The Man Who Created Nike's Air Jordan

Sonny Vaccaro led a colourful life, working as a conduit between the sport's biggest talents and businesses

- Arun Janardhan

Sonny Vaccaro has a slight advantage, in that his memoir, Legends and Soles: Business, Creativity and Basketball: A Memoir of an Improbable Life, follows a film made on the subject—or rather, on a part of Vaccaro's life. Matt Damon played Vaccaro in Air (2023), a film that focused predominantly on a single—possibly the most memorable—phase of Vaccaro's professional life.

Vaccaro is believed to be instrumental for sports brand Nike's multi-million-dollar endorsement deal with basketballer Michael Jordan in the mid-1980s, considered to be the greatest sports business deal in history. The revenue share deal, which has reportedly earned Jordan $1.5 billion since inception, was orchestrated by Vaccaro at a time when the athlete was a little-known, upcoming young player.

Vaccaro worked at Nike, Adidas, and Reebok, the three biggest sports shoe brands. His other claim to fame—besides the Jordan deal—was signing up Kobe Bryant for Adidas. His biggest regret remains, he says, missing out on LeBron James for Adidas because the German company cut down on the offer that Vaccaro had suggested.

It's these aspects of the book that stand out—the economics of shoe brands, competition among them, endorsement deals, valuations, and what basketball players gain out of it. For over four-odd decades, Vaccaro was in the middle of it all, working with coaches and players from high schools, organising tournaments, chatting up parents to figure out the best deals for shoe companies.