Air (2023)

Sonny Vaccaro: I-I can't... just can't figure out why these kids want to take less money to sign for a rival shoe company. I mean, why would a kid from Baltimore want to wear German soccer shoes?
Howard White: Because Adidas is what's hot right now, man. The rappers are wearing them in the videos. The break-dancers are break-dancing up in the Bronx. They're on the floor breaking their ankles and their elbows for no reason. And these kids ain't cool unless they got Adidas on. And them some badass jogging suits, too. You got to admit we can't touch their jogging suits.

Howard White: Nike is a damn jogging company, man. Black people don't jog. You ain't gonna catch no Black person running 26 miles for no damn reason. Man, the cops probably pull you over thinking you done stole something.

Sonny Vaccaro: You know, I-I like the, uh... that new slogan, the one for the whole company that they're talking about.
Howard White: I don't like it. You know where it came from?
Sonny Vaccaro: No.
Howard White: That damn slogan came from a convict about to get executed in front of a firing squad, and they asked him, "What's your last words?"
Sonny Vaccaro: What? "Just do it"?

Sonny Vaccaro: Ah, kind of a fitting metaphor for the way basketball is viewed at this company.
Howard White: I know. "Nike. Just get the shit over with."
Sonny Vaccaro: What'd it say about me that I liked it?
Howard White: That says that you a fat middle-aged white guy that don't want to exercise.

Rob Strasser: So, Mr. Orwell was right. 1984 has been a tough year. Our sales are down, our growth is down, but this company is about who we really are when we are down for the count. Am I right, huh?

Sonny Vaccaro: You know he'll be miserable at Adidas. I mean, it's a shit show over there since Adolf died.
David Falk: Adi, Sonny. He went by Adi.
Sonny Vaccaro: His name was Adolf. I mean, the guy's name was literally Adolf.
David Falk: He was a good man.
Sonny Vaccaro: He kept the name.

David Falk: It's Adi. Adi Dassler. Adi-Das. Adidas. That's what it stands for.
Sonny Vaccaro: He was in the Hitler Youth.
David Falk: No, he wasn't. Don't say that.
Sonny Vaccaro: I saw a picture of him personally wearing a swastika. The guy had the haircut.
David Falk: We all have a past.
Sonny Vaccaro: Look, David, some of us have our past and some of us were Nazis. There's a line.
David Falk: Well, he's dead.

George Raveling: He just doesn't like the shoe.
Sonny Vaccaro: He never even worn the shoes.
George Raveling: He did say if somebody was to buy him a red Mercedes 380SL, he would sign a shoe contract for life with anybody. Except Nike. There's nothing cool about Nike. Even what it means, "Adidas": "All day I dream about sex." "Puma": "Please use my ass."
Sonny Vaccaro: That's not what it means.
George Raveling: "Nike" has no-no meaning.

Deloris Jordan: What should I ask you?
Sonny Vaccaro: Ask me why I'm in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Deloris Jordan: Why are you in Wilmington, North Carolina?
Sonny Vaccaro: Because I believe in your son. I believe he's different. And I believe you might be the only person on Earth who knows it. That's why I'm in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Peter Moore: To what do I owe the honor?
Sonny Vaccaro: I need a shoe, Pete.
Peter Moore: I would assume as much.
Sonny Vaccaro: I need the greatest basketball shoe that's ever been made.
Peter Moore: How long do we have?

Sonny Vaccaro: It has to be individual. Like, think of it like this. Uh, Converse are plain, ordinary shoes, right? Every player wears the same one. What we do with this one is, rather than have the athlete wear one of our shoes, we create the shoe around the athlete.
Peter Moore: So the shoe is a physical manifestation of the individual rather than the individual as emblem of the corporate entity?
Sonny Vaccaro: Something like that.

Peter Moore: The requirements are: speak as an individual, market to a mass audience and be the most beautiful shoe known to mankind.
Sonny Vaccaro: Yes.
Peter Moore: Form or function?
Sonny Vaccaro: Uh...
Peter Moore: Uh, something can be beautiful or it can be practical. Rarely both.
Sonny Vaccaro: Come up with something new.
Peter Moore: Humans have been wearing shoes for thousands of years, and the design has substantively changed once: when they differentiated between the right and the left shoe. That was 600 years ago.

Peter Moore: Beauty. Not function? You know what they say. Poetry only makes the world bearable. It's engineering that got us to the moon.

Sonny Vaccaro: They're j-just too white. Not enough color in there. I mean, the Bulls are red and black. Can you get more red in?
Peter Moore: They literally are not permitted to be a single additional percentage point of red.
Sonny Vaccaro: Is that true? What is the actual rule?
Peter Moore: 51% of the shoe has to be white. NBA is extremely strict about it. They'll fine him.
Sonny Vaccaro: They'll fine him?
Peter Moore: $5,000 a game.
Sonny Vaccaro: We're fucked.
Rob Strasser: .... What about more red? A lot more red. And what about if we just pay the fines? Make a commercial out of it. You know, it'll give us headlines. They're gonna fine Michael Jordan for being too colorful.

Peter Moore: Do you men think about basketball shoes often?
Sonny Vaccaro: I mostly think about basketball.
Rob Strasser: More marketing.
Peter Moore: Basketball shoes are the... central preoccupation of my life. I've had one persistent obsession that I've harbored and nurtured in hopes of making the perfect basketball shoe.

