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Michael Jordan Preferred Adidas over Nike, Converse out of College
May 4, 2020
Nike can thank Michael Jordan's mother, Deloris Jordan, for landing His Airness.
"My mother said, 'You're going to go listen. You may not like it, but you're gonna go listen," Jordan revealed in Episode 5 of The Last Dance on Sunday night, referencing going to meet with Nike (h/t Robby Kalland of Dime). "And she made me get on that plane and go listen. I go into that meeting, not wanting to be there. Nike made this big pitch, and my father said, 'You have to be a fool not to take this deal. It's a great deal.'"
Jordan originally wanted to sign with Adidas:
Jordan signed with Nike for $250,000 as a rookie in 1984 under the condition he would have his own signature shoe, which was fulfilled when the Air Jordan 1 was released in 1985.
"Nike's expectation was at the end of year four they hoped to sell $3 million of Air Jordans," David Falk, Jordan's agent, added in Episode 5 (h/t Jasmyn Wimbish of CBSSports.com). "In year one, we sold $126 million."
Action Network's Darren Rovell wrote for ESPN in February 2013 about how Jordan ended up with Nike, and he revisited excerpts from that article during ESPN's airing of The Last Dance on Sunday:
Rovell's original article disclosed that Jordan had told Rovell in 2008 that he had never worn a Nike shoe before signing with the brand.
Jordan's enduring Nike connection was explored on The Last Dance's fifth and sixth episodes:
According to Forbes, Jordan's net worth is $2.1 billion, aided by his continual sponsorships with Nike, Hanes, Gatorade and Upper Deck.