The Origin Of The "Flying Jordan" Brand

When Jordan became a professional player in 1984, the market for sports shoes was beginning to look good.

It is said that in the early 80s only "Sky Hook" Jabbar's sports shoes contract reached 6 digits, which was 100 thousand dollars, Larry; Byrd and "magician" Johnson about 70 thousand U. S. dollars.

Jordan's appearance changed all of this.

After a series of analysis and negotiations, Jordan's eyesight Falck decided that Nike would be the best choice, though almost all the big foot stars wore Converse shoes at the time.

Nike has also been debated within the company, confirming that Jordan can be regarded as the image of the company.

However, Jordan was not interested in it because he did not like Nike shoes.

When he was in North Carolina, he wore Converse, and coach Smith had an agreement with them. But in fact, Jordan's favorite brand was Adidas. Unfortunately, Adidas seemed to be indifferent to Jordan's feelings.

The representatives of Falck and Nike took pains to create advertising films for Jordan, such as dunks and so on. Falck also suggested that Jordan should have a brand with his name, and put forward a brand name that both sides were satisfied with: D? D "flying man Jordan".

Like other athletes, Jordan was not very clear about the significance of the agreement on sports shoes at the time. He thought that this agreement was only a matter of choosing a shoe that you liked, and getting some money for it.

Then, get some free shoes and give them to your friends, that's all.

He did not realize that (even the people of Nike and Falck did not realize) that the deal was far beyond his imagination. When he returned to chapel hill, Jordan told Baz that he had to name a sneaker in Nike, and he did not agree.

"Michael," he said, "there is no new brand name after Larry, Byrd and the magician. They are the stars of NBA, and you are not even in the draft."

Later, when the "flying Jordan" brand came out, Jordan told some friends that if they had money, buying Nike stock might be a good idea because he thought it would be a great improvement because of "flying Jordan".

I hadn't thought about signing Nike's contract with Nike, and Jordan said, "I never thought of signing a contract with Nike at the beginning, because I had a crush on Adidas when I was in high school. In fact, I didn't even want to see the face of Nike."

In the summer of 1984, for the bulls and for the Olympic Games, I flew around the whole country very tired.

Nike is interested in working with me. I told everyone I didn't want to see Nike, but I didn't want to fly to Portland in Oregon to sign a contract with Nike.

The parents finally advised me: "children, this is very important. You should listen to your suggestions."

So I was dragged to Oregon.

I entered the conference room that day, and the heads of Nike company were there.

They all talked about redefining the whole sports shoe industry, but I still have doubts.

The terms of the contract they offer are: $250 thousand a year for bonuses, annuity and royalty. The contract period is 5 years. This is a huge one, but it is full of risks, because no one in Nike has any experience in sports shoes.

President Stella Jose finally advised: "think about it for a while, and then tell us your thoughts."

I thought, well, think about it, and I will eventually sign a contract with Adidas.

After a few conversations with Nike boss, I felt very uncomfortable. I knew it was not a good start.

Although my heart is still thinking about Adidas, the problem is that they have not put forward specific notes.

It seems that they do not want to take chances in the American basketball market because they are unwilling to take risks.

But this decision is much easier for Nike.

At the beginning, Nike's temple fair in stock market has fallen to half? D? D1984's share price is only about 6 dollars.

Stella Jose only had a bet. He had no choice. He wanted to put all the bets that changed the entire sports shoe market onto one person.

In 1984, when the Chicago bulls signed up to buy Jordan, they were in the market for sports shoes.

In order to keep fit, many Americans played cricket and bicycles, making demand for all kinds of special sports shoes soaring.

At the same time, consumers' products also changed considerably. They began to hate the seemingly lifeless nylon shoes in 70s and turned to look for new sports shoes that could reflect their value.

The market changes have facilitated many shoe making companies, and Nike is one of them.

In fact, in 1983, Nike's total sales revenue reached $700 million, which has surpassed Adidas's 70s success as the world's first brand.

But second years later, its sales revenue fell sharply. At one time, people were talking about rumors. Rumors that Nike would go bankrupt spread all over the place. At this time, happy magazine had an astonishing news: Nike will invest 1 million 250 thousand yuan to buy NBA a novice 5 year's right to wear shoes.

Jordan's agent, Falck, hopes to get more money for Jordan. He may not be the most demanding of the sports shoes manufacturer. He will provide Jordan with a pair of shoes and a sportswear, faithfully reporting on every pair of shoes and huge promotional expenses.

To this end, CONVERSE refused, Adidas refused, other sporting goods companies also rejected this request.

But there are still a few companies who are obsessed with the idea that Jordan can convince consumers that the sneakers they produce are the best in the world.

The first person to come is Potter.

The small company could not afford to pay Jordan a huge sum in advance, but promised to let Jordan participate in the profit sharing of Jordan series sports shoes they are preparing to launch.

The other company is Nike.

Since 1980, Nike has never signed a real big basketball star, so they are eager to be sincere because they now desperately need a "flagship" to help their products on the basketball court to gain a foothold.

After many planning, Nike gave Joe Qiao and his parents an unexpected gift.

This gift is a small film made beautifully.

The whole movie is a song named "jumping".

