JUMPMAN'S Shoe Legacy Continues

Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Is anyone not familiar with that name? It doesn't matter what city, state, country you’re from. Whether you even know the slightest amount about the sport of basketball you know who this freak of an athlete was and chances are you won't forget his name in all of your lifetime. Jordan's name through his class, his legacy, and his brand will forever live on. This Sunday MJ will be turning 50 years young and I, myself who is a huge fan, wanted to spend this blog to reflect on his unforgettable impact.

Assuming everyone knows his history from UNC, then as a Chicago Bull, his small baseball career, and coming out of retirement to play 2 years for the Washington Wizards. We all know I could talk all day about his 6 NBA titles, 5 MVP awards, All-Defensive First Team 9 times, 2 Olympic gold medals, the list is endless. I want to focus on the amount he put into the city of Chicago, his ever-growing 'Jumpman 23' brand (more specifically his shoes), and its manifestation to social media and marketing today. 

When Jordan played in Chicago for the 1998 season the team was worth more than $200million. By the 1996-97 season, his yearly salary just from basketball alone skyrocketed to a close to $33million. I guess that’s what winning will get you. 1985 was the first year of Nike's Air Jordan which grossed over $130 million. That’s before the Jordan shoe game even blew up, after a single year and grossing that amount of money is some serious cash. Something, along with his game records, that will forever be untouchable. By 1998, Jordan had reportedly made over $130 million just from the endorsement with Nike. Jordan's name had generated $10 billion in revenue just for the game of basketball. A career salary at $93.7 million in the NBA isn’t to shabby. He is now worth $500 million with age at half of a century.  The Nike Air Jordan brand of shoes is responsible for over $1 billion in annual sales for Nike. I wonder if Adidas ever second-guessed their decision not to offer a shoe deal with him, hmm.

But ‘It Must Be The Shoes!’ As MJ’s big birthday is right around the corner he has released countless shoes. The retro III ’88 which were also the first shoe to have the famous ‘Jumpman’ Jordan logo stitched on. One in particular is the XII’s in navy and electric yellow known as the ‘Squadron Blue’ which I suppose should note sold out everywhere in just a short 10 hours. Two different colors of the original Jordan I plus a Melo pack, a Black History Month Pack. I’ll be quiet for a second and just take a look for yourself:

 

I personally think it’s insane the amount of rave the shoes still get. If he drops a new shoe or the same shoe just with different colors or a re-released retro shoe it makes national headlines and trends on twitter for days. For example, the Jordan XI ‘Concords’ that released at the end of 2011, where people camped out days in advance much like Black Friday just for a $180 pair of shoes. It was one of the most anticipated shoe releases of all-time, the shoes would later go on to sell for close to $1000 on eBay. There was even once a rumored death in the D.C. area just for a pair of shoes. I’m a huge sneaker-head and not a lot comes in between us and our shoes I know this but “death over designer” is to the extreme. Twitter blew up and the pair of kicks trended for a week.

Its no wonder Michael Jordan is a household name for the amount of impact he has had in the hearts of fans, the fashion world, and the game of basketball.

I can only imagine what he may surprise us with on his birthday Sunday and the amount of trending topics about his legacy and the epic shoe releases. It will be interesting to watch and I will keep you posted with updates of trending topics about the latest MJ news this week on the anticipation of his 50^th.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter: 

@PostScriptSport

 P.S. all this Jordan shoe talk makes me want to add to my collection, I think it’s time to purchase the Jordan XII Cool Greys. Agree? Disagree? Comment back and let me know what your favorite Jordan shoe of all time is.

Too Much Not To Talk About

Some issues in the sports world that must be addressed. Tonight's topic of the matter is Super Bowl 47.  The newly wedded, Joe Flacco and his Baltimore Ravens put on a clinic in the first half, which whom, oh by the way had a contract ending this year. He refused the re-contract offer the Ravens were offering before the New England game and he waited. Waited to prove himself, he said, until he won the Super Bowl as he did just that. Well there goes any doubt the Ravens GM had in his mind about Flacco being un-clutch in the post-season.
But WAIT, then half the lights inside the Superdome went out (mind you it was minutes just after halftime kick-return brought back the New Orleans native Jacoby Jones) Ironic the lights went out just after that, you could say the Ravens were really playing "lights out." Somebody should've called up J. Cole we need some "Lights Please." Back to the topic was the Super Bowl being "fixed" i mean it was 28-6 when the strange occurrence happened, and what better set-up when two brothers are facing each other to compete for a Super Bowl. Was it a way to put out Ravens fire offense? If you think about it, from an extended half-time plus the kick return, it kept the Ravens offense off the field for over 90 minutes, interesting!
Social Media just about "blew the power servers" with the amount of attention the dome light ordeal started. It was just 10 minutes that a 'Superdome lights' parody twitter account was created. Oreo came back with a tweet saying "you can still dunk in the dark." And only 4 minutes into the light fiasco that twitter accounts were bidding on key words such as "power outage" in order to gain attention. Its amazing to me as an avid twitter user how much social media plays a role into what goes on behind the scenes of businesses and their strategies to create consumer views. Instantaneous marketing. Not to mention the multi-millions spent on Super Bowl commercials, personally the Taco Bell: elderly rage commercial was by far the best.
I rest my case, but thank goodness Jim Harbaugh and the rookie quarterback Colin Kaepernick really "flipped the switch" in the second half to keep the ball-game interesting (not as if anyone lost interest, after that gorgeous halftime performance made special by Beyonce).

P.S. If you dont know what the definition of swagger is, look at these Michigan jersey's they wore tonight in a big win against a strong Ohio State squad. Michigans-basketball-uniforms