Unleash Your Style With Hypekicks

1984 had difficulties for Nike. Profits were down, growth had stagnated, and a poorly timed expansion into the clothes market had left it with mountains of unsold stock. Rivals had already capitalized on new trends in aerobics and leisure footwear. Sales dropped. 

Phil Knight, the chairman and CEO, began his annual letter to shareholders by saying, "Orwell was right." 1984 was a difficult year. However, a new movie called Air, which is set in that same year and debuts this week, demonstrates how Nike went on to become the leading sports and shoe brand in the world, with annual sales exceeding £37 billion in 2022.

Ben Affleck is the film's director and plays the role of Knight with all his pompous 80s shell suit, mirrored sunglasses, and purple Porsche driving. Along with playing Sonny Vaccaro, a reps shoes like Nike sports marketing executive in need of a hit, Matt Damon also appears in Air. The Air Jordan shoe, however, is the true protagonist of this tale.

Hypekicks will introduce you to Air Jordan. The book Air describes how, against everyone's advice, Vaccaro agreed to sponsor the young basketball player Michael Jordan, drawing him away from Adidas and Converse and into the arms of Vaccaro's own brand of footwear, the Air Jordan. 

Even more controversially, he offered Jordan points for each pair of shoes sold, starting a revolution in how sports are played, at the urging of Jordan's powerful mother Deloris (played in the movie by Viola Davis).

Success with Air Jordan

On April 1st, 1985, Nike formally sold the Air Jordan 1 cheap reps sneakers to the general public for $64.95. In the first year, 100,000 pairs were anticipated to be sold. Instead, it shipped 1.5 million in its initial six weeks thanks to brilliant marketing that indicated the NBA had banned the sneakers for being too colorful (it hadn't).

Collection of Frenzy styles

You would have been wise to keep a pair. On the reselling website StockX, new Jordan 1s go for more than $20,000 (£16,000). The multibillion-pound trainer collecting frenzy of today is centered on the Air Jordan reps shoes brand. Jordan, who transcended not only his sport but also race, class, and generations, has been dubbed the greatest pop culture figure in American history. 

As a North Carolina child who failed to make the cut for his high school team and the murdered son of a bank employee mother and a General Electric plant supervisor father, he rose from humble beginnings to become the personification of the American Dream. Even those who had no interest in sports, much less US basketball, can see that he was a remarkable athlete.

Nike has continued to release new models with Michael Jordan's name every year, even though he retired for the third and final time in 2003. There are currently 37 different Air Jordan models available, not counting the various colorways, limited editions, collaborations, and retro Jordans.

The Last Dance, a 10-part documentary that covered Jordan's career in fascinating detail, was released on Netflix in 2020. Lockdown had two effects that coincided with each other: a captive audience and a desire for cozier clothing. As a result, it attracted a 24 million global audience and stoked interest in its star.