Hearing Michael Jordan even say the name Adidas is a bit jarring. Jordan’s Air Jordan shoes and several ad campaigns made Jordan and Nike synonymous that raised the relevance of both.
Episode 5 of “The Last Dance” went into how Jordan’s shoe deal with Nike came about. His agent, Rich Falk, said it began with Converse, which was the official shoe of the NBA at the time.
Converse had the big NBA stars of the day on their roster: Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Julius Erving, among others.
“Converse had big players and told me we can not envision you being put ahead of them,” Jordan said in the documentary.