Too dependent on the U.S. market. Too focused on men. Too reliant on basketball and sneakers.
To Nike Chief Executive Mark Parker, former Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan is already a “living icon,” but the time has come for his brand at the athletic-goods juggernaut to “spread its wings and grow beyond the sport of basketball.”
A new Jordan Brand store opening Saturday in Chicago’s Loop marks an early effort by Nike to double sales at the division — whose products feature not a swoosh but a trademarked Jordan “Jumpman” silhouette — to $4.5 billion by 2020. Nike also plans to open Jordan Brand stores in New York, Los Angeles and ultimately Toronto, selling not only basketball sneakers but also men’s training shoes.
Jordan Brand also plans to begin making shoes specifically for women in coming years. The women’s goods now on the brand’s website are mostly bags, hats, visors, headbands, scarves and socks.
Most sales for Nike’s Jordan Brand are generated in the United States, related to basketball and shoes, and geared to men, CEO Parker conceded at Nike’s investor day last week, when the company announced the sales targets. But Jordan’s “legend transcends sport and culture across gender, age and geographies,” so that opens up a “world of opportunity for one of the world’s greatest brands,” Parker said.
Indeed, more than a decade after Jordan’s retirement from professional basketball, his endorsement income surpasses that of many top players and has only grown, a sports economist testified recently during a trial over a lawsuit Jordan filed against a grocery chain. Smith College professor Andrew Zimbalist said Jordan’s 2012 endorsement income was more than $75 million — about double that of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. It was $28 million in 2004, a year after he retired from professional basketball.
Curtis Polk, a legal and financial adviser to Jordan and vice chairman of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, testified that Jordan made more than $100 million from the marketing of his image in 2014. He said that figure has increased steadily since 1998.
At least one brand consultant, however, calls Nike’s expansion of the Jordan Brand into other sports potentially “disastrous.”
“It’s exactly the wrong thing to do,” said Laura Ries, an Atlanta consultant. The Jordan Brand’s basketball focus is “why it has been successful for decades.”
She said even though her kids have never seen Jordan play, they know who he is.
“Diluting the brand, bringing it to different categories, will undermine what it stands for,” Ries said.
Jordan Brand’s plans to make women’s shoes are also “somewhat insulting to women,” Ries said.
“Why do women need a men’s hero shoe?” she asked. “Nike is so big and powerful that it has the ability to make a line of shoes with anybody.”
Nike also said last week that it plans to begin reporting Jordan Brand financial results separately instead of lumping them into its basketball division. The Jordan Brand has four main product categories: basketball, training, sportswear and kids.
“What the Chicago store does as it opens this week and into the future is be a beacon for the best Jordan Brand products available in all four categories,” said Sarah Mensah, general manager of the Jordan Brand in North America. “What we heard from consumers is they were seeking a place where they could see everything that the Jordan Brand offers.”
The main exterior signage at the new Chicago store is the Jumpman logo. The store’s name is just its address — 32 S. State St. (too bad it’s not 23 S. State St., Jordan’s number).
The ground floor has about 1,800 square feet devoted to retail. The Jordan Brand includes merchandise inspired not only by Jordan but also by Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.
“All have been curated and chosen specifically by Michael,” Mensah said.
The store’s first floor also pays homage to Jordan. Shoes he wore on the court will be displayed. There’s a floor drawing, done by Chicago’s Right Way Signs, with a six-finger hand, symbolizing Jordan’s six championship rings. A 250-square-foot consumer lounge includes a coffee table made of wood from an old United Center floor and signed by the man himself in August. Leather door handles are laser-etched with the recognizable elephant print featured on the Air Jordan 3.
Other Chicago flourishes on the first floor include work by Chicago graffiti-artist-turned-painter Hebru Brantley.
Upstairs from 32 S. State St. is 3,400-square-feet Station 23, a gym for invited guests, mostly for athletes age 14 to 18 in the Chicago area.
Athletes who visit the gym will get special jerseys and can try out shoe models while playing on a maple hardwood half-court. A training lab includes the Noah shooting system, which tells basketball players whether their, say, jumpshots are too low, too high or just right. Another part of the gym has digital training screens where young athletes can try to mimic the dribbling or footwork of Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony.
Another part of Station 23 includes a customization area where Jordan Brand apparel that’s sold downstairs can be embellished with patches, graphics, names or numbers. On site are digital garment and vinyl printers and embroidery machines.
In New York, the Jordan retail store is called Flight 23, and, at the time it opened, Nike called it “the first in a series of planned premium Jordan retail experiences coming to North America.”
But Mensah said the existing New York store sells primarily sportswear.
There’s also an indoor basketball court in New York, called Terminal 23, but, unlike in Chicago, it’s a separate space.
Twitter @beckyyerak
