Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Michael Jordan, NBA
Josh Lawless
Noah Lyles wants to follow in the footsteps of Michael Jordan with a business move that bagged his Airness $1.5 billion.
Lyles was one of the stars of the Olympics in Paris, winning Gold in a thrilling 100m final.
He beat Jamaica's Kishane Thompson by just 0.005 seconds in an unbelievably tight photo finish at the Stade De France.
Lyles also took a bronze in the 200m final despite running after testing positive for COVID-19.
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But after winning his first Olympic gold medal to add to his three world championship titles the year before, Lyles laid out an ambitious business plan he has.
Lyles, who is an Adidas athlete, admitted that he desperately wants to have his own signature shoe and do something former American sprinting great Michael Johnson never managed.
“I want my own shoe – I want my own trainer," he said, as per The Guardian.
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“I am dead serious. There is no money in spikes. Even Michael Johnson didn’t have his own sneaker.
"For how many medals we bring back, for the notoriety that we get, the fact that hasn’t happened is crazy.”
Lyles has been at odds with NBA players and fans after taking issue with them using the "world champions" term.
However, his trainer ambition means he could essentially be copying the blueprint from Jordan, who has reportedly made a whopping $1.5 billion from his game-changing partnership with Nike.
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After association with Converse and Adidas in his College days, Jordan penned a $2.5 million contract with Nike - who spent all their budget allocated to rookies from the 1984 draft on him.
It proved to be a masterstroke though as in a stunning rookie season for the Chicago Bulls, Jordan's first year sales of sneakers came in at a whopping $162 million and it was reported that the subrand contributed to $5 billion to the gross $46 billion sales figure.