One Man and His Shoes Review

 

Certificate: 15

Running time: 83 minutes

Starring: David Stern, David Falk, Sonny Vaccaro, Rick Telander, Jemele Hill

Directed by: Yemi Bamiro

The story: One Man and His Shoes tells the story of the inception and phenomenal rise of the Air Jordan sneakers and how unusual marketing strategies managed to create this multi billion dollar business.

The verdict: This is a very accessible documentary which will appeal to a wide audience. You do not need to be an Air Jordan or Michael Jordan fan to engage with this film as it addresses and explores a number of other interesting issues, such as how big companies market their products.

The relatively swift running time of the documentary means that it never has time to stagnate and I was surprised when I realised that the film only had a few minutes of its running time left. I really enjoyed seeing the behind the scenes glimpses at a product that seems so simple but has had such an impact.

That all being said - in a lot of ways this film is a sheep in wolf's clothing. On the surface it appears to be a snappy and well paced documentary about shoes, and whilst yes it is in many ways, it is also a film about the exploitation of young black people in America.

In the final act of the film, it changes tone dramatically and talks about how, due to the highly coveted nature of the shoes, people have been assaulted and even killed for them. This discussion makes up the smallest part of the film and yet it is probably the most interesting of all. In this way, some people may find the film a bit mismatched and that it should have focused on either one subject or the other.

I always feel that the mark of a good documentary film is whether it effectively opens your eyes to a subject and teaches you something about that subject. One Man and His Shoes certainly did that, but because of the its dramatic change of tone in the final act, I actually felt slightly cheated because there felt like there was more to learn and more to be said.

Overall, a pacy and interesting documentary which I enjoyed. However, it feels like there may be more of the story to tell.

The rating: ★★★ and a half