Part of your video-game return to is celebrating Nike's legendary Bo Knows campaign. Let us go back to the beginning. How did Bo Knows' brand present the idea for Bo Knows to you?
We came across Bo Knows accidentally. Writers, directors, sketchers -- all of us were sat with a storyboard for our next shoot. We wanted to cut the story down as it was way too long. Everyone was giving their thoughts about this or that. I said, "Why shouldn't this be done? ... Then why should we shift this over here, put this there, then combine it, and cut out about five or six seconds?' They glanced at me and said "Wow. That'll probably work. Someone else across the table looked to me and said "Bo Knows!' Then it stuck. It was not like anyone sat around and thought about it or stayed up all night trying to think of the catchy phrase. It just happened at the war table , discussing shoots.
Before you got an iconic shoe, for instance, the Nike Air Bo Turf, in the year 1990, you launched your first Nike Air Trainer 3, which was later referred to as your shoe. What are your memories about that Air Trainer 3?
So, let me present it to you like this. In 1969 as I was in the first grade , growing up in rural Alabama during winter, it was in the mid-30s outside. And I was required to attend school in barefoot. Shoes were not allowed. I'm not saying this for sympathy or as a sob story. However, I can recall my brother standing a block further away from his home. I'm in front of the door. Our sister was just a block away from my brother. another sister was waiting at an intersection at the bus stop. My sister who was at the bus stop saw the bus top the hill only a couple of blocks away, she would yell her sister. She would shout to my brother, and my brother would shout at me. And then I'd go out the door barefoot. At the point that my brother was able to reach my first sister I'd be able to catch him before he even got there. At the time we made it close to our bus stop, I'm 15or 20 feet ahead of my brother and sister. From walking to school in sandals in the winter of '69 to growing older and having a sneaker inspired by my own ... I'm fortunate.