As K-12 students return to school this time of year, many will wear new shoes. Some of the most popular sneakers are in the Air Jordan line, produced by Nike and named after famous National Basketball Association (NBA) player Michael Jordan (MJ).
WYSO Dayton Youth Radio producers Qaden Dean, Trae Raye-Redmond, and Jaylen Thomas from Meadowdale High School wanted to learn more about the history and staying power of the Air Jordan brand, so they interviewed Cincinnati native and Fashion Institute of Technology professor Emil Wilbekin. Wilbekin started this interview by describing life in 1985 when Air Jordan shoes were first released.
The following transcript is lightly edited for length and clarity.
Emil Wilbekin: That year was kind of like a very interesting year of cultural change. So Prince's album "Purple Rain" dropped. Apple released its first Macintosh computer. The HIV and AIDS crisis was going on. There was a lot happening in America at that time, and I think that's a moment in time where just everything was kind of changing. Young people wanted to have more of a voice. Music was really, really poppin with music videos and MTV and stuff like that. So Jordan really kind of stepped into the arena at a time where It was a cultural shift in America.
Trae Raye-Redmond: Can you tell us some people's first reactions to Jordans when they came out? Was it positive or negative?
Wilbekin: It was pretty positive. The NBA was because of the colors and the regulations; they were fining him (Michael Jordan) and what that ended up doing was really making them become more popular. It was like the more he was fined, the more people demanded them and were cheering him on for the sneakers.
So, everybody wanted them. Literally, they had to kind of keep up with production and stuff like that because so many young people, especially young Black men, wanted those sneakers. And it was really, really popular. So the reaction was strong like it was something new, it was something different. And it really aligned with the superstar power of Michael Jordan, like how he was playing and making that huge deal when he joined the Bulls. He was like a hero. And so people wanted a piece of it, and you could get a piece of it by wearing the sneakers.
Raye-Redmond: Do you know about MJ's first contract with Nike? If so, how do you feel about his contract compared to contracts today?
Wilbekin: His contract really set the tone for how athletes and celebrities get endorsements and deals. His deal was really unprecedented and really was a benchmark for how we would see other celebrities, everyone from LeBron James to Serena Williams, who are all with Nike, specifically how their deals would be shaped. He made things possible.
To have a young Black man saying, 'I want this much money' at that time was revolutionary. And so I think that that's really important to talk about and to look at from a historical perspective of how business happens. Like someone has to take a risk, and so Michael Jordan and his family took the risk to ask for that much money at that time. People thought it was crazy. No one thought that that was possible. And now, we look at the deals that athletes get, which are worth so much more. That all started because of Michael Jordan.
Jaylen Thomas: How do you feel about football players wearing Jordan cleats?
Wilbekin: I think it's amazing. I think one of the things that Jordan Brand has done, which is super innovative, is also expanding to cover football to create cleats and golf shoes. I think it's really smart because, as athletes, as people who love sports, we're not monolithic. We do multiple things. We like multiple sports. So I think it makes it great for them to then do football and then to do golf because it's about athleticism, it's about comfort, it's about performance. And so I think it's really, really cool when you see football players wearing the Jordans, when you see golfers wearing the Jordans.
To have a young Black man saying, 'I want this much money' at that time was revolutionary.Emil Wilbekin
Qaden Dean: So, how many pairs of Jordans have you owned in your life?
Wilbekin: [Laughs] How many pairs? I've lost count. Yeah, I don't know. I've bought so many. And I don't like them too worn out, so I end up having to pass them on.
Right now, I have four pairs in rotation that are pretty new. I like the classics, so I have the Elephant Print 1s. Yeah, I don't know how many I've had in my lifetime.
Dayton Youth Radio is produced at the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO. Dean, Raye-Redmond, and Thomas' interview with Wilbekin won second place in the Spring 2024 Miami Valley Tech Prep Showcase Podcasting Contest.
