The Jordan Brand is a giant in the sneaker industry today, but Nike wasn’t always sold on it becoming a major success. Howard “H” White, who is today the vice president of Jordan Brand, shared on the All The Smoke podcast how he convinced Nike co-founder Phil Knight to continue Michael Jordan’s line even after his retirement.
“The audacity to, after he stopped playing, to keep going with the shoes,” White said. “See, because at that point it’s over. Even Mr. [Phil] Knight, when we were coming back, he said, ‘It’s been a good run.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ [He said], ‘Been a good run.’ [I said], ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Well, you’re not playing anymore, so we’ve had a good run at this.’ I said, ‘Well, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I think this thing can keep going.’ He said, ‘Oh, he’s not playing.’
“So, the formula is we sign a player, we build a shoe, we market the shoe, we sell the shoe,” White continued. “Good formula, good formula. Worked… I called Mr. Knight Buck a lot of times. I said, ‘I was out in front of the campus just the other day. Don’t know how it happened, but I saw a car pull up to the stoplight. It stopped, it waited, light turned green, it took off.’
“He said, ‘What the hell are you talking about?'” White added. “I said, ‘It was Mercedes-Benz, and to my knowledge, Mr. Mercedes been dead an awful long time. How could that happen?’ Point taken. Okay. I said, ‘So, let’s build a ghost. Hell, he dead. That’s still going. He’s still living. Let’s keep going.’ He said, ‘Maybe we should build a ghost, too.’ So, again, a lot of me is helping people vision… The bigger picture.”
White, who had joined Nike in 1978, was on the money. They were able to capitalize on the mystique surrounding Jordan, who won six titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, one DPOY, and 10 scoring titles during his NBA career. You do wonder how different the sneaker world would be today if Knight hadn’t listened to White and had decided to put an end to the Air Jordan line all those years ago.
In 2022, Jordan Brand hit $5 billion in annual revenue for the first time. Then in the 2025 fiscal year, its revenue stood at $7.4 billion. Jordan Brand, which officially formed in 1997, also ranked second in global market share in 2023, only behind Nike.
None of this happens if not for White. He also played a big role in helping Nike land Jordan, who wanted to go to Adidas. White would be his first sports marketing rep and has remained a close confidante.
A career-ending knee injury crushed White’s dreams of playing in the NBA, but he ended up making a big impact in the sports world regardless. The Capital Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) had actually selected him with the 192nd pick in the 1973 NBA Draft after a three-year career at Maryland. He never got to play thanks to the injury, but being a big part in the story of an icon like Jordan isn’t a bad consolation prize.