In the song, Jordan's beautiful and handsome posture on the basketball court was made into a beautiful picture, accompanied by the interpretation of the song, which was amazing.

This excellent MTV made Jordan realise for the first time how exciting and infectious he was on the field.

For the first time, he was deeply moved by himself.

Old Jordan and his wife recalled that after watching the MTV, Michael was very excited and decided to sign a contract with Nike immediately.

But the brokers say there are still some details that need to be dealt with by the company. One of the important questions is how to name the new shoes. Nike knows that if they simply named the shoes "Michael, Jordan", they may have little effect.

Nike vice president Robert and Jordan's agent Falck were good friends. One afternoon, two people sat in Falck's office chatting.

Robert accidentally said "air" two words, Falck eyes bright, suddenly thought of "flying trapeze Jordan" to name Nike's new products.

Because flying trapeze can not only reflect the production process and style of these new shoes, but also reflect the personal style of Jordan's playing.

In fact, the inspiration of flock is not only a good name for shoes, but also a very elegant image for Jordan.

Since then, like "magician = Johnson", "flying trapeze" has also become the pronoun of Jordan.

In the first few weeks of the formal signing, Nike is making new ads on the one hand and making new advertisements on the one hand.

But some top management of the company still feel that they have no idea, so they include such clauses in the contract: if Jordan can not enter the double standard of the All-Star team and the best NBA lineup in 3 years after signing the contract, D D company has the right to suspend the manufacture of "air flying Jordan shoes".

Even if Jordan can achieve the above conditions, if the sales revenue of these shoes has not exceeded 3 million US dollars in the third years of signing the contract, the company still has the right to suspend the production of such shoes.

Falck said: "in 1984, Nike made such a decision very boldly.

Therefore, it is entirely understandable to write such provisions in the contract.

The first pair of "flying trapeze Jordan" shoes did not fly at all.

Because in a hurry, Nike didn't have time to design a brand new pair of shoes. They just changed a little bit about the color of the original sneaker.

In fact, this pair of shoes looks very bulky, not brisk at all, and its name is a difference of one hundred and eight thousand li.

No wonder the Bulls coach didn't allow Jordan to wear these expensive boots at the beginning.

The biggest sensation of these shoes may also be due to the Bulls coach's ban.

Because the shoes were not in concordance with the costumes of the team, Stein gave a ticket to Jordan.

Jordan was fined 1000 dollars for flying in the field in the first match, fined 2000 dollars for the second match, and the final penalty rose to 5000 dollars. Of course, Nike paid for it. They paid millions of fines, but Nike shoes were inspired. Their advertisement was a big X, with a pair of tricolor shoes, followed by the forbidden word Xiang, and people's curiosity was aroused. Everyone rushed to the store to buy this banned flying Jordan shoe.

In addition, Nike also found a young black director Spike; Li took a TV advertisement for the shoe: Jordan became the man who flew out of the Aladdin lantern, and the reason for his flying was to wear Jordan shoes.

In order to match the second pairs of "flying Jordan" shoes designed by Jordan for Nike, Jordan has also taken an advertising film. The film has such a lens: Jordan stands under the basket, and the lens slowly pushes from his feet to the top. In slow motion, he shows a series of movements of Jordan jumping up and down in the basket.

The commentary on the lens is "in October 15th, Nike created a pair of basketball shoes with revolutionary significance."

This can be regarded as the starting point of Nike's mass promotion tactics.

From 1984 to 1986, Nike invested $5 million to publicize "flying trapeze Jordan shoes".

The first nationwide advertisement was launched before and after Thanksgiving in 1984.

The first shot of the advertisement was from the air, looking down at the whole picture of Chicago, and then came the whistling of the engine. Jordan ran into the camera in slow motion, caught a basketball in his hands, dribbling it to the basket, spread his legs, held the basketball in one hand, reached the bottom with one hand, and buckled the ball into the basket. At the same time, the voice over said, "who said he wasn't flying?"

Luward, White is the liaison officer of Nike company, and the scene of filming this advertisement is still fresh to the memory: "people are watching outside the railings, and there are people who can't help but feel excited and go through the railings.

At that time, we were filming this group on the campus of a women's missionary school in the suburb. We had to pull the girls out again and again, and you could see the scene of the shooting scene was like a fire.

The effectiveness of advertising began to emerge, though this advertisement was far from the influence of Jordan's later commercials, but it helped Jordan set an image.

It has made people realize that Jordan is not only an athlete, but also an artist.

In March 1985, the advertisement began in the whole country. As a result, sales of flying trapeze Jordan shoes reached $130 million.

If the "flying trapeze Jordan" shoe is built on its own, it will be the fifth largest sports shoe company in the world.

By September second, 2 million 300 thousand pairs of shoes had been sold.

Some experts on sports shoes say that Nike's success is not very important to Jordan.

Marek, editor in chief of the sports businessman, said: "I think the success of the flying trapeze Jordan shoe has little to do with Jordan. Its popularity is due to its unique style, which caters to the public's demand for patterns and colors."

A market survey conducted in early 80s also showed that urban teenagers who guided the trend of sports shoes are looking for colored sneakers that match their clothes.

Take the success of the "flying trapeze Jordan" 2 shoe as an opportunity.