“The kid from North Carolina” aka: Michael Jordan
Posted by ZA on September 9, 2009
A great article from Yahoo Sports on Nike’s decision to sign Michael Jordan. The original deal signed back in 1984 was for $500k and a piece of the profits from Nike sales of Jordan products. The deal eventually catapulted Nike from a top sporting goods company to a global brand.
Some more interesting tidbits from the article:
* Nike’s total revenue in 1984 (year MJ signed) was $900 million, in 2008 Nike had $18.6 billion in revenue.
* No one at Nike had ever met Michael Jordan when they agreed to sign him to an endorsement deal.
* Nike produced so much black & red apparel with Jordan that “at one point there was a run on the world’s supply of red-colored thread”.
It’s a good article by Dan Wetzel, it’s worth a read.
