Follows the history of shoe salesman Sonny Vaccaro and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan.
Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) wants to improve Nike’s basketball shoes. His division is not budgeted enough, so they cannot court the top players. However, he sees his potential once he watches rookie Michael Jordan games. Vaccaro wants to build an entire shoe line around him but has much convincing to do to get others to follow his idea.
Nike is displayed as the “underdog” here simply because they are behind Adidas and Converse in basketball shoe sales. They took a gamble (and, to be fair, it was a risk) and pooled all their basketball budget into one rookie player who eventually became a superstar. And with that, Air Jordans are still one of the most popular sneakers in America.
Honestly, I was just not interested in this plot. I do not care about how a pair of shoes were first made. It does not matter to me that these shoes changed sports history. Air Jordans are a reason that already overpaid athletes are that much richer. Though I believe that athletes and other figures should be compensated if brands use their names and likeness on their products. And the film’s ending boasts about how rich Nike is because of these shoes.
The saving grace of this film are the performances. Matt Damon plays a believer. Even though his idea could lead to him losing his job, he’s not afraid of going after a deal that could change the game for Nike. I think his pursuit does cross some lines, such as visiting the Jordan’s home unannounced to pitch Nike to them. Viola Davis plays Jordan’s mother as intelligent, and she is the decisionmaker of the family. She is interested in what these shoe brands will do to elevate her son and his image rather than chasing the most money. Chris Messina also had a very comedic scene where he rips into Damon’s character. He plays Jordan’s agent, a hothead who cares only about money, but he at least knows that about himself.
Ben Affleck is the film’s director and also plays Nike CEO at the time, Phil Knight. His character is poked fun at, mainly through his purple car. One of the closing sequences highlights how Knight donated over 2 billion dollars to charity. Sure, that is an enormous amount of money given to good causes, but many wealthy do this for tax breaks. Ultimately, I did not care about these characters and could not believe the whole film was trying to elevate this already uber-popular brand.
“Air” felt like corporate garbage to me. I was surprised to hear people in my theater cheer over how much money these sneakers make. That shows me that this movie’s purpose is, “Look, aren’t these sneakers great? Why don’t you go out and buy some?” If you are a sneakerhead or a basketball fan, you may enjoy the movie, but this story did not interest me; I do not care about shoes. Nike already makes billions of dollars yearly; they don’t need a movie to pat them on the back.
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