$5 Billion a Year Business of Michael Jordan and Nike That Was Made Possible Due to the Courage Shown by 1 Man

Michael Jordan is among the greatest basketball players of all time. He led a title-less Chicago Bulls franchise to six championships. After retirement, he became a billionaire. The Jordan brand reportedly crossed $5 billion in annual revenue for the first time. And Jordan earned $150M+ from Nike last year alone. It is nearly twice his career NBA earnings. But it wouldn’t have been possible without one man: Tinker Hatfield.

To set the scene: Nike was struggling to sell shoes. They were removing employees and saw their stock drop 50%. Reebok was beating them. They held a 24-hour design competition to enliven things up. The winner? Tinker Hatfield. The architect had to beg them to participate in the competition. Hatfield was given his first project two years later: The Nike Air Max 1. It was a huge success. But his biggest challenge came in 1987 when he had to re-sign Jordan to Nike.

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Nike’s VP Rob Strasser and Peter Moore, the lead designer of the Air Jordan I & II, abruptly left Nike. They started their own footwear business. But Nike had scheduled to present the Air Jordan III to Jordan in just 5 weeks. So Tinker Hatfield jumped on a plane to see MJ. Jordan talked about what kind of shoe he wanted. Hatfield returned to Oregon with the instructions. Jordan wanted a mid-top shoe with exotic print leather.

How did Hatfield seal the deal with Michael Jordan?

Three weeks later, Hatfield and Nike CEO Phil Knight flew to California to present the Air Jordan III. They found that he was playing golf with former Nike employees Rob Strasser & Peter Moore. They were pitching him a full apparel and sneaker deal for their new company “Van Grack.” And MJ was ready to leave Nike.

So Hatfield had to make a risky decision. He presented MJ the Air Jordan III designed with the Jumpman logo, despite Nike rejecting the idea. But he had to make the courageous decision to use the new logo instead of the patented Nike Swoosh to retain MJ. He also presented Michael Jordan with a shoe and apparel design centered around the now-iconic Jumpman logo. And it worked. The player fell in love with the idea of building his own brand and decided to stay with Nike. The rest is history. He wore these shoes during his iconic free throw dunk.

The Bulls legend now earns way more than any other NBA superstar just from Nike. He has made over $1B from Nike & collects $150M+ in annual royalties. Tinker Hatfield became a legend in the footwear business and has designed thousands of shoes.

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The Jumpman logo became iconic. Tinker Hatfield made the brand well known.

Which is your favorite Air Jordan sneaker? Let us know in the comments.