What A Name Is Worth
By: Larry Grinnage

    Since 1985, Basketball superstar Michael ‘’AIR’’ Jordan has become the world's biggest deal. One in three pairs of athlete shoes sold in the United States were made by Nike. Air Jordan shoes and apparel contributed for more than 200 million a year in sales. Endorsements are becoming the biggest thing on the market.

   According to Nike CEO Phil Knight, before signing Jordan, Nike was just selling 750,000 pair of sneakers a year. But since the Jordan Era they have sold 2,000,000 pair of Jordans and over 80 different styles of Jordans. Michael has brought the Company over 700 million in 15 years.

    Along with money from Nike and Gatorade, Jordan then gets paid for just playing Basketball. Jordan makes $25 million a year from Basketball and over $150 million a year off endorsements for just producing 6 pairs of sneakers a month along with apparel. Gatorade alone requires him to star in about 20 to 25 commercials endorsing their sport drink.

    Veltri reported that, besides Michael Jordan, other examples of money making endorsers are: Tiger Woods, Shaquille O’neal, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Magic Johnson for Converse. Tiger Woods has helped Nike golf products shoot up, nearly selling 3 times the products they sold in the last three years. Shaquille O’neal has helped Reebok because last year they sold only 600,000 pair of sneakers, but since having Shaq as an endorser they have sold over 2 million pair of sneakers. And in 1980,Converse had it’s biggest year when they signed Magic Johnson who helped sell over 1 million pairs of Converse sneakers.

    In 1984, Puma sold only 15,000 tennis racquets a year. In 1985, following Boris Becker’s first victory in Wimbledon and his backing of Puma’s racquets, sales jumped to 150,000 racquets according to sport reporters Jeannette and Hennesey.

    A name is worth a lot when it comes to selling a product. Your company can go from selling thousands of products a year, but with the signing of one big superstar your company can be one of the best- selling companies in the world. So endorsers like Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’neal, Tiger Woods and tennis player Boris Becker have helped their respected companies out a lot by doubling and tripling the number of products sold. The real answer is that a name can be priceless.