On a typical foggy morning in south San Francisco, I’m standing in line to buy myself and my high school girlfriend the new Jordan Bred 11 sneakers. I had just won the raffle that would allow me to purchase a pair and I couldn’t be more excited.
Aside from having matching kicks with my lady, I loved the way Jordans made me feel when I wore them: confident, stylish, but most importantly, different.
There is so much hype and excitement over every pair, which is released in limited quantities. People line up across the block and even camp outside the stores for a week before releases; I was never this committed. After spending $360 on two pairs, I carried them out of the store like they were newborn babies.
Putting looks and comfort aside, a main reason why the shoes attracted me as a buyer was because of Jordan’s relevance and influence even in today’s society.
References to him and his legacy are found in many modern day hip-hop songs. The latest includes “Back-to-Back” by Drake, which is a reference to Jordan repeating NBA titles in 1996 and 1997. To this day, people still reference famous quotes Jordan once said as a basketball player. My personal favorite is, “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”
Ultimately, MJ is still a big deal to our generation, even when he’s not destroying his competition on the court. So when I got in line to buy his shoes, it wasn’t just about his sneakers. It was also about his legacy.
Now that I’ve gotten older, I think more critically about the products I decide to buy. I’m beginning to question why I bought Jordans in the first place. Sure, he is the greatest basketball player of all time (sorry LeBron James fans) and is a very successful black businessman in America. But what exactly has he done for the mass majority of people of color who buy his shoes? Let’s take a closer look.
As noted earlier, for the majority of releases, people line up around the block and camp out trying to buy the shoes. When this happens, there are many occasions where all hell breaks loose.
Every year, because of the limited quantities, there are riots and fights between people simply trying to buy a pair. There are countless videos on YouTube illustrating adults and children, being trampled by others to get into stores. Just last year, a 16-year-old African-American boy was shot and killed over shoes from a highly anticipated Jordan Brand release.
You would think Jordan would have something to say about the violence over his shoes, right? To date, he has not said much. He has yet to issue a public apology to people who have lost loved ones. He has not said anything about working with Nike to reduce the violence over his releases.
Despite the fact that people of color are the majority who support his business, Jordan doesn’t appear to care. People are losing their lives and families are being destroyed, yet he continues to remain silent. It is heartbreaking to see Jordan’s lack of concern for the lives that are taken because of his product.
You might be asking, “Well isn’t this Nike’s fault, not Michael Jordan’s?” If we look at Jordan’s career, he has made substantially more money off of his brand than he did his entire time as a professional basketball player. At this point, why have more quantities not been produced to reduce the demand? How much more money does he really need?
It’s not a matter of if Michael Jordan can help the issue, it’s a matter of if he wants to. Although I don’t plan to buy any more Jordans, I still have quite few, which I do plan to sell in the future. If you own them, you don’t have to follow suit, but hopefully you’ll think harder about lining up for Jordans in the future.