MJ III – STORIES
The MJ III was a really tricky and difficult project. We only had three weeks to design the sneakers, and for me it was the first time to get a chance to meet Michael.
My first meeting was when I went to visit him in his house, he was playing table tennis against Charles OAKLEY, both of them were incredibly noisy, trash talking each other... Charles was playing very aggressively... I was really impressed by these two huge athletes, sweating and arguing so much… They were close to fight each other for each point… It was impressive.
My second meeting was in Portland : that's the meeting where we decided to choose the elephant skin luxury leather... And then two and half weeks later MJ was in the process to leave NIKE...
So the third meeting was the one I was supposed to show him the first sample of the shoes, which was a real nightmare to do it on time - so many back and forth in China to finally get it… Phil KNIGHT, MJ parents, me and a couple of other NIKE staff were there but not Michael... Nobody knew where he was - actually he was negotiating to leave NIKE for ADIDAS. After waiting for 4 hours, MJ finally came back, he was in a bad mood... Everybody was quiet tense, the future of NIKE was in the balance... I started to present the shoes to him... I started to remind him of the process we had gone though to create these shoes, how much we talked about his life, his tastes etc… He was still in the bad mood... BUT sneakers have some special power, cause when I showed him the shoes, I remember how his face has changed, I remember exactly his face and his reaction when he saw the sample... Then I showed him some drawings... He started getting more interested... Actually that's the power of a good design, the power of shoes and sneakers... He cramped a little smile... This shoes did not look like anything he'd seen before, this was really up to his personality and his soul... He picked it up and looked at it carefully... Within fifteen minutes he was ready to leave and then he was laughing, talking about staying with NIKE... It was a very special day... it affected a lot of people at the end... Phil said that I've saved NIKE... and to be honest I was thinking that too… But when I was working on the MJ XX with Mark, I finally got the true story of MJ non-departure, actually right after the meeting he went on the car park with his dad, and his dad grabbed him and told him “don't do this to me ever again, don't you ever make me wait for 4 hours, without telling me where u are!!! It's unrespectfull for your family and the people who are working hard for you…“ Then he continues and tells him “Don't do it, don't leave NIKE, money is not a guarantee, these people are doing a good work, you don't know what could happen if you leave, nothing is guaranteed over there“… I'm sure my design helped to make Michael stay with NIKE, but for sure his dad saved NIKE more than me !
