'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wCEAAMDAwMDAwQEBAQFBQUFBQcHBgYHBwsICQgJCAsRCwwLCwwLEQ8SDw4PEg8bFRMTFRsfGhkaHyYiIiYwLTA+PlQBAwMDAwMDBAQEBAUFBQUFBwcGBgcHCwgJCAkICxELDAsLDAsRDxIPDg8SDxsVExMVGx8aGRofJiIiJjAtMD4+VP/AABEIAAUACgMBIgACEQEDEQH/xABcAAEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAgQAAICAwEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAECAwQABRExQQEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwQRAAIBBQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAECABITITFB/9oADAMBAAIRAxEAPwDEVHW05tdsbKoVkgjVgx4xJYnuRR72siKr6uvIwUBnLv1j9PuMZFWzEgnRj20Crjk//9k='%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Ben Affleck will play American billionaire businessman Phil Knight in the new Nike movie titled Air. Phil Knight is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc. and was previously the chairman and CEO of the company.
Air will chronicle the journey of Sonny Vaccaro and Phil Knight after they successfully managed to strike a business deal with rookie basketball player Michael Jordan. The deal gave birth to the Air Jordan shoeline, which is now one of the most successful lines of sneakers ever produced.
Air premiered at South by Southwest on March 18, 2023, and will be theatrically released in the United States on April 5, 2023, by Amazon Studios.
Who is Phil Knight and why is he important for Nike?
As of February 15, 2023, Phil Knight was ranked by Forbes as the 17th richest person in the world. His estimated net worth is US $41.5 billion.
Knight was born on February 24, 1938, to Bill Knight, a lawyer-turned-newspaper publisher, and his wife, Lota Cloy (Hatfield) Knight in Portland, Oregon. He was a middle-distance runner at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where his personal best was 1 mile (1.6 km) in 4 minutes and 13 seconds.
Knight served in the army for a while and also worked as an assistant professor at Portland State University. However, he discovered his true calling when he enrolled at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. While working on a college assignment, he came up with the idea for a sports shoe company and decided to experiment with the same.
He joined hands with his former track coach, Bill Bowerman, and the duo began selling Japanese-made running shoes in America. Not long after, Nike was established, and the company slowly began growing.
Michael Jordan signed a deal with Nike during his NBA rookie season in 1984. At the time, Adidas and Converse were at the pinnacle of the sneaker game. Prior to Jordan's partnership with the company, it seemed like Adidas was going to bag him. Nike, however, offered the rookie a deal that the basketball prodigy simply could not refuse.
The deal took place because Phil Knight and his star salesman Sonny Vaccaro (portrayed by Matt Damon in Air) worked tirelessly to bring Jordan onboard. The company offered the athlete a five-year deal worth $500,000 per year. It was not every day that sneaker companies paid a player that much money in the 1980s.
However, just like the rest of the NBA, the company knew that Michael Jordan was going to be a legend and decided to cash in on the Air Jordan line.
Phil Knight is also the owner of the stop motion film production company Laika.
What is Air about?
Directed by Ben Affleck, the highly anticipated movie Air portrays the journey of Sonny Vaccaro, a shoe salesman at Nike, who worked tirelessly to sign rookie Michael Jordan to sign a deal with the company.
The official synopsis of the film reads,
"Air is a drama that centers around the early days of Nike’s now juggernaut brand, Air Jordan, and the company’s relationship with the then Chicago Bulls rookie, Michael Jordan."
It further states,
"With his incredibly supportive mother by his side, the basketball all-star and his family will battle with the executives at the top of the company to guarantee that they get an equal slice of the pie."
Air will be theatrically released in the United States on April 5, 2023, by Amazon Studios.
