In 2009, Marcus Jordan, son of famous basketball star Michael Jordan came to UCF as a freshman on a full ride basketball scholarship. UCF, at the time, was sponsored by Adidas. At an exhibition game against St. Leo, Marcus wore a pair of white Air Jordan sneakers knowing that the school was sponsored by Adidas. Jordan said he will only wear his father’s Nike Air Jordan shoes because they hold a special meaning to his family. Soon after, Adidas dropped their sponsorship with UCF because of this incident. Less than one year later, Nike swooped in and from July 1st on, UCF was officially sponsored by Nike. Thanks to Marcus Jordan of course. This is a win win situation for Jordan, Nike, and UCF. Marcus Jordan can wear his sneakers, Nike saves the day as Adidas looks like the bad guy, and UCF gets brand new Nike gear for all of its sports.
Trends Through the Decades
The first athletic shoe came along when Charles Goodyear patented the process of the vulcanization of rubber and soon after the Converse All-Star was born. From there on out a new market was created and I want to explore the changes that have came throughout the decades dealing with sneakers.
1917: Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star 
- First athletic shoe
1930: Adidas Racing Spike
- First running shoe
1953: Puma Atom
- First soccer cleat
1972: Nike Moon Shoe
- First Nike shoe
- First shoe with a waffle sole
1985: Air Jordan 1
- First basketball shoe that wasn’t all white
- Banned by the NBA at first
- Cost $65
2010: Nike Free running shoe
- First barefoot running advertised shoe
2012: Air Jordan 2012
- Latest Air Jordan basketball shoe
- Cost $180
Philip Knight: CEO of Nike
After his career at Oregon, Knight put his athletic career in the rearview mirror for now and pursued a career in business at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford. In a business class taught by a man named Frank Shallenberger, Knight constructed a paper, “Can Japanese Sports Do to German Sports Shoes What Japanese Cameras Did to German Cameras?”This paper was Knight’s “aha!” moment and he remembers saying to himself after he wrote this paper, “This is really what I’d like to do.”
Following his dream, Knight traveled to Japan to research more about Japanese made athletic shoes. Crossing paths with an Adidas knock-off shoe, Tiger, Knight had found his first shoes he would be selling. Very intrigued with the Japanese culture and the low cost and high quality of these shoes, Knight was very excited, to say the least, to start this companionship with Tiger. Beginning in 1964, he returned back to the states and began selling these running shoes at track meets around the Pacific Northwest from the trunk of his Plymouth Valient, trying to rival those of the “Goliath” of shoe companies: Adidas. Within five years, in 1969, Blue Ribbon Shoes had sold a million dollars worth of Japanese made shoes and in Knight’s mind, this was just the beginning.
Proving just that over the coming years, Philip Knight and his once small shoe company that he began from the back of his car made leaps and bounds that not even he saw coming. In 1971, Knight felt like it was time to retire Blue Ribbon and create a new company and logo that better fit his mega shoe industry. A man by the name of Jeff Johnson, a friend of Knight’s, came up with the name “Nike” which came from a Greek winged goddess of victory (Krentzman). Soon after, the fat check mark known as the “Nike Swoosh” was created as the official Nike logo. According to BBC News, a well respected news agency worldwide, the Nike Swoosh is one of the most powerful logos in the world. Among most college and professional sports teams, the Nike Swoosh is branded on the top athletes’ apparel throughout history, including: Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Dion Sanders, Derek Jeter, Lebron James and thousands of others. 
Walking Billboards
One of the most successful ways of marketing sneakers is through athletes. When little kids, teens, or even adults see their favorite player wearing a new sneaker, the appeal for that model automatically goes through the roof and becomes a necessity to that person’s shoe collection. The number one sport for footwear sales due to the athletes is basketball. There are over 100 NBA players that are sponsored by a shoe brand; most being Nike or Adidas but some even sport Reeboks, Under Armour, or Converse. This all started in 1989 when Michael Jordan was sponsored by Nike. Since then MJ started his own company under Nike, labeled Air Jordan. Air Jordan sponsors many basketball players but less than ten years ago they started sponsoring different sports such as baseball, football, and even motorcycle racing. Much like billboards or NASCAR cars, wherever these players go they rep their respected brands.
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