Marcus Jordan shoe controversy

Marcus Jordan is the son of the famous Michael Jordan. A recent controversy is Marcus Jordan wearing Nike Air Jordan’s while playing basketball at University of Central Florida. The issue at hand is that UCF is sponsored by Adidas. Adidas sponsors all of the sports at UCF. Now there was an exception to the rule in which a kicker got to wear a different brand of shoe because the shoe did not fit properly. (Povtak 2009) My question is why is it a big deal that Marcus Jordan wears his father’s shoes if the kicker got to wear a different pair of shoes. Plus Jordan agreed to wear Adidas for the rest of his uniform.

Marcus Jordan was told by UCF that he would be an exception to rule when he was being recruited by UCF. In an article by Nike Depaula, Jordan explains that he has a high level of respect for Adidas (2009). Jordan explained that wearing the Jordan brand shoes had an importance to his family. The result was that Adidas cut off the contract with UCF because Marcus Jordan story hit the national stage. The decision of Marcus Jordan to wear the Jordan brand shoes cost them 2 million dollars a year according to Povtak (2009).

The reason that this story became national is because he is the son of Michael Jordan. I feel that if Adidas allows a major name like Jordan to wear his own brand of shoes then other student athletes will think it is okay to wear there own brand of shoes. The reality of the situation is that there is a substantial amount of money involved in Adidas contract with UCF. I do not disagree with adidas decision to stop the contract with UCF. The reason that I do not disagree with Adidas is because they had a contract with UCF and UCF broke the rules. Marcus Jordan was in a catch 22 situation because he is the son of Michael Jordan and his dad has his own shoe brand. If Marcus did not wear his fathers shoes, it would hurt his family and be a bad business decision for Michael Jordan.

I think the pressure put on Jordan was unfair. According to Tim Dahlberg this issue could have been easily ignored (2009). If Adidas had ignored this issue they would still have the contract with UCF. Marcus Jordan was willing to wear all Adidas apparel just not wear Adidas shoes. The UCF coach had brought Marcus Jordan to put their school on a national map. It is also not Jordans fault because he was up front in honoring his father’s legacy. This controversy comes from the fact that Nike made his father a very rich man and wearing any other shoes would be disrespectful to his family (Dahlberg 2009).

Marcus’s father Michael did the same thing in the Olympic games. Based on Michael Jordan’s success and personality he has a protected property right in their name. It allowed Michael to protect and control the use of his identity for commercial purposes. Jordan had opted out the NBA license agreement. In the 1992 Olympic games Jordan put a flag over the Reebok logo of their basketball warm up suits (Conrad 2008). I do not feel that Marcus Jordan was wrong for supporting his family legacy for which his dad worked so hard to build. Adidas could have ignored that Marcus Jordan did not wear their shoe brand and that he was willing to wear the rest of the Adidas equipment. The controversy ended with UCF signing a five-year contract with Nike (Depaula 2009).

References

Conrad, M (2008). The Business of Sports: A Primer for Journalists. Routledge. Mahwah, NJ.

Dahlberg, T (2009). Marcus Jordan just wants to be like Mike and wear his Nike sneakers. Retrieved from http://blog.taragana.com/sports/2009/11/07/marcus-jordan-just-wants-to-be-like-mike-and-wear-his-nike-sneakers-44261/

DePaula, N (2009). UCF &Nike Agree To 5 Year Deal. Retrieved from http://solecollector.com/live/all/ucf-nike-agree-to-5-year-deal/

Povtak, T. (2009). Marcus Jordan won’t wear Adidas. Retrieved from http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2009/10/15/marcus-jordan-wont-wear-adidas-at-ucf/