The Shoe Dog, Matt Damon, not Michael Jordan, great 80’s pop culture footage, Nike, Basketball, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, agents, negotiation skills, creativity, passion – all in one movie – AIR – on Amazon Prime.
Took me back to 1991 when a few of us (Rob Fisher, David Moffett, John Kirwan and I) were negotiating with Canterbury, Nike and Adidas to sponsor the All Blacks. Nike welcomed me to Beaverton with a huge 40 foot black and white vinyl banner: Nike welcomes Kevin Roberts and The All Blacks (watch the movie – you’ll understand the reference). And then they gave me the piece which adorned the bleachers of my tennis court at Portland Road for two decades.
Nike was no. 3 behind Converse and Adidas before Michael Jordan. Now they own Converse and they’ve left Adidas in the dust. I met Phil Knight and Rob Strasser (two of the lead characters in AIR) during the 90’s when I delivered Lovemarks sessions and speeches to Nike leaders and key customers. Two true sports marketing revolutionaries – along with Mrs Jordan (Michael’s Mom) who was the real breakthrough thinker of them all.
AIR – highly recommended.
