The ‘documentary’ begins with an incredible montage of digital art paying homage to the Air Jordan 1. Public Enemy’s “He Got Game” plays in the background. The film then shifts to Politics in the 80s and the NBA in the 70s before landing on David Stern; the game changing commissioner of the NBA who of course was in charge when the Air Jordan 1 was banned. As the story of the AJ1 begins to come together, Nike and the history of Blue Ribbon Sports establishes that Nike has always been rebellious. Howard White, Tinker and Phil Knight discuss the company and the issues that led to 400 layoffs prior to MJ’s arrival. The myth and legend of the Air Jordan 1 begins to take shape through more imagery of rebellion. I stop the film.
I love Hip-Hop, I love my people, I fight for my culture and I take every step attempting to live in a way that honors my ancestors. I’ve given a lot of the years of my life to education and coaching because I love it, but I also felt I owed it to the people who sacrificed all to make sure that I didn’t feel less than when I was in the first wave of kids bussed to an all white school (yep I was a part of that).
Elizabeth Semmelhack (I have a video of a couple of her books) speaks of the first athletic shoes being made for lawn tennis in the 19th century. The documentary cuts to the beginning of sneaker culture in the 1970s. Spike Lee talks about how 5 bucks for Converse made you the man. It’s an interesting thing to hear because I’ve always though of Puma as the first shoe in Hip-Hop. In a surprising move the documentary moves to a discussion on adidas and Run DMC. I identify with this because it was my childhood. I wanted to be more like DMC and Patrick Ewing than I wanted to be like Mike. The documentary makes a point that early on for sneakers, sports didn’t matter originally… and then the film shifts gears and gets into the meat of the story by introducing Rob Strasser and Sonny Vaccaro and the fact that Sonny said to Nike that they need to give their entire 500k budget to Jordan. Another flash of images in a Jordan montage hits and caps with Roy Firestone interviewing Jordan after he is drafted 3rd by the Bulls.
“Less than” is a line that comes up often in the ‘documentary’. Lena Waithe uses the phrase a few times and each time she says it, the film cuts to a stream of collage styled clips flashed in front of me in an almost subliminal manner. Her use of less than resonates with me, but when the director adds in another collage interspersed with black and white images of King on the Edmund Pettus or other shots of the Civil Rights Movement, I get irritated.
I sat down yesterday hoping to hear of the design and see the influence the Air Jordan 1 had on fashion. I of course was excited when I saw that Unbanned had a mix of Hip-Hop legends and today’s designers because in my opinion the Air Jordan 1 has always been there. While I always held adidas in higher regard and I didn’t own a pair of Air Jordan 1s, I did have Air Train 2s, when I began to play ball as a kid I was a Ewing fan. Georgetown was a revolutionary team. The all black squad with a Black coach and they wore Kente cloth as a part of their uniforms. In my opinion they represented an extension of Black power and influence. The film didn’t really touch on the Hoyas.
I’m trying to be as honest as possible here. What Michael Jordan became was not what he was. I cried when Len Bias died. I thought he was better. All of this is to say that the Air Jordan 1 was a game changer, but the way this documentary presented it as a revolutionary shoe for my people… I was surprised, but then I paid attention to the editing. Commentators where chopped up for emphasis and the entire film felt like it was built around the use of the ellipsis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p79nXVeyj4s
100,000 was the most someone made on a shoe deal. Understandably, the film made it a point to stress that making Michael the face of Nike was a risk. The documentary never allowed Phil Knight to respond to this statement thereby allowing for the idea that giving MJ a huge contract and his own shoe was a step forward for Civil Rights. The documentary cuts to photos of Michael’s parents. Peter Moore discussed the Jordan 1. An emphasis is placed on the fact that MJ wanted to wear adidas. Mike’s Mom made the decision. The legend takes shape.
The documentary is a cool story and I’m certain that a kid watching this who didn’t grow up in the 80s will buy into the story being created that MJ and the AJ1 was a akin to the struggle of Blacks in America.
This bothers me.
Signing Michael was a strategic marketing move taking place at a time when crack was ravaging the Black community, Reaganomics and redlining continued to decimate the Black community, and Blacks were less than 20 years removed from the death of prominent Civil Rights leaders. If we get serious Curt Flood was the most important thing to happen for Blacks in sports, or maybe it was Jesse Owens, or Jacking Robinson, or maybe it was Kareem, Jim Brown, and Bill Russell sitting at a table with Muhammad Ali at the Cleveland Summit.
The Air Jordan 1 was a damn shoe.
50000 pair were ordered by Rob Strasser. Who had to get David Stern to change his mind about Jordan wearing the model. Stern said they were never banned, Russ Granik wrote the letter. The Air Ship, the shoe that has become a part of the lore around the Banned Jordan 1, comes into the film’s discussion. Jason Mayden talks about the timeline for production because this is the foundation of the confusion around whether it was the Jordan 1 that was really the shoe which was banned. Peter Moore clarifies that he placed MJ in the Air Ship until the Jordan 1 arrived.
We cut to the 85 dunk contest, and dive into what I wanted this film to be about: Hip-Hop and Mars Blackmon. The importance of Spike Lee should be a bigger focus when talking about the assimilation of Jordans into the culture because in many ways the combining of Spike’s character with Jordan by Wieden and Kennedy is really the story here. It was marketing genius. But the documentary again ties Spike to Public Enemy and their song Fight the Power which, in my opinion, creates more subversive ties to rebellion. Which is ironic, Jordan was and has always been apolitical.
David Letterman and MJ (becomes a shoe released in the 2010s)
Lance Mountain discusses Vans no longer sponsoring skateboarders. What I think is important here is that skate culture created the “What The” concept Nike is using in today’s releases.
The film finally moves to the “Your sneakers or your life…” news story on kid’s being killed for their sneakers. Clark Kent explains that kids were getting killed for all kinds of things, not just Jordans. This takes me back to the reason I’m writing this post.
The ‘documentary’ is attempting to make an uncomfortable parallel between Jordans, civil rights and human rights. While there is a discussion there because the growth of the NBA and Nike is parallel to the wealth that arrived for Blacks in the music industry and for athletes, the Jordan 1 is not and should not be made to be a revolutionary change in the lives of Americans.
Did the 1 change the world?
The film cuts to a story about a Make-a-Wish kid who died and was buried in MJ’s jersey and shoes.
It did change the footwear industry. While it paved the way for Black footwear designers and executives and multi-millionaires, this should never be considered in the same breath as Medgar Evers and Malcolm X and racial injustice as it stands today with the death of black children and men at the hands of cops and by each other. The Air Jordan 1 is a business icon and it opened doors, it definitely changed the world, but this documentary is reaching for recognition in the wrong way. The next time someone sits down to do a documentary of this sort, I’d love for it to focus on the doors that were opened and the people who changed everything for real: Charles Johnson, Guy Marshall, Dr. D’Wayne Edwards, Dallas Stokes and E.Scott Morris (shout out E. Scott for this list.)
Maybe I’m overreacting since the title does say, ‘legend’. MJ Shoulder shrug…
