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The Big Break
“Out of the all the people I could have been placed next to in the dorms, I get placed next to Chiih-Wei Lee and his girlfriend, which is now his wife. They both interned at Nike. I just picked their brains and asked them how they got the internship at Nike. He was like, ?Nike is cool, but they only talk about shoes and sports?. I was like, ?Give me the info. That?s all I want to talk about is shoes and sports?. He gave me the info, and I reached out. I sent them my info and wrote a letter or an email everyday. In my junior year, I was a resident?s assistant and I had a hilarious freshman roommate that played Legos and ate shrimp. I sent my portfolio to Nike right before the Christmas break, and I told my roommate to not answer the phone if he sees a 503 area code because that would be Nike.”
“I come back from Christmas break and everybody on my floor is congratulating me about something that I knew nothing about. I see balloons and Nike colored stuff and Swooshes, so I?m like, ?What is going on?? Then, everybody tells me I got the Nike internship, but nobody called me, so I didn?t believe it. I go to my room and my roommate looks up and says, ?Oh by the way, they called?. At the time, I?m thinking should I go over and kick this dude?s Lego stand over, or do I check the voicemail and see what happened? I checked the voicemail, and it was true. They told me my internship was going to be with basketball. I was excited. I always wanted to be in Jordan basketball, and this was the closest thing to Jordan.”
Jordan Brand’s First
“Around March, I get another call from them while I was at a movie theater in Detroit watching some corny, horror movie. He tells me; ‘Unfortunately, Nike Basketball doesn?t have the budget to bring you in as an intern, but there is a new part of the company that?s turning into a brand and they?re trying to extend. They thought it would be cool to have you as their first ever intern.’ Then he asked me if I would be interested in interning at Jordan Brand. I started screaming in the middle of the movie theater, and the movie theater clears out. In Detroit, when a person screams in the middle of a dark, crowded movie theater, no one asks questions. They just get up and leave. I was thanking God, and I was mad excited. I couldn?t believe it. I was Jordan Brand?s first intern. I later found out that I was Nike?s first black design intern that went to a design school.”
Meeting MJ and the Jordan Brand Team
“I get there, meet MJ and tell him my story, and he was like, ?How the hell did you end up in Oregon coming from the Southside of Chicago?? I had the great fortune of working with some brilliant people over there that coached and mentored me and also advocated on my behalf. I ended up graduating school with a job offer from Nike. I came back and worked in training for a couple of years, specifically on some stuff for Michael Vick and helped E. Scott Morris with some of his product. I also worked on the Nike Monarch, a shoe that wasn?t sexy, but it was a shoe that made a hell of a lot of money for the company. That was a great learning experience. It was a humbling experience.”
Click the next page to find out about Jason Mayden’s current role at Nike, his favorite African American sports moments, future Nike projects and the meaning of Black History Month.
