line was created to be very different from Nike’s previous basketball efforts. Designer Peter Moore was given the task of coming up with the first Air Jordan shoe. The original Air Jordan’s were designed specifically for Michael Jordan to wear on the basketball court. The Air Jordan I featured the Nike Swoosh on the mid panel and a newly designed basketball wings logo on the upper ankle. The first Air Jordan was similar in design to other popular Nike models released in the 1980s such as the Air Force 1, Terminator and Dunk. The Air Jordan I featured a Nike Air unit for heel cushioning, padded foam ankle collars for additional protection and a toe overlay for added lock down. Although the Air Jordan I lacked technology, the colours and cultural significance set the sneaker industry on its ear. The Air Jordan I paved the way for colourful basketball sneakers. It transformed the way people looked at athletic shoes. Before this the majority of basketball shoes were white, as instructed by the basketball dress code rules. The reason why the original Air Jordan’s became so popular is because of their disregard for this dress code rule. Originally in red and black, white did not feature on any of the material aside from the sole of the shoe, which did not count in this rule. The officials banned the shoes because of this and imposed a fine for every time the sneakers were worn. Jordan chose to ignore this and continued to wear the sneakers. Each time Jordan wore the sneakers he was given a $5000 fine, and in each game Nike covered the cost for him. This is because Jordan’s wearing of the sneakers created so much buzz around him and around Nike that their other sneaker sales were sky-rocketing and Nike was quickly becoming the must-have sneaker brand. Eventually though, they made an alternative design featuring
EACH FINE WAS $5000, WHICH NIKE PAID FOR JORDAN white, which Jordan went on to wear. The Air Jordan I is the only sneaker pair in the Air Jordan range to feature the Nike swoosh. From this point all sneakers following in the range we without the swoosh. Another feature that this sneaker has is that it bared the original basketball wings logo. This was the original Air Jordan logo, however this quickly disappeared with the Air Jordan II. These two pairs are the only sneakers in the range to feature the mark, and still remain to be as of this day. The re-released versions of the Air Jordan I do bare the mark themselves as a tribute to the originals. The Jumpman originally featured as a photographic tag that was on the sneakers when they were eventually put out for commercial retail. It was originally a cropped down version of a promotional poster Nike had commissioned for Air Jordan. When Tinker Hatfield arrived as the head designer at Nike, he took the ‘Jumpman’ image and turned it into a silhouette, cementing it as the well known and recognisable Air Jordan logo that it is today.
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THE FAMOUS IS ACTUALLY JUMPING AN MOVE, NOT P BALL LIKE IT
BRANDING AIR
JORDAN
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S JUMPMAN PHOTO MICHAEL JORDAN ND DOING A BALLET PLAYING BASKET IS BELIEVED
With buzz surrounding Michael Jordan and his signature kicks, Nike looked to corporate architect-turned-footwear-designer Tinker Hatfield to head up the creation of the Air Jordan III. When Moore left Nike, Hatfield got the sketches and in amongst it were the outline of the Air Jordan ‘Jumpman’ logo. Hatfield’s design of the Air Jordan III was unique in several aspects. The Air Jordan “wings” logo was no longer present - it was replaced by the newly introduced Jumpman logo on the tongue. Since this point the Jumpman has been featured in this in this silhouette style, always appearing on the tongue of the Jordan sneaker range. It is now the logo for the whole of the Jordan brand. However the original Air Jordan logo is now being used on the ‘Retro’ range release of the original Air Jordan’s. It is a lot less well known than the Jumpman but still remains a fundamental part of the Air Jordan branding history, and appears on the Retro range packaging.
In 1985, Nike gave Jordan and his signature line of sneakers and apparel a unique logo - clearly, this line was created to be very different from Nike’s previous basketball efforts. Designer Peter Moore was given the task of coming up with the first Air Jordan shoe. The Air Jordan 1 featured the Nike Swoosh on the mid panel and a newly designed wings logo on the upper ankle. The Jumpman logo is actually a silhouette of studio photograph of Jordan performing a ballet move, not an actual dunk as the image suggests. In an interview with HOOP Magazine, April of 1997 where Jordan talks about the creation of the Jumpman Logo, he says, “I wasn’t even dunking on that one. People think that I was. I just stood on the floor, jumped up and spread my legs and they took the picture. I wasn’t even running. Everyone thought I did that by running and taking off. Actually, it was a ballet move where I jumped up and spread my legs. And I was holding the ball in my left hand.” The original idea for the photo shoot of the Jumpman came from an older photo of Jordan in LIFE Magazine for the 1984 Olympics. Nike sampled the idea for a poster featuring Jordan suspended in air for what would later become the now famous Jumpman logo. This photo was first featured on the hang tags of all the original Air Jordan I’s from 1985. But the actual Jumpman logo didn’t join the mix for another 3 years, where it featured for the first time as a silhouette on the Air Jordan III. Jordan’s contract with Nike was about to end and Rob Strasser, Nike’s VP was in a power struggle with Nike CEO Phil Knight. Rob and Peter Moore, Nike’s head designer, were working a plan for their new sneaker company called Van Grack. Peter Moore originally did the preliminary design work on the Air Jordan III. He had a pile of sketches of the Air Jordan III but waited until it was too late to execute.
