I started dropping weight and ultimately became a D1 college tennis player. I’m 53 now and fitness remains a big part of my life. I still play tennis, and I have never stepped onto a tennis court once in 38 years without the Nike swoosh on my feet. I’m a customer for life - it’s the least I can do.

Marketing is not about product features. It’s about transformation. Communicating to the customer that a product or service can transform them into something or someone that they desire to be. I was transformed. I’m not overstating it when I say that print ad changed my life.

Call it psychological, call it magic, call it whatever you like. I was hooked.

I asked my parents for a pair of Air Trainers. They were $75 in 1986. My dad didn’t hesitate. I put them on and felt more like an athlete than I ever had before. We ran a mile every day at tennis practice as a warmup. I cut my mile time down by over a minute the next day.

I had a natural forehand and could easily dispatch most of my opponents - if I could get to the ball to hit it. My physical condition at the time was not conducive to a game based on movement and speed.

I was mesmerized. Instantly obsessed. Despite my girth growing up, I was always a really good athlete. I had recently switched to tennis in high school after playing baseball for a few years and fell in love with it.

The print ad was a full two page spread - with a lot of info explaining what made Nike Air so “revolutionary”. There were also several athletes featured who were wearing some of the new Nike Air shoes. John McEnroe was one of them. He was wearing the Air Trainer, Nike’s new cross-training shoe.

I flipped a few pages and there it was. A new ad from Nike. There was a band of light blasting through the outsole of a running shoe. I’d never seen anything like it. The copy beneath the image read “Nike Air is not a shoe.” I flipped the page. “It’s a revolution.”

To put it bluntly, I was fat. I had always been fat. My diet was a steady stream of gluten, sugar, and carbohydrates.