National Basketball Association

Adidas chose not to sign rookie Michael Jordan because he was too short

Published Mar. 24, 2015 1:05 p.m. ET

foxsports

Michael Jordan wanted to wear Adidas when he made it to the NBA, according to the Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately for Adidas, the company didn't want Jordan.

Adidas is still the second-largest sporting brand in the world, but it slipped to number three in the United States recently thanks to the growth of Under Armour. Despite the slippage, however, Adidas is always looking up at its top competitor, Nike. And as Adidas takes aim at reclaiming its share of the American sneaker and apparel market, stories about how the German-based company got here in the first place are leaking out.

The biggest Adidas story? It's naturally about Jordan, who has had more than a little bit to do with the growth of Nike.

In 1984, Adidas made a misstep that presaged others. A University of North Carolina basketball star named Michael Jordan wanted a sponsorship deal with Adidas when he went professional, say people familiar with the matter.

Adidas distributors wanted to sign Mr. Jordan, says someone who was an Adidas distributor then. But executives in Germany decided shoppers would favor taller players and wanted to sponsor centers, the person says, adding: “We kept saying, ‘no—no one can relate to those guys. Who can associate with a seven-foot-tall guy?’”

Adidas signed centers of the era, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar—it still sells sneakers named for him. Mr. Jordan in 1984 signed with Nike, which built his name into a blockbuster basketball business. Mr. Jordan and Adidas decline to comment.
In 2012, the Jordan brand alone sold $2.5 billion worth of shoes, almost one-sixth of Adidas' reported 14.5 billion euros in sales in 2014. Of that figure, Adidas sold less than 3 billion euros worth of shoes in the United States in the same year.

(h/t WSJ.com)