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Ten Things 2006: Pr...
They Bring a Smile and They Even Glow!
They have made cameos in several movies, TV shows, and music videos. Hip hop artists sing and rhyme about them. Highly coveted and pursued by many, they must be carefully guarded. People wait hours in line for them. They are idolized and even enshrined in many a bedroom. It is hard to imagine that a pair, albeit a stunning pair, could cause such a commotion. No, we are not describing the pair of handsome young men in the photo, but rather a pair of Nike’s Air Jordan basketball sneakers. Thus, the real stars in the photo are the white on black, so fresh and so clean AJ XIIs.
Launched in the mid-1980s, the Air Jordan line of basketball shoes has stomped all competition to create reverberations felt in far more arenas than just the basketball court. Associated with the skill of the most renowned basketball star ever, the shoes have become synonymous with high performance. This project analyzes how Nike exploited the fame of Michael Jordan and commodified this legend to great profit. Nike Air Jordans provide an example of design on both micro and macro levels: from the rubber of the soles to the crafting of a culture around the Jordan mystique, Nike has far transcended the mundane functionality of footwear.
This portfolio documents and analyzes the several facets of the Jordan juggernaut, focusing on questions of design and influence on popular culture. For micro level design, we spotlight the Air Jordan XIX. From this particular model, the analysis broadens to examine the design of the Jordan line as a whole and the Jordan name. Some key questions include: How did Jordans create and influence a youth culture (music, fashion, hip hop culture)? How has Nike expanded internationally? What is the design process behind the shoe? How successful has Nike’s Jordan campaign been? By answering these questions, we will be able to discern particular intersections of technology, design, and culture surrounding the Air Jordan icon.
That a shoe could excite such a furor, bordering on religious frenzy, shows how the concept of a simple everyday object, its design, and the mass marketing of a mystique about the object can create a nationwide, and even global trend in style and taste. This trend in turn influences music, language, social behavior, and cultural norms. The young rookie player on the Chicago basketball team who joined with Nike to produce a shoe is no longer a man but an icon. When Michael Jordan grows old, arthritic, and becomes hard of hearing, people will still regard him as the young MJ who performed magic and legendary feats on the basketball courts. It is the shoe in part that has given Michael Jordan this immortality.
This project has explored the business of selling shoes. In a way, it is sad that young people who admire Michael Jordan’s game and aspire to his prowess on the court are being suckered by Nike, the corporation. As Kanye West’s verse baldly states, corporations like Nike and the Air Jordans they manufacture are all part of a grand hustle. That a company could spend 20 million dollars in fewer than two years time merely to promote a shoe seems like an egregious and colossal waste of money. While it is great to see people of color such as Michael Jordan and Spike Lee as the front men in Nike’s ad campaigns, it is at the same time extremely disheartening to see them supporting a never-ending cycle that takes from the community and profits large corporations. In essence, Nike has made a shill of Michael Jordan. To Michael Jordan’s credit, however, there would probably be few who could turn down the lucrative Nike contract. At least the Air Jordan has given him immortality, and he will most likely be remembered as a basketball hero.
c/o The Western Australia Michael Jordan Society
