32 years ago Michael Jordan was coming off a "National Player of the Year" season at UNC, selected #3 overall by the Chicago Bulls and, if things had gone his way, about to sign a sneaker deal with Adidas.
Adidas had relatively no interest in MJ though and the brand he wore in college, Converse, was only willing to offer him $100,000 a year. Jordan's parents convinced him to listen to Nike's pitch, in which they offered him $500,000 over five years, and the rest is history.
In just the first two months that his signature sneakers were on sale back in 1985, Nike had sold $70 million worth of Air Jordans. Now, 31 years after the Air Jordan 1 originally hit retailers the sneakers are still going strong and the company expects the franchise to be worth $4.5 billion in annual sales by 2020.
With 31 Air Jordan signatures in total it's easy to get some of them mixed up but the infographic below should help give you some clarity when it comes to the Air Jordan lineage.
