With the release of the new movie “Air” directed by Ben Affleck and written by Alex Convery, there has been a lot of buzz surrounding one Pittsburgh-born celebrity.
The movie, released in theaters April 5, 2023 details the story of Michael Jordan’s first signature shoe deal and the process that it took to secure the most famous campaign in Nike’s history.
One of the people that the movie focuses on, Sonny Vaccaro, was an integral part of the legendary shoe deal. He joined Larry Richert and Marty Griffin on the Big K Morning Show to talk about his Pittsburgh roots, reflection on the shoe deal, as well as the making of the movie.
Since the early 1980’s Sonny Vaccaro has been known in the sports business world as one of the greatest advertisers, branders, and marketers in the atmosphere of sports.
He was first hired by Nike in 1977 after working as a school teacher in Trafford, Pennsylvania, where he was born and raised, with a passion for developing sneaker prototypes. He was tasked with helping to recruit college athletic programs to be sponsored by Nike.
Vaccaro is most known for his work with Michael Jordan, which the movie “Air” is based off of. The movie dives into the intricate details and timeline of the major shoe company acquiring Michael Jordan as a sponsored athlete who would ultimately have a signature shoe.
“I was the first guy. I fought for Michael with Nike, they wanted other people… There’s no question about it, especially after the movie. I told, and Phil Knight went along with me, that it was my job to find a man that I never knew. It was a three and a half month journey.” said Vaccaro to the Big K Morning Show.
Vaccaro also went on further to talk about the state of Nike at the time. The company was not what many see it as today. In fact, Vaccaro talked about how close to failure the brand was before the Michael Jordan deal in 1984.
“They needed someone to save us. Contrary to your listeners on the radio, they could have gone under… I stuck out for Michael Jordan among five other people who had higher class than I did in Nike so I stuck with it and they went with my one guy over the other five guys” said Vaccaro when speaking on how he came into the situation where he was able to get Michael Jordan to sign with Nike over other brands like Adidas.
Vaccaro played a role in “Air” as a consultant to the project. As a part of the process, he had multiple conversations with the movie’s director, Ben Affleck, to talk about the original meetings between himself and Michael Jordan and their relationship progression.
When recalling initially meeting the creators of the movie, Vaccaro said of Ben Affleck, “He introduced himself as a big fan of basketball. He and [Matt] are direct opposites. He’s very aggressive, he’s the outgoing guy. Matt… is just brilliant. The speeches you will see of things that I said, he makes it look like I'm delivering the State of the Union.”
Aside from his work with Nike and Michael Jordan, Vaccarro was also one of the founders of the Pittsburgh-based ‘Roundball Classic’ originally known as ‘The Dapper Dan Roundball Classic’. Along with childhood friend Pat DiCesare, the duo began a basketball tournament in the Pittsburgh Civic Arena that would bring some of the best high school basketball players in the country. Originally, senior sports editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and president of the Dapper Dan CLub, Al Abrams was the first sponsor of the tournament. This allowed for the tournament to provide yearly tournaments.
The tournament remained in Pittsburgh until 1993 when it moved to Detroit, Michigan. It was also renamed to ‘Magic Johnson’s Roundball Classic’. The tournament moved to other locations after including Raleigh, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and finally in Chicago, Illinois. Some alumni from the tournament include Kobe Bryant, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O’Neal, and many other future and current Hall-of-Fame players.
Vaccaro now lives in California with his wife.