Sole Man Review

   Sole man was a ESPN 30 for 30 episode focusing on the billion dollar industry in America, which is shoes. The star, Sonny Vaccaro, was a man who saw a vision that no one else at the time understood. He took over the basketball industry with in months, making millions of dollars in the mean time. Sonny at first was paired up with Nike and had plans on just making shoes for basketball players. The only problem they ran into in the beginning was that their brand was unknown and no one would buy them. So to have a popularity explosion Sonny devised a plan that was seen as illegal and controversial, but since there were no set regulation or rules; it was completely legal. Sonny traveled the country coast to coast paying college coaches and giving bundles of shoes to teams and street players. He called this tactic, self marketing. His plan was just to pay off the coaches so that they would make the kids wear the shoes, and in return they brand name would get out there. When Nike started to become known with their different variation of Nike airs and many more to come, they had the idea to start signing athletes with their company in hopes to attract mass attention. Sonny was a mastermind for his time and his plan was perfect. He looked through all the top players in the upcoming draft and this one athlete can be seen as the start of the multi-million dollar company that Nike is today. That athlete was Michael Jordan with his signature show line, Air Jordans. This slam dunk master signed with Nike to start up his shoe contract to take his game to the professional level. The Air Jordans quickly became the hottest shoe on the market, simultaneously as Michael became the hottest player in the country. Sonny was from then on known as a king maker. He signed contracts with many athletes giving them the same deals to make them all stars, with signature lines and wealth beyond belief just for playing basketball. This sounds all great, but under the surface many people believe this was true corruption, especially when Sonny Vaccaro started his Nike summer training programs. Many to this day frown upon basketball summer programs because there is no regulation with the NCAA, deals can be struck and players can be snatched right out of others schools hands. When the atmosphere became intensely competitive, with Nike and Adidas being toe to toe, high-school students and even down to youth programs where starting to get paid. Coaches of 8th grade basketball teams making hundreds of thousands of dollars just for the coach to persuade the kids to wear this brand, and to go to this school. All of this money, billions of dollars, being moved around the basketball world all started by one man, and that is why Sonny Vaccaro is known as Soleman. He single-handedly made college basketball into the competitive atmosphere today, and made the NCAA its first millions of dollars. He is seen as a legend to the sport and for that the people who know him love him, or absolutely hate him from his success. He has worked with Nike and Adidas and has signed other super stars like Kobe. No one really knew how Sonny had so many connections, but the answer was all the money that was flowing through his hands to others. Sonny had a huge impact on many lives, forming players to champions of the game. Sonny will be remembered as the man who made shoes worth to die for.

Sonny Vaccaro with Michael Jordan in the beginning of his career.