According to Forbes, the legendary basketball figurehead made $90M in total income, eleven years after he last dribbled a ball professionally.
It’s “gotta be the shoes.”
Retail shoe sales for the Jordan Brand in the U.S. grew 11% last year to $2.7 billion, with basketball making up 84% of that, according to Powell. Roughly 50% to 55% of that goes to Nike. If you factor in sales of Jordan apparel, the international Jordan business and sales at Nike stores, the Jordan brand is contributing roughly $2 billion of revenue to Nike, which posted sales of $26 billion over the last 12 months.
Jordan, the man, gets a cut of every shoe, hoodie or pair of shorts sold by Nike under the Jordan Brand. We estimate MJ’s take from Nike was at least $75 million last year. “Given that he is the name that launched the brand, you could argue that he deserves more,” says Phil de Picciotto, founder and president of Octagon. “Jordan is the perfect athlete.”
One of every two basketball shoes sold in the U.S. last year carried the Jordan brand. Factor in Nike-branded shoe sales into the mix, and Nike has a near monopoly in basketball with market share of 92%, according to SportsOneSource. Adidas (5.5% market share), Reebok (1.4%) and Under Armour (0.7%) are still searching for answers to Jordan.
Footaction just opened the first Jordan-only store, Flight 23 in NYC in early February to much fanfare.
