How Ben Affleck’s ‘Air’ Immortalizes Michael Jordan Against a Backdrop of ’80s Pop Ephemera
Michael Jordan and his signature sneakers have been a fixture of pop culture since 1984, when Sonny Vaccaro convinced the then-rookie (and more importantly, his shrewd mother, Deloris) to sign an industry-changing endorsement deal with sportswear brand Nike. “Air” dramatizes many of the finer points of these real-life events, with Matt Damon playing Vaccaro, Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan and Ben Affleck pulling double duty as director and co-star. But the new film operates less as a tribute to consumerism than as an origin story of one exceptional athlete — and the leather-and-rubber vessel that has become synonymous with his legacy.
“I wasn’t all that interested in the business minutiae in the story,” Affleck tells Variety. “It’s really a fable, inspired by these characters and who they represent.”
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“Air” screenwriter Alex Convery grew up in the suburbs of Illinois in the 1990s during Jordan’s historic double NBA three-peat. He says he was inspired to write the script while watching “The Last Dance,” ESPN Films’ 2020 documentary about Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls. “‘The Last Dance’ showed us how still ever present he is and in pop culture,” Convery says.
“It’s just so second nature now — Jordans and Nike and the NBA as arguably the second-most-popular sport in the country,” he says. “It wasn’t always that way.”
Tapping into moviegoers’ collective memories of the 1980s, production designer François Audouy flooded the sets with instantly recognizable ephemera, from a Trivial Pursuit board game to Apple’s original personal computer, the Macintosh 128K. Aiming for a look that was evocative yet faithful to the period, Audouy says his research unearthed a more subdued landscape than the neon-soaked movies and television series of the era depicted. “I was struck by how banal and unsexy the Nike offices were before Michael Jordan,” Audouy says.
“I didn’t want to make fun of it. It’s just that they didn’t know what they didn’t know,” he says. “So it was a very delicate balance between historical re-creation and then our own invention of an environment that felt like a grounded commentary on 1980s corporate culture in Beaverton, Oregon.”
Given that the narrative not only precedes the debut of Jordan and his apparel line but the sea change in athleisure that its explosive sales triggered, costume designer Charlese Antoinette Jones dressed the Nike staffers in clothes that were counterintuitive to the cultural shorthand of the decade. “It was a lot simpler — more focused on running and utility and not necessarily being super cool,” Jones says. “I wanted them to feel behind the times, and the people that work there were not as slick as some of the other characters at Converse and Adidas.”
At that point Nike was an industry leader only in sales of running shoes — which were seldom worn for fashion — so Jones’ focus on detailing the company’s forgettable style only amplifies the aesthetic impact of that first red, white and black basketball shoe bearing Jordan’s name. “Even though we’re retelling the story, it really felt like I’m a part of the design process of the first Jordan,” says Jones.
“Air” chronicles a cultural moment that’s transformative for multiple generations of basketball fans and sneakerheads. Says Affleck, “We were trying to get right what it feels like to be around somebody like a Michael Jordan, who comes into the world and kind of astonishes and dazzles people with his potential — and the effect that has on people.”
But even if you aren’t, like this writer, a serial wearer of Nike sneakers and a second-generation University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill alum who followed Jordan’s meteoric exploits from an early age, Affleck’s film captures the sensation of identifying something that’s not simply enduring, or special, but truly singular — and always wanting to carry that with you, even if only underfoot.
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