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THE AIR JORDAN
RANGE Since its introduction into the sports shoe market, the Air Jordan evolved to the original basketball shoes to models for different uses, including training and casual shoes, including a retro line (re-releases of original Air Jordans I-XXIII). Air Jordan’s have been an intricate part of the sneaker game since they were first introduced in 1985. But even when Michael was captivating crowds with his acrobatic performances his sneakers didn’t always fly off the shelves. The first Air Jordan almost never even existed after Michael was so adamant that his agent get him a deal with Adidas. Nike made it happen and the vision was to treat its new star like a tennis player, which at the time was the sport that had the best sneaker endorsements. Since the success of the Air Jordan’s I since their release in 1985, there have been 27 more pairs in this original Air Jordan range. After all of the success of the Jordan I, Nike did a complete 180 with the design of the Air Jordan II in 1986. Once again Peter Moore was behind the design board and he broke every rule. The shoe was the first Nike shoe to not feature Swoosh branding anywhere on the
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sneaker, and since this point the Swoosh hasn’t been used on any of the sneakers in this Air Jordan range. The Air Jordan’s III brought a new level of luxury to sports product as well as pop culture warranting the $100 price tag. Designed by Tinker Hatfield, these sneakers were the first in the range to feature the Jump man. The upper was constructed of rich full-grain tumbled leather and was built to feel broken in. Hatfield also chose to combine the tumbled leather with faux elephant skin. The elephant print was featured on the toe cap and heel While those qualities made it popular, the genius marketing campaign featuring Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon cemented it as one of the most celebrated shoes in history. The Air Jordan’s I are classed as the most iconic sneaker pair in the range because of the huge amount of attention and controversy surrounding them, however the pair that is classed as the most popular is the Air Jordan XI, also know as the ‘Space Jam Jordan’s’. Earning the nickname for their role on Jordan’s feet in Space Jam, the XI’s were released for the 1995-96 season, Jordan’s first full year back from retirement. The XI reincorporated the clear soles from the V and VI and
SINCE 1985 NIKE HAS RELEASED A PAIR OF SNEAKERS IN THIS ORIGINAL AIR JORDAN RANGE EVERY YEAR featured a patent leather liner around the bottom of the shoe. The XI combined style, class and performance into one of the greatest pairs of Air Jordan’s ever produced. The Jordan XI featured patent leather for the first time on a basketball shoe. After Jordan’s retirement the Hatfield and the designers are Nike continued to design shoes every year for the Air Jordan range, even though Jordan wouldn’t be wearing them on court. Instead other players Nike endorsed began to wear them. The most recent pair to be released in this line or Air Jordan sneakers was the 2013 XX8. This sneaker pair brought a new feature to the range with the idea of a zip and laces. The zip means the wearer can zip the sneaker up over their ankles, or have it unzipped and have the material folded down.
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THE EXPANSION OF
JORDAN Right from the beginning it was clear to Nike that they had a strong product and identity in the Air Jordan range. With Michael Jordan making news on court, the sales of Nike and Air Jordan products sky-rocketed, and it wasn’t long before Air Jordan became recognised as it’s own brand away from Nike. This was partially to do with Nike’s head designer, Peter Moore’s decision to not include the Nike Swoosh on the Air Jordan II. From this point Air Jordan was recognised as it’s own brand and not just a company by Nike. The shoes are always among the best selling basketball shoes year after year and have been adored by both players and collectors. From a big marketing gamble back in 1984 to a $19 Billion a year empire Nike has seen some amazing success and the basketball legend from North Carolina is who they have to thank for it. Michael Jordan has been and continues to be the most successful celebrity endorser of all time. He took a struggling running shoe producer and helped build it into the most successful shoe company in the world. There is no question Nike made the best possible decision when they decided to spend their entire marketing budget on the young talented NBA rookie in hopes to revive their brand. Since this endorsement with Jordan, Nike has tried to emulate it with endorsement deals with other basketball
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stars such as Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, however while these have been successful, no other endorsement deal has ever been more successful than this one Nike had with Michael Jordan and the Air Jordan brand. This endorsement has done what no other has in the fact that Air Jordan is recognised as a brand in itself instead of just a subsidiary company of Nike. When Jordan retired in 1993, Nike & Tinker Hatfield continued with the Air Jordan range, in which Jordan got a cut of the royalties. This was due to the fact that even though Jordan was out of the basketball courts, the products were still in such high demand, from basketball players and from the general public. When Jordan announced he was coming back to basketball after a two year retirement, demand for the Air Jordan brand increased, and as Jordan got more attention, so did the brand and Nike. Since being out of the game for nearly 11 years Michael Jordan still continues to produce shoes and apparel with the famous Air Jordan Jumpman logo. The Jordan brand has been around it has continued to expand. Today it has built up products in clothing ranges for men, women and children, as well as a range of basketballs, bags and other accessories, all with the aim to make a better sporting performance for the wearer. As well as this Brand Jordan has started to expand into
street wear, with some of the clothing more suited to everyday use and less suited for performance on the basketball courts. This together with the casual sneaker designs shows that the Jordan brand is interested in continual expansion to become a bigger and more iconic brand than it already it. In 2013 it was reported that Nike earned over $2.25 billion solely from the Jordan brand, which accounts for almost ten percent of Nike’s overall 2013 earnings. Comparing this to their other endorsements such as with Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, which brought in
$50 million and $300 million respectively. It shows the real power that the Jordan brand has over other celebrity endorsements. Today’s Air Jordan’s continue to build on the franchise’s rich history of innovative design and uncompromising performance. Inspired by the greatest to ever play the game, the franchise continues to lead and shape the athletic footwear industry into the future. As Michael’s legend continues to grow, his legacy in the Air Jordan franchise lives on.
