0:00
And uh up to that point, my favorite
0:03
shoe was an Adidas shoe, you know, and
0:06
at the time that everybody was starting
0:07
recruiting me about what shoes to wear.
0:10
Uh I was pro Adidas, you know, the whole
0:13
time. It was his mother, Dolores Jordan,
0:15
who changed everything. She insisted he
0:17
at least listened to what Nike had to
0:19
say. "You're going to go listen," she
0:22
told him. "You may not like it, but
0:24
you're going to go listen." Reluctantly,
0:26
Jordan flew to Nike's headquarters in
0:28
Oregon. Nike made their pitch, offering
0:31
Jordan an unprecedented deal that
0:33
included his own signature shoe. They
0:35
also promised a marketing campaign
0:37
centered entirely around him, something
0:39
no other company was willing to do.
0:42
Jordan was impressed, and with his
0:44
parents' encouragement, he ultimately
0:46
agreed. In 1984, Nike signed MJ to an
0:49
unprecedented endorsement deal worth
0:51
$2.5 million over five years. A huge sum
0:55
for an athlete at the time.
