How the Air Jordan XXXI became a high-tech basketball sneaker

BEAVERTON, Ore. — In the spring of 1977, a kid named Michael Jordan was finishing eighth grade in Wilmington, North Carolina. He hadn't yet been cut from his high school varsity squad. He hadn't yet hit the game-winning shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship Game for the University of North Carolina. And he certainly hadn't become Michael Jordan, the NBA star and cultural icon we all know today. 

But the trails of history connect in mysterious ways. That same spring, 3,000 miles away in Oregon, a former aerospace engineer finagled a meeting with the young CEO of an upstart footwear company.