It wasn’t the shoe
Matt Damon, playing the role of Sonny Vaccaro, in the movie “Air.”
“You’re Michael Jordan, and your story is gonna make us want to fly.”
That was the last sentence of a showstopping speech from Matt Damon playing the role of Sonny Vaccaro in the movie Air.
Whether or not Vaccaro, a Nike marketing executive at the time, said those exact words to convince Jordan (and mostly Michael’s mother, Deloris) to sign a shoe deal with Nike is irrelevant.
What is relevant, and factual [link to Vaccaro’s actual recollection of the speech], is the story Vaccaro told the Jordans that helped seal a landmark shoe deal, transform Nike’s business, and alter athlete endorsements forever.
“A shoe is just a shoe until somebody steps in it. Then it has meaning.”
Vaccaro recalls that after [head shoe designer guy] presented the Air Jordan I, Michael and his family appeared bored. Maybe even uninterested.
After all, it’s just a shoe. It has laces. It has a sole. It’s made with leather.
Was a detailed description of the shoe’s material and construction really going to convince Michael to reject Adidas (his preferred shoe at the time) and run with Nike?
Not a chance.
“We need you in these shoes not so you have meaning in your life, but so that we have meaning in ours.”
When Vaccaro followed [head shoe designer guy] he told a story of what Jordan’s future looked like if he signed with Nike.
It was a story of immortality and transcendence and legend.
It was viscerally personal.
The ability to tell a great story isn’t necessary to build a good product or company.
But what separates good products and companies from great ones is the ability to tell stories.
Stories that humanize a product or brand.
Stories that make customers feel something and transform them into evangelists.
Stories that attract employees and partners who are fired up to get to work.
When you learn to tell and convey memorable stories, you unlock perhaps the greatest point of leverage in business and life.
In short, you’re able to get what you want.
Just ask Sonny Vaccaro.
