It’s no secret that the sneaker business is a mammoth, insatiable beast—hell, even museums are making space for kicks.
According to PBS Newshour‘s math, Michael Jordan surpassed his entire NBA salary through sneaker sales last year.
In 2014, your towering Air Jordan collection reportedly helped Mike rake in $100 million, or put another way, $6 million more than the G.O.A.T. earned during his playing days for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards:
Not only have sneakers become an icon in American pop culture (seemingly since Run DMC’s “An Ode to the Adidas Superstar”) but sales of the popular footwear are big business, to the tune of about $34 billion dollars a year in the U.S. alone. […] This represents roughly 40 percent of the industry worldwide, estimates Matt Powell, a sport industry analyst from NPD Group and contributor to Forbes.
In the U.S., Nike and subsidiary Jordan Brand account for more than 90 percent of basketball shoe sales, Powell said.
Currently, Brooklyn Museum’s “The Rise of Sneaker Culture” exhibition explores how the sport shoe became an obsession in the U.S. and around the world.
