Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan went on to build a brand of himself with Nike. But before he made a deal with Nike, he was more interested in signing a deal with Adidas. But as history went down, that did not happen and now we get to wear Nike Air Jordans.

Before Michael Jordan had even stepped onto an NBA court, brands were already wooing him to sign with them. Jordan had spent the entirety of his time at the University of North Carolina wearing Converse. 

Nike made history by signing Michael Jordan

But that was also because head coach Dean Smith was getting paid $10,000 each year for making his players wear that brand. And even though Michael wanted to wear Adidas sneakers, he wasn’t able to then.

Then came the time when Jordan got drafted by the Chicago Bulls with the third overall pick in the 1984 NBA draft. And that is when MJ had to decide which brand he wanted to sign with. Jordan wanted to go with Adidas but due to the leadership changes the organization was going through, they never made him an offer.

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The only choices left were Nike and Converse. During that time, all big-name stars were signed with Converse. Converse had Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Julius Erving to name a few. Jordan flew down to the Converse headquarters to hear their pitch.

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And that is where His Airness felt disrespected. Jordan claimed that Converse wasn’t innovative and what tipped him over the line was when they said, “We’ll treat you like all our other superstars.” And that just did not sit well with Jordan.

Jordan flew back and told his agent to get him in touch with Adidas. But as the meeting with Adidas did not go through, MJ’s mother convinced him to at least hear out what Nike’s pitch was and what they had to offer.

How Nike ended up signing MJ

Nike right away offered him a $500,000 contract for five years which came up to $2.5 million. That made Michael Jordan the highest-paying player through his endorsement deal. And he hopped on to make history with Nike.

Jordan gets a 5% royalty from any and all Jordan brand sales. Nike ended up bringing $4.7 billion in revenue last year. And Jordan took home more than $150 million from the sportswear brand.

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The funny thing is, the company that ended up not putting enough respect on his name declared bankruptcy in 2001. And Nike went on to acquire Converse for $315 million, which is equal to two Nike paychecks for Jordan.