by Morgan Karbowski
During the November 3rd football game of the 2018 season, the Oregon Ducks debuted new uniforms featuring the Jumpman logo of the Air Jordan/Nike brand. These uniforms are a part of Air Jordan’s attempt to branch out into other sports, besides basketball. Apparently, in the recent fiscal year, Jordan has lost many customers and therefore, a significant amount of revenue.
Many fans were extremely excited for this collaboration however, I personally didn’t get the hype. Air Jordan began as a brand with a very specific focus on basketball. It seems they may have run into the inevitable moment they have run out of ideas for the basketball court and are now reaching to grab new audiences. While I completely understand the need, the desire, and the attempt at reaching new audiences, my immediate thought was “wait, isn’t Jordan a basketball brand?” and I don’t think that’s what Jordan executives were hoping anyone would say.
On a similar note, considering Jordan is a brand of Nike, I further didn’t understand the hype behind this “new” campaign. Nike has a long history with the University of Oregon. Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, is a graduate of the University of Oregon and has, therefore, given a lot of financial contributions to the University; to the degree that many students actually refer to him as “Uncle Phil.”
So, it seems a little odd that Jordan has only now collaborated with the Oregon Ducks. I would have expected this campaign to have come a long time ago, and since this collaboration was made such a huge deal, only after recent financial crisis, it seems as though Jordan is simply attempting to grasp at publicity.
Furthermore, when compared to previous uniforms the team has worn, there are only a few things that were different and that were promoted as the “shiny new additions.” Number one was the “O X Jumpman” logo on the upper right shoulder and number two was the matte black helmets featuring a large “O” logo on the back and number three would be the cleats specifically designed by Air Jordan exclusively for this game. In addition, the Jumpman logo appears on virtually every piece of the all-black uniform. To me, these didn’t seem like huge differences to the uniform, and certainly not large enough differences to constitute the amount of publicity and buildup for this campaign.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Nike and I am hugely grateful to attend a school that receives the amount of funding that Nike gives us, and it is certainly fun for my school to be a part of these new campaigns. I am only critiquing this campaign due to my immediate thought as mentioned above. So, what’s your opinion? Is Jordan a basketball brand? Or is it smart for them to branch out into new audiences and try new things?
For more information about this campaign, see the following links:
http://arizonasports.com/story/1719107/oregon-football-unveils-nike-uniforms-with-jordan-brand/
Written by Morgan Karbowski (@morgankarbowski on Twitter, @morgan.karbowski on Instagram, and /morgan-karbowski on LinkedIn)