We didn’t the cinematic Nike Air Jordan bipoic Air to remind us of the indelible mark Michael Jordan has made not just on basketball, but on the shoe game. The birth of the Air Jordans in 1985 meant big things for the company, but it also blew the starting whistle on an entire culture built around sneakers. Kicks that had once been mostly practical footwear were suddenly fashion statements, cultural signifiers, and high-end collectibles.
Just a couple of years later, Spike Lee placed a pair of Air Jordans at the center of Do the Right Thing, a film that still speaks to the state of American culture as well as any film before or since. And it’s hardly the only movie in which sneakers have played an unexpectedly large role—and given the continued cultural dominance of the Air Jordan, it’s no surprising that Nike has notched the most cinematic cameos, and the occasional starring role.
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Table of Contents
Spike Lee might be slightly better known as one of the most impactful directors of the past several decades, but his reputation as a sneakerhead precedes him as well. A pair of (briefly) brand-new Air Jordan IVs are the star of one of the most memorable scenes in his most significant film: Giancarlo Esposito’s Buggin’ Out is minding his own business when a white guy in a Larry Bird jersey stomps over his foot. “You stepped on my brand new white Air Jordans!” is the line that kicks off a heated discussion about the threat of gentrification—and white-ification—looming over the neighborhood, a conflict that will soon lead to tragedy for the characters. In 2017, Nike even released a limited ‘Buggin’ Out’ edition of the IVs to commemorate the film.
Featured shoe: Air Jordan IV
Where to stream: Digital rental
Forrest Gump (1994)
As product placement goes, this one actually kinda makes sense: as Forrest Gump wends his way through 20th century American history, it’s not entirely surprising that he’d encounter the iconic Nike Cortez, the company’s very first track shoe, designed by company founders Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight way back in 1972. Jenny gives Forrest the shoes (in the original White/Varsity Royal/Varsity Red color scheme) before he sets off on his wee little jog across America. The Cortez line has come and gone over the years, but they’re readily available today.
Featured shoe: Nike Cortez
Where to stream: Prime Video
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
One of Nike’s most famous pair of kicks isn’t real… or at least it wasn’t until 2011, over two decades after it debuted in a major motion picture. Designed by Nike prodigy Tinker Hatfield for the 1989 Back to the Future sequel, the Nike MAG was a futuristic concept shoe featuring light-up panels and, memorably, self-lacing technology (presumably, people in the far-off year of 2015 would have better things to do than tie their shoes by hand). Hatfield returned to the design in 2011, and Nike created a limited run of 1,500 shoes (sans the self-lacing featuring) to be auctioned ti benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research. Hatfield redesigned the shoes again in 2016, the time with actual power laces, and Nike released a run of just 89 pairs of MAGs. As you can probably guess, getting a pair of either run will set you back quite a bit, with the 2016 version selling for upwards of $25,000.(Whatever the year, Marty apparently loves Nike—though it’s hard to spot, he sports a pair of (real life) Nike Bruins in the first film.
Featured shoe: Nike MAGs
Where to stream: Peacock
Goonies (1985)
Nikes were apparently big down in the Goon Docks, as almost all of the main characters can be spotted wearing sneakers and shoes with the familiar swoosh. Chunk wears a pair of Terra T/Cs, Brand wears the popular Vandal Supremes, and Stef has a rare pair of 1984 Too Highs. Most memorable by far are the custom modified “slick shoes” worn by Ke Huy Quan’s Data. The blue-swoosh Sky Force Highs he wears have been customized in the movie with springs and an oil slick, features sadly not available in the off-the-rack version.
Featured shoe: Sky Force Highs, with appearances from Terra T/Cs, Vandal Supremes, and Too Highs.
Where to stream: HBO Max
Like Mike (2002)
The cute sports comedy, starring the artist formerly known as Li’l Bow Wow, unfolds with the help of some weird ideas about the adoption process works, and a memorable pair of kicks. Orphan Calvin Cambridge knows everything there is to know about basketball in general, and the fictional Los Angeles Knights in particular, which sets him up for a bit of good luck—a thrift store donation box nets him a pair of Nike Blazers with “MJ” initials scratched into them. Yes, the shoes once belonged to none other than Michael Jordan, and when Calvi slips them on, suddenly he can play like you know who. The Blazer has been around since 1973; one of Nike’s first basketball shoes, it presaged the absolute dominance the company would soon experience in that market.
Featured shoe: A very unique pair of Blazers.
Where to stream: Starz
The Terminator (1984)
It doesn’t have to be a sports movie to involve running and, well…sneaking. And what’s the first thing that time-traveller Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) does when he arrives in 1984. to save Sarah Connor from a Terminator? He steals himself a pair of sweet Nike Vandals. similar in style to the Air Force 1, with a removable Velcro ankle strap, the high-top had a brief heyday in the mid-1980s before being discontinued in 1988. Maybe the product placement backfired and everybody just figured you could steal them? The design has since been resurrected, and remains popular. The shoes also appeared in the justifiably maligned 2015 sequel Terminator Genisys, recreated specifically to match their appearance in the first film.