IN 2013 THE BRAND JORDAN BROUGHT IN OVER $2.25 BILLION FOR NIKE, ACCOUNTING FOR ALMOST 10% OF SALES REVENUE 13
AIR JORDAN
TODAY Today Air Jordan sneakers are amongst the most recognisable and popular all over the world. It controls the majority of the basketball market share in the US, over it’s parent company Nike and the likes of Adidas. As well as being popular in the basketball market it has also become very popular in the casual sneaker market, with a huge range of sneakers being worn for everyday situations. Because of this high demand for Air Jordan’s, they have increased the ranges that they make and are continually designing newer sneakers in the best loved styles, with huge colour ranges and limited editions. The original Air Jordan range is still for basketball, but they have subsequently designed ranges for general sporting activities and for everyday wear, all keeping a similar aesthetic. One of the biggest draws to the Air Jordan range is the quality of the products in the materials used and sneaker technology used to get the maximum comfort from the first wearing. Much of this technology was developed through the original Air Jordan range for maximum comfort and flexibility of the basketball court. This technology is tried and tested which is why it is used so much and is successful in all ranges of the Air Jordan and Nike brand. With the successful nature of this pre-existing technology the design team have focussed their efforts to design sneakers which are aesthetically pleasing to look at, using a number of different materials, colours and features. Something which is a huge part of Nike and Air Jordan is the customisation tool with Nike iD. This allows a user to go onto the Nike shop website and customise a wide selection of sneakers, with a variety of different options individually available for each pair of sneakers. This model has proved to be successful in bringing in a larger customer base and allows a customer to feel as though they have had a large input into the design of the shoe, making it individual and their own. While Air Jordan has expanded into the casual everyday sneakers, they have also continued to endorse sports stars. In an expansion of this Air Jordan has started to endorse celebrities who are not involved in sport at all, cementing their position in today’s popular culture
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area. The first endorsement Nike & Air Jordan did with a non-sports star was with American rapper Kanye West. West collaborated in designing a limited edition sneaker pair called ‘Air Yeezy’. West had a huge input into the design of the sneaker, and even moulded the shape of the sneaker to the shape of his foot, making maximum comfort for himself, and was released in three different colour-ways. This had a limited release with pairs retailing for up to $2,750. Following this success West and Nike collaborated on a follow up, the ‘Air Yeezy II’. This pair of sneakers was once again moulded to West’s foot and had a limited release. Recently a third colour-way was released, all red, in comparison to the black and white colour-ways released when the sneaker first went on sale. When the Air Yeezy II first went on sale it was so in demand that it has been named the most expensive sneaker ever after an individual paid over $93,000 to buy a pair over ebay.
TODAY AIR JORDAN SNEAKERS ARE AMONGST THE MOST RECOGNISABLE SNEAKERS IN THE WORLD, AND ARE THE MOST WORN IN BASKETBALL
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PRIMARY
RESEARCH RETRO’S ARE A RE-RELEASED VERSION OF THE ORIGINAL AIR JORDANS 16
For the main piece of primary research on this subject I bought a pair of Air Jordan sneakers. The pair I bought are from the ‘Retro’ range - a re-released version of the original Air Jordan I sneakers. These come in a variety of different colours and are the only Air Jordan sneakers on sale which have the original Air Jordan logo on the side. These have been brought up to date in terms of the design, but overall the aesthetic is still the same. In terms of sneaker technology and materials, there is a huge difference from any other pair I own, including the Nike pairs. The sole looks the same as any other sneaker, but is very hard to bend because of a stronger material to make it much more durable and supportive. However when wearing the sneakers, this hard sole has no negative impact at all. The materials are all high quality and that is clear from the first look. A mixture of leather, suede and mesh make for a comfortable and hard-wearing shoe.