“He didn’t want to go. Didn’t know anything about [Nike]. Didn’t like the shoes. Didn’t want to go. The shoe wasn’t that great at the time and Converse was the dominant brand…Adidas had everybody else that mattered.”
As a sneaker head, it’s extremely hard to envision a world without Nike’s Jordan Brand. Michael Jordan is the king of signature sneakers in basketball. None of this exists without the partnership between him and Nike.
Those two go together like peanut butter and jelly or ketchup on a burger or whatever other dumb food analogies I’m missing here. They just mesh. They’re not as big without each other.
Even today, after 35 years, Jordan’s sneakers are still somehow considered fly.Yet, somehow, that almost all went to the wayside.
In the latest episode of Kevin Durant’s series “The Boardroom,” his former agent David Falk explained that Jordan didn’t actually like Nike. It all happens at the 17:20 mark of the video.
35 years later, Jordan and Nike are worth billions of dollars together and the company is re-releasing Jordan’s first two shoes together — the Air Ship and the first Air Jordan 1. USATODAY