Photo: Supplied
He's described as the 'Godfather of summer basketball'. Sonny Vaccaro is the son of Italian immigrants who grew up in a Pennsylvania steel town with a passion and talent for American football and basketball.
When his college football career was cut short through injury, he turned to basketball recruiting and set up a seminal competition called the Roundball Classic. But it was his pivot to the shoe business where he made his name - and fearless reputation.
As an advertising executive for Nike in the 80s, he helped sign the then relative-unknown Michael Jordan for a US $2.5 million deal that netted the company $126m off the Air Jordan sneaker line in the first year alone. He repeated the feat at Adidas in the 90s with Kobe Bryant.
His story was told in the movie Air, starring Matt Damon as Sonny in 2023 - but now, at the age of 85, his memoir Legends and Soles goes into depth of what it took to cement those deals.
