The 1980s story of Nike’s pursuit and eventual signing of Michael Jordan is the talk of the town as Ben Affleck’s much-buzzed-about film “Air” is set to hit theaters next week.
Affleck directs the movie and stars as Nike co-founder Phil Knight, alongside Matt Damon, who plays famed sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro. “Air” follows Vaccaro’s chase for Jordan and how it led Nike to dominance by signing the basketball star.
Despite the film being set in the early days at Nike, costume designer Charlese Antoinette Jones said the Swoosh wasn’t the go-to brand for the characters’ looks.
“I didn’t use much Nike in the film because we didn’t really need it. I use it at specific points, but it was just sprinkled in here and there,” she told FN. “I used a lot of business casual — natural fibers because synthetics were just starting to come into play. Nike feels like the underdog and I just really played around with that idea and how people were dressed [in that era]. Everybody in the Nike office was wearing business casual stuff, but not expensive. Portland had the most earth tones in the film because I really wanted it to feel natural and outdoorsy.”
In the film, Adidas and Converse are also competing to sign Jordan. There, Jones made sure to use more sleek looks to portray the gravitas of the companies at the time in comparison to Nike. “I just wanted everyone else to feel way more established,” she said.
When Jones did use Nike, however, she said sourced from vintage dealers, eBay, and she also recreated looks from the era — specifically a Nike polo, which can be seen in the film worn by Damon. The designer said that a tell for authentic Nike product from the ’80s came in form of an orange label. “That was the parameter when we were sourcing things. It was like, ‘OK, if the label is this color we know it existed during our time period,’” she added.
Matthew Maher as Peter Moore, Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro and Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser in “Air.” CREDIT: Ana Carballosa/Amazon Studios
Jones said the biggest challenge she had during filming was being constrained. “It was hard at times to dial it back and give myself parameters and realize I was dealing in a time where things hadn’t been made yet or designed yet,” she said. “This was before Nike became part of the cultural zeitgeist.”
For inspiration, the costumer looked at old Nike linesheets from the ’80s and catalogs from that time period. She also had reference images of the real-life characters, such as Knight and Vaccaro. And while she often used that research imagery a guide to help build out these characters closet rather than copying their outfits exactly, she did recreate a look Viola Davis (who plays MJ’s mother, Deloris Jordan) wore in her meeting with Nike to match the historical imagery.
Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan (L) and Julius Tennon as James Jordan in “Air.” CREDIT: Ana Carballosa/Prime
“I put her in really awesome suiting throughout the film and made her stand out and have her own style and flair. She would go to these big meetings fully done up because she was taking the meetings very, very seriously. And it was a fun contrast, to see what she wore to the Nike meeting, which is a little bit more relaxed than what I put her in for Converse and Adidas. It was purposeful. That Nike meeting wasn’t as high stakes.”
