JOHN MCENROE at the 2009 US Open wearing a tee shirt I designed for his Nike apparel line. A couple pretty good players are also standing with him. BUT before this happy scene things had been a bit tense between John McEnroe and Nike.
McEnroe had been promised an apparel line from Nike for years, and it just kept slipping through the cracks. A bit of corporate hot potato. He was getting very displeased and the Nike/Mac relationship was strained. Finally orders arrived from the very top brass: “We don’t care who does this, do it now!” It landed with my team. So we not only had to design a new product line, but we also had to find a way to pitch the whole concept to a man with ruffled feathers. Design and Diplomacy.
I decided to present Mac with an olive branch—a shoe box full of fictional John McEnroe memorabilia to show him what a star he is in Nike’s eyes. The concept for the box is that somehow we had stumbled upon a 10-year-old fan’s “hero collection.” In short, Nike, like this fictional kid, were his biggest fans. The box was also used as the spirit guide for the apparel line.
It was presented to Mac at the 2008 U.S. Open. He was overwhelmed and asked to keep the box! He approved the line and there he is above a year later wearing his gear.
What is this box?
Ahhh…must belong to a die hard Mac fan.
Oh sweet, a bunch of cool McEnroe stuff.
The box was made out of cut up sports magazines and glue stick, had to look like a kid made it.
I created this letter by the "fan." I dipped it in tea to make look aged.
Here is a box of Mac trading cards complete with gum.
I created about half the cards, I reached out to other Nike designers to create their own. I told them, do what you want, just have fun.
I created this set of cards out of old Nike McEnroe posters. On one side the posters. On the back side the cards are a puzzle…of a card. All held together by a rubber band.
I scrounged an old Atari game cartridge and created this fictional video game.
I painted this McEnroe Munny doll.
This is a flip book of the moment Mac won Wimbledon in 1981.
I assembled it myself, it actually works.
This "Cracker Mac" box was filled with Cracker Jack's and I put two "surprises" inside. A printed sample of one of the proposed tees, and a catalog of the other proposed tees.
The tee catalog. Yes, I see the typo on the cover! I made two boxes, one for Mac, one for us. I put all the boo boos in ours.
The box was a success. McEnroe was thrilled and he enthusiastically signed off. I decided to make it official. We had him sign his name, I turned that into an embroidery, and I integrated it into the apparel branding.
