Air (film): Extremely eye-opening movie about Nike

I don't really have a lot to do with athletic shoes even though just like Forrest Gump, I've had a lot of shoes. When I was a kid I really liked Magic Johnson and basically begged my parents to get my the Magic Johnson purple and yellow Converse shoes. I'm sure they paid a premium for them and I am sure they were very ugly by today's standards just like most fashion from the 80's.

This film popped up on my radar as a recommendation from a friend on Plex - which is something I highly suggest you get involved in now that Netflix has revamped their subscription model. It starred Matt Damon, who I quite enjoy, as well as Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck. The latter of which is in little enough of the film to not ruin it.

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The film takes place in the early 80's and I had no idea that this was a time when Nike was losing the athletic shoe war by a lot. I had no idea that was ever the case because they are such a juggernaut of the industry now. I'm not even sure if Converse even exists as a company anymore. I bet they do, but aside from people ironically wearing All Star's shoes, I almost never see them.

Nike had a 12% market share back at that time and they were really struggling as a company. They focused mainly on selling running shoes and couldn't find a way to penetrate the basketball industry. They had signed a few players but mostly these players didn't have the mass appeal necessary to sell shoes. They focus a lot of Moses Malone and how nobody really cared that he wore Nike shoes and I am sure Moses is just delighted that he is featured in such a light.

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Matt Damon plays the role of Sonny Vaccaro, a real person who was a sports marketing executive for Nike. He has bold ideas about how to penetrate the basketball side of things with Nike but his bosses, namely the CEO Phil Knight (played by Matt's buddy Ben Affleck) who is fighting Sonny every step of the way as far as his ideas for how to expand Nike's business into basketball. Sonny is a huge fan of basketball and routinely visits high school games to try to convince up and coming basketball stars to remember Nike when they make it to the pros. He doesn't experience much success while doing this and as I mentioned before, people like Moses Malone are the only people they are able to be ambassadors of their brand.

With the 1984 draft coming up, the one that Michael Jordan was expected to be drafted 3rd by the Chicago Bulls, Sonny is basically the only person in the basketball division that really has any idea what he is talking about when it comes to the game and especially how Jordan is the only real standout of the bunch. Nike has tasked Sonny with signing 3 of the upcomers with a total budget of $250,000. Sonny realizes that this is not enough and that most of the players in the draft are not worth spending any money on. He basically begs his old friend and boss Phil Knight to allow him to spend the entire budget on Jordan alone.

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While I am basically giving away the story here I don't think there is anyone on the planet that doesn't know that Jordan did in fact sign with Nike and he ended up propelling Nike to a level of basketball fame that nobody in the company could have ever dreamed of. This was accomplished not only by just promising the full $250k to Jordan, but also by promising that Jordan would receive a certain percentage of the sales of all Air Jordan shoes. This one deal alone has made a lot of people very wealthy including Michael himself who has probably made billions off of the shoe and other merch sales over the past 40 years.

It is an interesting story of the rise of Nike and how if it hadn't been for Sonny Vaccaro, there is an almost certain chance that the Air Jordan's that everyone in the shoe game is obsessed with to this day, would have been made by Adidas instead of Nike. Nike might not exist as a company today had it not been for this one very successful signing. Not only did it keep Nike in the game, but it propelled them well past everyone else in the basketball shoe game.

The cast is exceptional with one glaring bad casting IMO.

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Chris Tucker just seems incapable of not being characters that he played in previous films. His high pitched squeaky voice filled with confidence is extremely reminiscent of his now rather irritating character from the Rush Hour films. While there are some people out there that say that this is exactly how Howard White (the character he plays) is in real life, to me it was just annoying whenever he is on screen. Chris isn't exactly known for his versatility in acting is concerned, and this film showcases this very well.

Should I watch it?

I think that you will need to have at least some appreciation for basketball and the legacy of Michael Jordan to fully appreciate every aspect of this docu-film but even if you don't, you almost certainly know who Jordan is and his backstory about how he became basically the face of basketball for 30-40 years even well after he stopped playing is largely due to his involvement with Nike. Without this deal, it probably would have panned out much differently.

I like sports a normal amount but have an appreciation for very well-made films that are based on real life. This film ticks all those boxes and therefore I think that most people that see it will seriously enjoy it.

_{This film is made by Amazon Studios so I would imagine that is how you can acquire it legally. There are other ways of course}