There can be a lot of suspense in it “air.” The new drama depicts Nike’s quest in 1984 to sign then-rookie Michael Jordan to an endorsement deal, and everyone knows that eventually, Nike will get its man. No doubt some viewers are wearing Air Jordan sneakers emblazoned with the Swoosh.
However, the filmmakers do conjure up a poignant moment late in the movie. With wit and grit, Sonny Vaccaro, the Nike CEO played by Matt Damon, gets Jordan’s approval—until Jordan’s mother, Delores Jordan (Viola Davis), makes an additional demand: that her son must receive not only $250,000 in fees, but also Cut from every sneaker sold.
“A shoe is just a shoe,” she told Vaccaro, “until my son gets into it.”
This seemingly nuance, more than mere plot development, captures one of the central themes of “Air”: the value that a talented individual brings to a business and the importance of being compensated for what it is worth.
“He created that value,” Damon, who is also a producer, said in an interview. “Yeah, they had some great ad campaigns, right? But Michael Jordan going out and being MVP every night is what puts meaning in the boot.”
The lesson of “air” can also be applied to the new company that produced it. Damon and longtime friend Ben Affleck co-founded Artists Equity to produce films that make more money for their artistic talents. “Air” — directed by Affleck, who also plays Nike co-founder and CEO Phil Knight — was the company’s first intentional project.
“Thematically, it was to the point in terms of what we’re trying to do with the new company,” Dimon said of Air.
“Sony feels, as we do, that people who put value in something deserve to share in the revenue and be compensated, and rather than it being an extractive process, it’s a partnership,” he explained.
The message of “Air” may help explain why it was so embraced by critics and audiences. Transforms Michael Jordan from exceptional athlete to spectator. “He’s not the underdog compared to the average person, but he’s still someone people can relate to,” said Thilo Kunkel, a professor at Temple University who studies athlete brands.
In fact, it was Nike that initially offered Jordan a piece of the business—it was “bait on a fishhook,” Vaccaro said in an interview. Nike was desperate to outbid its biggest competitors, Converse and Adidas, to secure the rights to a player it predicted would be a generational talent.
Vaccaro added that the film closely mirrors reality in portraying the proposal as important to Delores Jordan, the central decision-maker in her home. “She reminded me 10 times before you saw her in the final scene,” Vaccaro said, adding, “The only reason we survived and won was because he had a piece.”
Vaccaro’s career in basketball and the shoe business is rich enough that years ago there was almost a movie about a completely different period of his life (he was supposed to be played by James Gandolfini). Vaccaro began organizing all-star games in high school in the 1960s. At Nike, he not only helped sign Jordan, but also pioneered contracts with college basketball coaches who put Nike sneakers on their players, as NCAA rules prevented athletes from making their own deals. In the 1990s, Kobe Bryant signed to Adidas.
But the real-life Vaccaro took note of the “air” ethos during his late-career shift from veteran shoe company to the shoe that helped college athletes win the right to sign their endorsement deals.
In 2007, he quit the sneaker business (his resume also included Reebok) and became an advocate for college players’ rights. For attorneys looking to sue over colleges taking advantage of players’ names, photos, and the like, Vaccaro helped find the perfect lead plaintiff: former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon. The lawsuit, filed in 2009 and known as the O’Bannon case, along with other lawsuits, state legislation, and a sea change in public opinion — developed in part by Vaccaro, an easy, colorful quote for reporters — led the NCAA in 2021 to begin allowing college athletes to sign endorsement deals. .
“For letting me get to Eddie or Bannon—it wouldn’t have happened without me being with Michael Jordan,” Vaccaro said.
ESPN college basketball commentator Jay Bellas understands a connection between Jordan securing a portion of his company in Nike and Vaccaro’s pressure to bring in college athletes more of the profits they help generate.
“It’s the same analysis,” said Bilas, who played basketball at Duke University when Jordan was at the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. “Whether it is an hourly worker negotiating with McDonald’s or doctors and nurses negotiating with the hospital system, it is always true that the company will make far more than the worker. Everyone in America, in a free market system, deserves the right to bargain for his fair value.”
At the film’s premiere last month, Damon said, “the audience broke out in applause” at the end when an onscreen text described Vaccaro’s involvement in the O’Bannon case.
“It was thematically appropriate for the movie, but it was also perfect for Sony,” Damon said.
“The obvious thing he’d do is go fight for them,” Damon added. “It goes with the way you see it throughout the movie, genuinely caring — it’s not just business for him. That’s his passion and his love. There’s a moral to it.”
Damon is involved in a similar project. He and Affleck replaced filmmakers with athletes in the Vaccaro formula, and with the backing of a $100 million private equity firm, Artists Equity set out last year to take back a share of venture profits to filmmakers that disappeared with Hollywood’s move toward streaming and the decline of studios. The most generous deals.
In Artists Equity’s view, turning filmmakers—from stars like Damon and Davis to directors, cinematographers, and editors—into something less like staff and more like financial partners will give them an incentive to make better films more efficiently.
“‘Profit sharing’ is the key phrase,” said Jason Squire, professor emeritus at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. “If they make it happen, it would be a wonderful, rolling model for this piece of work.”
For its part, “Air” appears to be a financial success. Amazon acquired the movie for $130 million. It opened last Wednesday exclusively in theaters (before it became available on Amazon’s streaming platform), and has exceeded expectations with a box office hovering around $20 million.
Affleck’s argument for model could come from Deloris Jordan. “This work has never motivated and matched the interest of the artist and the people who funded it,” he said He said at the New York Times conference last year. Referring to his wife, pop star and actress Jennifer Lopez, he added: “The people who create value on the sales side and on the audience side are those artists who have worked their entire careers — like my wife — building a name, a reputation, a relationship with fans that has real value.” And often that value is not reflected in the deals.”
There is an irony in the argument about people defaulting to the old way of doing business. Michael Jordan and Matt Damon – these are some of the most enviable people on earth.
But anyone who’s bombed for a pair of Air Jordans or watched the Chicago Bulls win six World Series in the ’90s can attest that Jordan deserves a great deal of recognition.
And by ceding a small percentage of Air Jordan’s profits to it, Nike wasn’t exactly hurt. Along with the applause-raising reveal of Vaccaro’s successful defense on behalf of college athletes, the “Air” viewer learns at the end of the film that Nike has gone on to buy out former rival Converse and is on its way to becoming the juggernaut it is today. . Last year, Nike said the Jordan Brand brought in $5 billion in annual revenue.
“Ben says it as Phil Knight,” said Damon. He said, “If this kid makes a bunch of money on this deal, it will be the best thing that ever happened to Nike.” Right? It was really a win-win deal. Absolutely everyone won.”