THE STORY OF THE RISE OF NIKE IS WELL PRESENTED IN “AIR”

Today you can’t think of shoes in general without Nike being a part of the conversation. They are the biggest name in shoes and anyone with money to throw around freely has a pair or two of the best shoes they can get. The top of the shoe mountain is the one named after the greatest to ever play the game of basketball: Michael Jordan. Sure, there are other players that now have their name on a shoe and are stars in their own right, but there is only one Air Jordan. The iconic symbol, the endless version, and the status that comes with them are unbeatable. If you didn’t know better you wouldn’t know that Nike makes them because most people just say that they wish they could get a pair of Jordans as if they were their own entity. How did Nike become the biggest name in shoes with a stable of famous athletes now under their banner? The movie on Amazon, from their studios “Air: Courting A Legend” tells the story of how they got the GOAT of the NBA to be the face of their company before he even stepped onto the court.

The story is inspired by how Sonny Vacarro, played by Matt Damon got Michael Jordan to sign with Nike a company that was only known for being a running shoe company. It wasn’t as easy as most might think. They go over the story of the shoe brands that were popular at the time and the rules the NBA had that caused roadblock after roadblock for the team trying to recruit Jordan to their team. The cast is absolutely stellar with Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, and Viola Davis as Michael’s mother. To get the guy that they wanted they had to break a few rules and had to change the way things were done when it came to shoe endorsements. It was a revelation to the business and birth of the legend that is MJ.

As I stated the cast is absolutely fabulous! While some parts might be a bit embellished there are moments that are straight up from history. Damon tries so hard to get this deal done that you feel the tension as you watch it all unfold. He doesn’t have the charm that he had in “Ford vs Ferrari”. However, it is that same drive he brings to the character that believes so much in his gut that he is willing to risk his entire career. Affleck is also the director on this film and it has his trademark moments of tension similar to “Argo” that really draw you in. He plays Nike CEO Phil Knight who built the company by being unconventional in his own ways. Maybe my favorite part of the movie is how it isn’t about Michael Jordan at all. He barely appears in the movie and you never see his face the entire time his body is on film. That made it so more powerful and keeps the viewer focused on the story being put in front of you to care about those characters so that it doesn’t become a story about Michael, but about this company and those that reached him and his family. This is a movie that anyone can watch as it’s not just a biography or a sports movie or a movie about fashion. Get it on your watch list. It encompasses all those elements without alienating any viewer because everyone knows that the great shoe ever made has a story all its own separate from the man it’s named after.