The sneaker icon’s exclusive “Not For Sale” Michelob ULTRA bottle arrives in shoe box-style packaging ahead of the NBA Finals.
At Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals, Tinker Hatfield knew it when he saw it.
He didn’t even need to see The Shrug to know for sure.
“Portland was really outplaying Chicago. Michael Jordan made six six-pointers in a row just before halftime and basically changed the game around. He was shooting from way out. It was a little bit in a modern way like Steph Curry or Damian Lillard,” the renowned sneaker designer told Boardroom.
“In Michael’s day, it was unheard of. He changed the game. It seemed like it demoralized the Blazers. This was in the old Chicago Stadium, and the damn place just shook apart. It was so amazing.”
Hatfield had witnessed a true legend in full-on championship mode that day. His longtime passion for the game and up-close experiences witnessing the league’s grandest stage is what motivated his latest project at the dawn of the 2021 Finals: Designing an exclusive NBA Championship Bottle of Michelob ULTRA.
“In design, you look for something iconic to add to the design so that it’s recognizable. Something that’s recognizable, unique, and new. A bottle of beer or any other beverage, they’re sort of ubiquitous, generally speaking,” Hatfield told Boardroom.
“I thought about the fact that this bottle only goes to the winners, and the winners get to cut down the net. It just popped up into my head. The net itself became that iconic element. It’s easy to see from a distance on TV, as well as in person.”
In the spirit of a hotly-anticipated sneaker drop, the race for the “Not for Sale” bottle begins as soon as the last game of the 2021 NBA Finals wraps. A “drop clock” on ULTRATinkerDrop.com and @MichelobULTRA’s Twitter will begin, giving fans a window to get a piece of Tinker Hatfield handiwork they won’t find in any retail establishment.
Subscribe for the biggest stories in the business of sports and entertainment, daily.
Hatfield said it himself: Not just anyone gets to cut down the net.
Only the winners.
“All players play for the love of the game, and that should never be omitted from a conversation. But I do believe that the reason people get really good is because they’re winners. They want to win, they want to present themselves and play at the highest level possible,” he said.
So, how many winning fans will actually be able to snag a “Not For Sale” Michelob ULTRA bottle?
Well, the total number available will be determined by the number of points scored by the eventual 2021 NBA champ in the last game of the Finals.
Keep an eye out if and when Devin Booker, Chris Paul or Khris Middleton can flip the MJ switch and carry their franchise to the promised land of a NBA championship.
