Thilo Kunkel, associate professor at the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management, explains how Jordan’s influence expanded beyond basketball and into sports marketing, athlete endorsement deals, fashion, popular culture and the rise of sneaker culture. In response, Nike’s basketball guru Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) urged Knight to gamble its $250,000 basketball marketing budget entirely on Jordan, who eventually signed a five-year, $2.5 million endorsement deal. This biographical sports drama, directed by Affleck and written by Alex Convery, takes place in 1984, when Nike had branded itself as a running shoe company, and co-founder Phil Knight (Ben Affleck) wanted to breathe life into its struggling basketball division. The game-changing partnership transformed Nike into the world’s largest athletic apparel company and Jordan into a global and cultural phenomenon. Exclusively in theaters on April 5, the film tells the story of Nike’s signing rookie basketball player Michael Jordan to his first sneaker deal. For the first time in over 20 years, Ben Affleck reunites with Matt Damon to star in a new movie, Air.
