The Air Jordan sneaker turns 40 this year. Luke Burbank traces its origins back to NBA legend Michael Jordan's first meeting with Nike, then a relatively small sneaker company in Oregon.

Beaverton

The Air Jordan sneaker, widely regarded as the most successful basketball shoe in history, marks its 40th anniversary. The iconic shoe first emerged following a pivotal meeting in the mid-1980s between then-NBA rookie Michael Jordan and representatives from Nike, which was at the time a relatively small footwear company based in Oregon. The initial offer presented to Jordan was unprecedented for the era—$2.5 million to wear the brand’s shoes, a sum significantly higher than offers made to other players.

When Nike launched the Air Jordan in the following year, expectations were modest, with projected sales of $3 million. However, the brand quickly surpassed these goals, reaching $126 million in sales in its first year. The rapid success was fueled by Jordan’s standout performances on the basketball court, coupled with Nike’s innovative marketing campaigns, which resonated with a broad audience and helped position the shoe as both a fashion statement and an athletic product.

The design of Air Jordans has played a crucial role in their lasting popularity, blending advancements in sports technology with distinctive visual elements. Over the decades, the Air Jordan line has expanded, with new models released annually. High-profile collaborations, such as the Christian Dior Jordans, have further elevated the brand’s prestige in both sportswear and fashion circles.

Today, the Jordan brand operates as a standalone division within Nike, generating approximately $7 billion in yearly revenue. Chief Design Officer Jason Maiden oversees the development of new products, with Michael Jordan remaining actively involved in design decisions. The brand’s ongoing influence has led to the creation of community initiatives and academies dedicated to sneaker culture.

The enduring appeal of Air Jordans is attributed by those involved in its development to more than just its performance or design. According to long-time Nike executive Howard White, the brand’s significance extends beyond basketball, embodying broader themes of self-expression and empowerment.



40 years of Air Jordan

Just last week, in Queens, New York, more than 200 people lined up to pay $200 for a shoe most of them already owned. The Nike Air Jordan. The most successful basketball shoe in history turns 40 this year, and yet, it almost didn't happen. He did not want to be there, and he had told his agent, I'm not going. Howard White was in the room back in 1984 when Michael Jordan, then a rookie short on NBA experience but long on potential, was basically dragged to Oregon by his parents to meet with a relatively small sneaker company called Nike. This is bigger than anything that we've done. Typically, a great player would get like $100,000, but this was so unique in terms of just doing it. The offer, $2.5 million to wear their shoes, triple what anyone else in the league was making. Air Jordan by Nike. Jordan took the deal, and the rest is sneaker history. Nothing's hotter. When Nike launched the Air Jordans back in 1985, they hoped to sell $3 million worth of product. Instead, they sold $126 million in one year. There's a kaboom. What a jam. There's Jordan down the middle all the way. Much of that success was thanks to Jordan's incredible play on the court. Kaboom. And that's what they came to see, didn't they? But there was also Nike's marketing approach, which was groundbreaking in its own right. Joining the cultural conversation in ways few commercials for basketball shoes ever had. It's gotta be a shoe. It's gotta be a shoe. A shoe. And don't forget the shoe's design itself. A process that managed to blend sports technology with a set of aesthetic principles that would make Jordans as much a fashion statement as a basketball shoe. As evidenced by the Christian Dior Jordans Howard White was wearing for our interview, which retail for up to $17,000. In order to translate what he did as a man into what we do as a brand, you have to start with a series of principles. We call them ethos. Forty years later, that design work falls to Jason Maiden, chief design officer for the Jordan brand, which these days is a standalone division within Nike that generates some $7 billion a year by itself. You first start with connectivity. Why this product has relevance and reverence. Then you put that into a very strict process that we call visioneering. And so what's interesting is we have a playbook. I can't show you what's in it. But you can show me the outside? I can show you the cover. It's beautiful. If you could peek inside, you'd probably see one of the designs for their yearly Air Jordan release. That's right. Nike has been putting out a new pair of Jordans every year for the last 39 years. Does a lot of the stuff that your team designs, does Michael Jordan get eyes on it still, a lot of it? Like how central is he to the operation here in 2025, 40 years in? Oh, he's very integral. He's very integral to the operation. He sees everything. He trusts us a lot. He has opinions on things that are near and dear to him. It has given me my life's purpose. Legendary. Sean Williams founded the Social Studies Community Academy in Brooklyn, a program dedicated to studying, promoting, and collecting shoes. Sneakers are wearable art. You're giving the sneakers a level of depth and, a.k.a., storytelling that convinces the consumer that they're making the right purchase when they buy these sneakers. But for Howard White, who still works at Nike and still talks to Michael Jordan often, the Air Jordan success is because it's not actually the story of a shoe. It's the story of something much bigger. It's totally transcended basketball at this point, right? There have been a lot of basketball shoes. It's not about basketball. And if this simple article of footwear can make people interpret themselves in a way that gives them just the power to believe more in themselves, that's what the Jordan brand.

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