The Air Jordan sneakers have become an iconic part of sneaker culture and basketball history since the 80s. The upcoming biographical film AIR gives an inside look into the creation of this iconic shoe and traverses their groundbreaking marketing strategies that transformed the way athletes are perceived.
As we wait for the India release of the film, director and actor Ben Affleck shares a peculiar memory from back in the day. He recounts how his much-anticipated film AIR was conceptualised and what intrigued him to take the film onboard.
Ben shares, “I had a picture of my little brother wearing Air Jordans; it was the winter of 1985 or early ‘86. I remember how, seemingly overnight, Nike became what you had to have if you wanted to be cool. But I had no knowledge whatsoever of the backstory of the origin of these shoes. It all started with the vision of one man, the conviction of his team, the faith and determination of one woman and the unparalleled talent of one extraordinary athlete.”
“Together, they turned the once-generic basketball shoe into something forever iconic: the Air Jordan. We know that the shoe is not what made Michael great; rather his greatness is what made the shoe such a phenomenon. Sneaker culture is ascendant now, and AIR is about the inception of that, which I think will surprise a lot of people. That appealed to me.”
AIR reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionised the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand.
Matt Damon plays maverick Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro and Affleck plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight with Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser, Chris Messina as David Falk, Chris Tucker as Howard White, Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan – among others.
AIR directed by Ben Affleck, from Amazon Studios, Skydance Sports, Mandalay Pictures, and the first project from Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity, will stream soon on Prime Video.