When Michael Jordan wore his red Nike trainers, not the regulation white everyone else wore, the NBA issued a $5,000 fine per game. Nike didn’t care. The maths was simple: if the fans didn’t care, then the NBA’s fury would be dwarfed by the sale of Air Jordan trainers. The gamble paid off, and to date, sales of Air Jordans trainers, are in the billions of dollars.
Today, in the UK, the fine for pumping raw sewage into our rivers and seas is in the millions of pounds. And yet, the practice continues. Why? Because the maths still adds up; if it didn’t they would stop.
Nike gambled on people caring more about their trainers than they did about the NBA’s rules, and they were right. Perhaps the answer to the infrastructure problems we are experiencing in the UK is that we need to care more, not rely on market value and fines.