Nike and Jordan Partnership

Back in the early 1980s, Nike was facing intense competition from Reebok, Adidas, and Puma as their jogging shoes levelled up to Nike's new technology that Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman invented when he made the Nike Cortez. At the same time Reebok also had a stranglehold on the aerobics gear market.

Nike went seeking salvation in basketball and found it in a promising player from the University of North Carolina who had just signed with the Chicago Bulls at the time. This player was Michael Jordan, who at first, didn't like the shoe Nike designed for him but his parents talked him into the deal.

The NBA banned him from wearing the red and black kicks on the court, but Nike simply paid the $5 000 fine after each game, which was genius marketing at the time. Fast forward to today, the limited edition Jordans get snapped up and resold at a premium so much that they've become an asset class.



Yes, the Nike Air Jordans are now seen as an actual investment for people who are sneakerheads or people who are ready to diversify their portfolios that are already packed with stodgier assets (which I like a lot by the way) like shares and bonds. You can go to StockX to trade your sneakers.

Jordan himself has benefitted greatly from having his name on the coolest shoes on earth for the past 25 years. He made less than $100 million as an NBA player (even though he was arguably the greatest of all time), but has an estimated net worth of $1.9 billion, thanks partly to ongoing Nike royalties.

Today, the Jordan brand alone brings over $3 billion in revenues each year and is one of the big reasons why we love Nike as an investment. You can read about this same story on Phil Knight's memoirs titled "Shoe Dog".