Nike Wants Michael Jordan’s Contract Secret

Photo: WENN 

The legacy of Michael Jeffrey Jordan is completely intertwined with the success of Nike. Together, these two shifted the culture of how sports, entertainment, and fashion were digested and appreciated.

Now, we all know that Billionaire MJ is a powerful product pitchman, but it seems that Nike doesn’t want the recipe to his successful formula to hit the world’s ears. An inter-squad drama involving Gatorade, Hanes and Nike is unfolding in a Chicago federal courtroom as Jordan, 52, tries to wrest $10 million from Safeway.

It seems that Safeway used the retired basketball star’s name without his permission in a 2009 promotion by the company’s now defunct Dominick’s Finer Foods grocery store brand. Jordan’s legal argument comes from his attorney’s who are trying to show that anytime the name “Michael Jordan” is used to market anything, it commands a hefty price. In order to do so, Jordan’s legal minds are attempting to show how much a typical company pays for the use of his name.

Meanwhile, Nike, Gatorade and Hanes are fighting to keep his contracts sealed.

Team Jordan has made more than $100 million in sponsorships last year, according to his lawyers, and about $536.6 million from 2000 to 2012. With the defense team pushing for more details, the 42-page agreement with Nike, one of the most competitively valuable documents in his resume, is kept under lock and key in a room separate from Nike’s other legal filings.

In said documents, Nike pays all of the athletes under the Jordan brand umbrella, a roster that includes Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, and Derek Jeter. According to Nike, the revealing of the document would give its competitors an edge and harm the relationships Nike has with its sponsored athletes. Judge John Blakely ruled against Nike and the shoe juggernaut lost its bid to keep the unredacted contract out of the proceedings. “This is the United States of America. We have public trials here,” the judge said to Nike attorneys in a June 30 hearing. “That’s how that rolls.”

Joining Nike, Gatorade and Hanes in fighting for Michael Jordan’s secrecy are trading-card maker Upper Deck and Take-Two Interactive, the company behind the NBA 2K video game series. They have all filed to intervene in the case to try to keep the details of their Jordan agreements under wraps. With the trill expect to last until August 20, Nike’s legal team is fighting to keep the judge from revealing everything line-by-line to the masses.

[via Bloomberg Business]

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