Last week we reported on the outrage from some corners of sports fandom over a Chicago Blackhawks Jonathan Toews(notes) sweater being placed on the Michael Jordan statue in front of United Center for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
But the most outrageous thing we witnessed was the audacity in taking the Man On Whom NIKE Was Built and dressing him in Reebok skates.
From the looks of things, NIKE and Brand Jordan didn’t waste time in correcting that fashion faux pas. Via Puck Buddy MJ (no relation … we think) comes news that Jordan the Statue is now sporting NIKE skates. Unless this is some craft Photoshop (and we’ll be super-pissed if that’s the case), it appears they placed a NIKE sticker over the Reebok logo but kept everything else as-is.
This comes a year after Jordan The Human covered up Reebok logos on his Blackhawks jersey while waving to the crowd at a playoff game.
Under normal circumstances, this would be a place to bemoan the corporatization of professional sports, to the point where sincere outpourings of community solidarity become contentious because one billion-dollar brand is given more prominence than another billion-dollar brand.
But c’mon: Who’s dumb enough to believe Reebok anything on a Michael Jordan statue is going to last more than 48 hours? Did this person visit a sporting goods store in the last 25 years? There was a better chance of keeping a pink tutu on it than a giant Reebok logo … although we are curious to see if the jersey’s been Swooshed as well.
[Photos: View a slideshow of Michael Jordan in action.]
Now if they can only do something about the white helmet matched with the home sweater. Yuck.
(UPDATE: The sticker? Totally real. But it’s come to our attention that this wasn’t a change made through official circles but rather a little bit of fan