Rob Strasser: You know, Sonny, this doesn't work out, jobs are gone, checks are gone. You know that, right?
Sonny Vaccaro: Well, you'll get another job. What I do you can't put on a résumé.
Rob Strasser: I wouldn't worry about it. You're very, very convincing.
Sonny Vaccaro: Yeah. That's my job.
Rob Strasser: But I also know that sometimes people can be completely and totally wrong. Okay? You know, like-like somebody really sold the emperor on, "We should bomb Pearl Harbor," okay?
Sonny Vaccaro: Are you likening yourself to Hirohito?

Sonny Vaccaro: If we're gonna make it, w-we got to take risks.
Rob Strasser: Spoken like a man without a seven-year-old on Sunday afternoon.

Rob Strasser: A shoe is always just a shoe until someone steps into it.

Phil Knight: Okay. This team is good enough. You are all capable. And I believe in each one of you. Remember to focus on your breath. When you breathe in, know you're breathing in. When you breathe out, simply know you're breathing out. I'll see you in seven hours and 25 minutes.

Sonny Vaccaro: Just forget about the shoes. Forget about the money. You're gonna make enough money, it's not gonna matter. Money can buy you almost anything. It can't buy you immortality. That you have to earn.

Sonny Vaccaro: It's an American story, and that's why Americans are gonna love it. People are gonna build you up. God, are they going to. Because when you're great and new, we love you. Man, we'll build you into something that doesn't even exist. You're gonna change the fucking world. But you know what? Once they've built you as high as they possibly can, they're gonna tear you back down. It's the most predictable pattern. We build you into something that doesn't exist, and that means you have to try to be that thing. All day, every day. That's how it works. And we do it again and again and again.
     And I'm gonna tell you the truth. You're gonna be attacked, betrayed, exposed and humiliated. And you'll survive that...
     A lot of people can climb that mountain. It's the way down that breaks them. 'Cause that's the moment when you are truly alone. And what will you do then? Can you summon the will to fight on through all the pain and rise again?

Sonny Vaccaro: Who are you, Michael? That will be the defining question of your life. And I think you already know the answer. And that's why we're all here... A shoe is just a shoe until somebody steps into it. Then it has meaning. The rest of us just want a chance to touch that greatness. We need you in these shoes not so you have meaning in your life but so that we have meaning in ours.
     Everyone at this table will be forgotten as soon as our time here is up. Except for you. You're gonna be remembered forever, because some things are eternal.
     You're Michael Jordan, and your story is gonna make us want to fly.

Deloris Jordan: Now, we are willing to accept the deal and commit right away but with one minor provision...
Sonny Vaccaro: Name it.
Deloris Jordan: It's nothing, really. It's so obvious that its omission, I assume, from the term sheet was a clerical error.
Sonny Vaccaro: I'm sure it was.
Deloris Jordan: Michael will get a percentage of the revenue of the sale of each shoe that is sold.
Sonny Vaccaro: I'm sorry?!

Sonny Vaccaro: Mrs. Jordan, I... I understand what you're saying. I... I actually agree with you. But that's just not how it goes in this life. People like your son, people who work for a living, they don't let us own anything. We take the best we can get. ...

Deloris Jordan: Mr. Vaccaro, I agree that the business is unfair. It's unfair to my son. It's unfair to people like you. But every once in a while, someone comes along that's so extraordinary that it forces those reluctant to part with some of that wealth to do so, not out of charity but out of greed, because they are so very special. And even more rare, that person demands to be treated according to their worth because they understand what they are worth.
Sonny Vaccaro: Or their mother does.

Deloris Jordan: You purport to know a good deal about my son. You tell me. Is it me who believes in Michael, his name, or am I just a healthy reflection of who he is and what he believes about himself? Hmm?

Deloris Jordan: A shoe is just a shoe until my son steps into it.

Sonny Vaccaro: You okay?
Phil Knight: I'm just concentrating on my breath.
Sonny Vaccaro: Why?
Phil Knight: Just... doing a forgiveness meditation for myself.
Sonny Vaccaro: What are you forgiving yourself for?
Phil Knight: I think it's possible we may have set a very dangerous precedent. Now every athlete's gonna want a percentage. Next thing, they'll all want equity and... Fuck it. Too many cows.

Phil Knight: If we ruin the business, at least we had fun doing it.

Sonny Vaccaro: You know, I thought it was pronounced "Nicky" first time I saw the word.
Phil Knight: I had a really strong instinct we should call the company Dimension Six. You think it would've been successful with that name?
Sonny Vaccaro: No. Ah, you name it after the goddess of victory, it's probably more appealing to competitive athletes.
Phil Knight: We just did that 'cause the consultants told us people like four-letter words.
Sonny Vaccaro: I like four-letter words.

Phil Knight: I paid Carolyn Davidson $35 for that design in 1971.
Sonny Vaccaro: I heard you didn't like it.
Phil Knight: No. I said it would grow on me. Well, maybe it will.

Phil Knight: I think it'll be fine. What's the most we ever sold on a shoe? $3 million? He's one guy. How much can it be?...

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