Nike & Sonny Vaccaro Nike is the biggest and most popular sportswear company in the world. Kids and adults of all ages walk into malls every day and go searching for their favorite Nike player edition shoes so they can go to school the next day wearing the same shoes that their favorite basketball, baseball, football, or soccer star wears while their playing their sports. Nike was only able to jumpstart their worldwide success because of the help of one man, Sonny Vaccaro, their former Vice President, who signed Michael Jordan, the NBA’s best player, and changed the athletic apparel and shoe game forever. Sonny Vaccaro started off by recruiting basketball players for Youngstown State, the college that he was currently playing football for,…show more content… Nike turned down the sandal idea, but liked the whole entering the world of basketball idea and offered to give Sonny some shoes to promote Nike basketball. Sonny began to give the shoes to college coaches and players, and a new form of advertising was born. Now every time someone flipped to a college basketball game on TV, the saw 10 guys running down the court and got curious about these new Nike basketball shoes, and wanted to try them on for…show more content… By May, Nike had sold $70 million worth. America wanted to be just like Michael and by year's end, the Air Jordan franchise had made more than $100 million in revenues. Air Jordans made up 58 percent of all basketball shoes bought in the U.S. and 77 percent of all kids' basketball shoes nationwide. The Air Jordan franchise had quickly rose to the top of the shoe industry and did not look like it was going to drop any time soon. Jordan shoes would come out with new colors and editions like the, “Jordan 2”, and Jordan 3”, Nike also released Jordan shoes for the less fortunate, “Team Jordans”, a more affordable version of Jordan than the retro, but still just as desirable by