Michael Jordan's relationship with Nike stretches back more than 40 years. And the basketball icon is fiercely loyal to his top sponsors.
Jordan first inked a lucrative endorsement deal with the sportswear manufacturer ahead of his rookie NBA season in 1984.
His signature shoe, the Air Jordan 1, quickly became a huge seller and the Chicago Bulls legend has put his name to dozens of designs ever since.
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Jordan even has his own brand under the Nike umbrella, with the famous "jump man" logo featuring on NBA jerseys, soccer kits and all kinds of sporting apparel.
The six-time NBA champion – who is widely considered to be the greatest basketball player of all time – has an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion.
And the vast majority of his fortune has been amassed not by his contracts with the Bulls and the Washington Wizards – the two teams he represented during his playing career – but through the lucrative endorsement deals he has signed over the years.
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Understandably, Jordan is staunch in his loyalty to the brands that have made him a billionaire, with Nike chief among them.
The extent to which he champions his endorsement partners is no better evidenced by the fact that he used to refuse to allow his daughter to wear any other brand of sneakers.
"The funny thing is, as a kid, I was rocking a lot of Skechers, which was not OK in my father’s eyes," Jasmine Jordan said, per The Undefeated via andscape.
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"I used to beg him, ‘Please, let me get the light-up Skechers!’ Or the shoes with the wheels. He would let me wear them for a day, then the next day, they would end up in the trash.
"It didn’t matter what pair they were. It didn’t matter who bought them. If they were in his house and they were on my feet, by the next day, they were in the trash."
Topics: NBA, Basketball, Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls
Ryan Baldi