- "Air" portrays Nike's early corporate leaders, including cofounder Phil Knight, as risk takers.
- The movie also shows how early Nike employees didn't hesitate to break rules.
Editor's note: This story contains some spoilers for the "Air" movie released in theaters on Wednesday.
Early in "Air," the new Ben Affleck-directed movie about how Nike signed Michael Jordan, Nike employee Sonny Vaccaro hops on an airplane, against the orders of Jordan's agent, and flies to North Carolina to meet the basketball star's family.
The scene sums up what's right, and what's wrong, with the movie, according to former and current Nike employees.
It shows early Nike employees didn't hesitate to take risks. But it's been widely reported that the courtship started over a plate of ribs at Southern California's Tony Roma's, a restaurant that appears in an unrelated scene in the movie.
On Wednesday night, 6453 Alumni, a group for Nike veterans, hosted a private screening of the movie at a theater about a mile from Nike's 400-acre headquarters. The group invited this reporter to join the screening and a sprawling discussion afterwards over Oregon IPAs and tater tots.
Attendees, for the most part, recommended the nearly two-hour movie, calling it a fun and uplifting underdog tale stuffed with Nike and sneaker nostalgia and fantastic music. They said it captures the zany, irreverent, underdog, hyper-competitive, risk-taking spirit of the company's early years.
"I loved every second of it," said Skip Lei, who worked for Nike for 31 years, and who now works as chief product officer for fast-growing startup Kizik. Lei got autographs from the screening's attendees on his low-top Jordan sneakers to mark the occasion.
But attendees cautioned viewers that it's a movie, not a documentary. Some of the details are laughably, if not distractingly, wrong.
Seventy-two current and former Nike employees attended the screening. Several had tenures at Nike that extended to before the company went public in 1980, including Nelson Farris, who's been with the company more than 50 years. Wilson Smith III, who designed several of Jordan's signature sneakers, joined the pub discussion, as did Nike historian emeritus Scott Reames, who's credited in Nike cofounder Phil Knight's memoir with "deftly sifting facts from myths."
"'Air' is entertaining and well captures the spirit and vibe of Nike in 1984, but it does take liberties that deviate from the actual events that took place in the signing of Michael Jordan," Reames told Insider.
What "Air" got right
In the film, Knight races through the company parking lot in a purple Porsche. Nike starts its quest in a distant third place in the bidding for Jordan, but still manages to sign him. Jordan's first signature shoe is designed in clear violation of NBA rules. All depict an underdog company willing to take risks and jumping at new opportunities.
Among the scenes that really resonated with Nike veterans: In the movie's climactic pitch to Jordan, Vaccaro, played by Matt Damon, turns off a projector before the presentation is over and fills the time with a convincing, impromptu, impassioned speech.
While attendees doubted the veracity of how the moment played out on film, they said that sort of all-in move happened all the time.
"I can think of so many of those meetings where we stopped something and said, 'This isn't doing it,'" said Chris Simone, a 6453 Alumni board member who worked for Nike for 18 years.
"Nike was one of the places where you could go in and say, 'You've been doing it wrong,'" added Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read, a Nike alum who attended the screening and pub discussion.
Affleck, who also played Knight in the movie, nailed the story's arc, by all accounts.
Nike really was in the dumps in 1984. "Orwell was right: 1984 was a tough year," Knight wrote in that year's shareholder letter, referencing author George Orwell's book by the same title. Signing Jordan was the first step in an epic corporate comeback.
"It was that meaningful for sure," said Mike Caster, who worked for Nike for more than 24 years, including on bringing the Jordan line to life, before founding a Portland accessories company.
The movie airballs some details
Nike veterans also cautioned the movie jumbles a lot of the facts.
The company's famed waffle iron, used to create the iconic waffle sneaker sole, was in a landfill in 1984, not in Knight's office. Nike athletes won 65 medals at the 1984 Olympics, not four, Reames said. Nike also bought Converse in 2003, not 1996, an error that had been corrected after appearing in an earlier Portland screening of the movie.
The famed 1977 Nike "principles," written by Nike executive Rob Strasser, while a bedrock corporate document, didn't exist in poster form on the office walls, as far as anyone can remember. And nobody can remember creative executive Peter Moore going by "Pete."
But the biggest criticism from former Nike employees: How Strasser and Moore's role in signing Jordan get shortchanged in the film.
Vaccaro played an important part, but not nearly as heroic as portrayed in the film, attendees said. No one attending Wednesday's pub discussion, for example, could recall Vaccaro flying to North Carolina to court Jordan's family, even though that sort of high-wire risk-taking would have been par for the course at Nike in 1984.
Attendees said Strasser and Moore played much more important parts. Strasser, once described as the "Man Who Saved Nike," would have negotiated Jordan's contract, not Vaccaro. Moore is relegated in the movie to being little more than a basketball footwear design guru, well short of his place as one of the industry's most important creative executives.
As for Knight, attendees said "Air" captures Knight's competitive, private, oracular personality. He can talk in riddles and he likes to spend time jogging alone.
But it misses in other ways.
Knight is self-deprecating. It's unlikely that he'd boast about his importance to history, or the size of Nike, as his character does in two scenes.
And he certainly wouldn't back down from a board of directors or hesitate to place a giant bet on a generational basketball talent like Michael Jordan.
"He'd be the one pushing the envelope," said Jana Panfilio, 6453 Alumni's cofounder.