Michael Jordan in Adidas?

In 1984, after Jordan went third in the NBA Draft following Olajuwon and Sam Bowie, David Falk, Jordan’s agent, negotiated a $3 million, five-year package with the Chicago Bulls. Falk’s next goal was to sign Jordan to various endorsement deals.

According to Swoosh, in chapter thirty-eight, Air Becomes A Man, athletic shoe companies wanted to sign athletes before they played their first professional game, before they had a chance to be signed with another brand. Falk set up negotiation meetings with Adidas, Converse, and Nike.

Jordan had never wore Nike’s and the only reason he wore Converse was because of the shoe deal North Carolina had. Adidas were his kicks of choice.

Converse offered a basic package and told Jordan that would be just another athlete on their distinguished list of players, like Dr. J and Larry Bird, and would not make any more money than them.

Nike, however, offered to make him their star, with a complete package of a $2.5 million over five years contract, his own logo, print ads, poster comps, his own shoes and clothes, and most importantly, royalties. Jordan was to receive money for each pair of Air Jordan basketball shoes sold, and another royalty on all Nike Air basketball shoes sold, not just Air Jordan, exceeding the 400,000 pairs that had been sold by Nike the prior year. He was to get a percentage of the net sales of all Jordan apparel and accessories, and some shares of Nike B stock.

Adidas never met with Jordan, but his agent did, and they were not going to offer more money and time to get another American basketball player in addition to Kareem Abdul Jabbar and other players. Jordan still made a final pitch to an Adidas rep by saying, “You match the Nike deal and I’ll go Adidas. If you even come close, I’ll go Adidas.” They didn’t come close, offering him about $100,000, what Kareem was getting, and they wouldn’t do a special Jordan shoe.

With encouragement from his agent and parents, Jordan finally agreed to a deal with Nike. Below is an interview video of Jordan discussing this story.

I can’t imagine Michael Jordan in Adidas, and it even looks odd to see old college photos of him in Converse. But I’ll tell you this. Jordan said that we don’t know for sure if the outcome of success would be different if he went with Adidas, and that the marketing of Adidas could have been there as well.

I agree when he said that his play on the court helped with the success of his endorsements, but I strongly disagree with the statement that Adidas could have marketed the Jordan Brand better than Nike.

Love or hate, Nike is the leader in marketing athletes and products. No contest.