Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Essay 3 Final Draft
Essay 3 Final Draft
Professor Perkins
English 101
12 November 2021
Nike and Jordan have always been two of the biggest shoe brands. Nike has been at the
top of the game for decades since its creation in 1964. To increase and further develop its image‚
Nike marked Michael Jordan in 1984. The Jordan brand sold 130 million dollars in its
presentation year and has since emerged as another one of the world’s premier shoe brands. In
1988‚ their "Get it done" Campaign expanded deals by 42% in 1989. (Johnson‚ 1998) From VIP
endorsements‚ to posters‚ to ads, there is always talk about which brand is better. However,
between the two Nike is the clear and obvious superior, for many different reasons.
Nike started the “shoe wave” and paved the way for many other brands. The fact is that
the Jordan brand came from Nike, leaving it no choice but to always be in their shadow. Even to
this day, no matter how big Jordan is, or how big it continues to grow, Nike owns the brand.
Jordan brand made 4.7 billion dollars in 2020 while Nike brought in an astonishing 37 billion
dollars blowing Jordan completely out of the water. Nike made roughly eight times Jordan’s
revenue in the same year. The demand for Nike is higher, which is proved by the increase in their
revenue over Jordan in the year 2020. These simple statistics are just the beginning of showing
how Nike is better than Jordan because although Jordan is such a success, Nike is an even bigger
success.
Another reason to argue that Nike is better than Jordan is its versatility. Nike is much
more versatile than Jordan. In comparison to both brands, Nike has just about any type of
Fielding 2
sportswear and shoes needed for almost every sport, while Jordan only sells shoes for certain
sports (such as basketball and baseball). In addition, Nike offers much more sportswear. Their
wide variety of hoodies, jackets, sweats, shorts, socks, compressions, t-shirts, and more is much
bigger than Jordan’s. Jordan sells clothes as well with a large number of options (yet still not as
many as Nike) but they do not carry a lot of the accessories and equipment that Nike does. They
sell multiple different types of equipment for things such as fitness, soccer, volleyball, football,
tennis, and more. While Jordan is still working on expanding further than basketball, Nike has
The last reason to believe Nike is better than Jordan is the pricing. Nike is not cheap by
any means. However, Jordan shoes are widely known as some of, if not, the most expensive
shoes available on the market. Both brands can be very expensive, yet Nike is a little bit cheaper
than Jordan. A Jordan shoe can cost around 200 dollars, while a Nike shoe is priced around 170
to 185 dollars. This is a reason why many people prefer Nike over Jordan. Nike's top selling shoe
is priced at 90 dollars while Jordan’s top selling shoe is priced at 190 dollars. The affordability of
Nike is hard for Jordan to beat, giving us yet another reason to treat Nike as the superior brand.
Despite all the reasons why Nike is better, many believe Jordan to be superior due to how
iconic the Jumpman logo is and the history of the brand. The Jumpman logo comes, not only,
from Michael Jordan, but from one of the most iconic athletes to ever grace this earth, and
arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. Michael Jordan was unlike any athlete the
NBA had ever seen at the time of his rise. Creating his own brand with Nike gave a lot of people
who looked up to him the ability to feel like him and have a sort of “piece” of Jordan on their
feet. However, the people who believe Jordan reigns supreme often do not remember that Jordan
brand’s creation is solely due to the hard work and efforts of Nike, making it the superior brand.
Fielding 3
When considering the biggest shoe brands in the world, it is hard to have a discussion
without including Nike or Jordan. People in the shoe game community will always debate about
whether Nike or Jordan is the better brand but it is hard to look at these arguments above and
choose Jumpman over the swoosh. With the arguments I presented, I pass on to you how Nike is
the general shoe brand in the games world. Nike is a flexible and costly brand, yet, not as costly
as Jordan. No matter how you look at it, there are many different reasons to believe that Nike is a