Nike AirNike lavished Jordan with a $2.5 million + royalties, 5 year endorsement contract (in what has to be one of the biggest marketing coups in sports history) to wear their new Air shoes on the court. An unforeseen expense - the NBA fined Jordan up to $5,000 per game for wearing "non-white" shoes - actually proved the old adage regarding "no such thing as bad publicity". The Air Jordan myth and hype raged - and Nike struggled (happily) to fill orders. The rest, as they say is history. Today Air Jordan is a subsidiary of Nike. The brand covers most major team sports and even skateboarding as well as supplying some signature models for various rap groups. It is hard to belive that in 1983 Nike was trying to shake the "middle aged white jogger" brand. The hype around the Nike Air, is built on a real and very disruptive advancement in sport shoe engineering. The concept is designed around the capture of pressurised gas within urethane capsules in the heel and forefoot. The athlete, while literally walking on Air (or more accurately, gas) compresses the capusles on an as need basis - compressing more when jumping, landing, cutting, accelerating etc. The air offers an abvious cushion advantage upon compression, but equally advantageously, springs immediately back to form upon release.
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