Featured shoe: A pilfered pair of Vandals.
Where to stream: HBO Max
Big (1988)
I’m not sure that Big retains the cultural footprint that it once did (probably because it seems ever weirder now that the 12-year-old in a man’s body has sex with someone old enough to be his mom), but certainly the scene during which Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia play a couple of duets on a giant keyboard on the floor at FAO Schwartz remains memorable. In that bit, Hanks is wearing a pair of Air Force IIs (white and blue). It’s a brilliant, subtle bit of product placement.
Featured shoe: Air Force II
Where to stream: Disney+
Batman (1989)
What’s that? You didn’t catch the product placement in the costuming of Tim Burton’s big screen Batman? It’s subtle, for sure, but Michael Keaton’s Bat-boots (in both this movie and Batman Returns) are actually a custom Nike product, designed by Tinker Hatfield. The first movie features Air Trainer 3 sneaks as a base, while Air Jordan VIs serve to protect those delicate bat-feet in the sequel. Given the notorious immobility of Michael Keaton’s batsuit, getting to wear a pair of sneakers was probably at least a small consolation.
Featured shoe: Air Trainer 3
Where to stream: HBO Max
He Got Game (1998)
If Spike Lee can reasonably work sneakers into the plot of a movie, he’s going to. Like Do the Right Thing did a decade earlier, He Got Game includes cameos from plenty of shoes, but there’s only one sneaker on the mind of Denzel Washington’s Jake Shuttlesworth: the Air Jordan XIII. Lee got access to the then-latest Jordans months before they were released, and their onscreen debut was timed perfectly to the shoes going up for sale. If you were watching He Got Game when it came out in 1998, there was a fair chance that you were just as keen as Jake to get your hands on the new Jordans.
Featured shoe: Air Jordan XIII
Where to stream: Digital rental
George of the Jungle (1997)
Nothing subtle about the product placement here—but when it works, it works. Un-pop-cultured Brendan Fraser deliberately unboxes a pair of the distinctive Air Uptempos, which were first worn by Scottie Pippen the year before.
Featured shoe: Air Uptempo
Where to stream: Disney+
White Men Can’t Jump (1992)
Almost too many basketball shoes here to name, so we’ll give pride of place to two: Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes) wears a pair of Nike Air Force Lites, and Woody Harrelson’s Billy Hoyle sports a pair of the Air Command Force shoe, both released in 1991. In 2009, the company weirdly released colorways of both shoes “inspired” by the movie, but which don’t actually replicate the more basic style of the onscreen shoes.. They’re just in ‘90s-esque colors.
Featured shoe: Air Force Lite, Air Command Force
Where to stream: Hulu
Lost in Translation (2003)
What’s that, you say? Lost in Translation simply isn’t a sneaker kinda movie? Permit me to expand your shoe horizons. In the scene where Bill Murray’s Bob is waiting for Charlotte at the hospital, he’s clearly rocking a pair of colorful Nike x HTM Air Wovens. The shoe, with an upper made from individual nylon strands, was originally designed in 2000 by Mike Aveni, best known for making basketball shoes, and then reworked in by Hiroshi Fujiwara in 2002 as part of Nike’s HTM series (involving the company’s high-concept, slightly avant-garde design group of the same name). The “Dark Mocha” colorway Bob is wearing (consisting of brown, orange, beige, and white strands) was part of a limited run of 1,500 shoes.
Featured shoe: Nike x HTM Air Woven
Where to stream: Prime Video
Space Jam (1996)
As Air ably demonstrates, Michael Jordan dominates basketball shoes as no other celebrity endorser has. With Space Jam, though, we’re back to Bill Murray, who memorably rocks a pair of Air Jordan IIs, the premium, Swoosh-less followup to the original Jordans. Kidding! Mostly. The part about Murray and the shoes is true, but his part is a cameo—this is Jordan’s movie, born from his success as a basketball icon, but also, in part, from the success of the Air Jordans themselves. Jordan and the Bugs Bunny first appeared together onscreen in commercials during the 1992 and 1993 Super Bowls—ads so popular they inspired film, which went into development around the time of Jordan’s first retirement from basketball.
Tinker Hatfield (a name we’ve mentioned before) designed the Air Jordan XIs with Jordan in mind, on the chance that he’d return to basketball…which of course he did, in 1995. Jordan wore a pair for his comeback Championship, as well as in the 1996 movie. The ‘Space Jams’ were finally released to the public in 2000. If you want an original set, though, it’ll set you back…a 1996 pair, signed but never even worn by Jordan, just sold for $176,400.
Featured shoe: Primarily, a pair of iconic Air Jordan XIs, later nicknamed ‘Space Jams.’
Where to stream: HBO Max