Legends and Soles. Sonny Vaccaro with Armen Keteyian.

 

Legends and Soles. Sonny Vaccaro with Armen Keteyian.

The Memoir of An American Original.  

 

As a Pittsburgh native, resident and longtime admirer and attendee of the Pittsburgh roundball classics, I have known of John “Sonny” Vaccaro, also a western PA native, for many decades.     Upon reading his recently published memoir, I, along with any potential reader, know considerably more about his background, upbringing and philosophy of life.     Not only that, though, the cleverly titled book, “Legends and Soles” provides insight into his love for gambling and how he used those skills to succeed in his business endeavors but also his interactions with basketball luminaries such as Michael Jordan, John Thompon or Business moguls such as Phil Knight at Nike.   

The book starts predictably with a summary and account of Vaccaro’s family and his upbringing in mid-20^th century suburban Pittsburgh.  He describes his humble beginnings and close-knit family experiences.   After the first eighty pages, the story began to jump off the pages.  It could have been because the Shoe man’s life picked up with more intrigue or it could be where veteran co-author Armen Keteyian’s skills and talents influenced the writing prose of this manuscript.   

A teacher by trade, Vaccaro uses his sports background to help find a high school basketball all-star game from the ground floor, which became an early success and endured three decades of influencing high school basketball recruiting and marketing.   As fate would have it, an interaction with a high school basketball camper sparked a sales pitch agenda to as many tennis/athletic shoe manufacturers as they could find in the 1970’s.  According to the author, only one showed any interest.    That, of course, was Nike.   Although this lesser-known outlet was not overly interested in Vacarro’s shoe ideas, he was able to convince this fledging shoe and apparel company to take a chance on Vaccaro and his ability to promote and market their products to a brand-new marketplace including schools and coaches.   

Throughout the book, the author’s interactions and relations are documented with Phil Knight in particular who seemed to endure an arm’s length relationship.  The prologue even inserts an attention-grabbing experience where Vacarro, while attending the 1994 French Open, and his wife unexpectedly encountered Knight in a tightly spaced elevator in France that resulted in an awkward exchange.     In fact, the author bravely reveals that a few hours later in the evening he suffered a bizarre amnesia-related experience which may have been loosely tied to the chance meeting in that Paris lift.  However, Vaccaro, a personable, gregarious sort, also had his share of allies at Nike, and throughout the basketball world, that were far more supportive.  He also found many new allies, although likely more detractors, too, along the way, outside of his comfort zone when taking on the NCAA later in life which ultimately led to the recent NIL initiative in college sports today.   

An Intriguing chapter dealt with another cordial but turned acrimonious relationship with a Nike colleague and basketball coaching friend.     It had long been reported how Vacarro and George Raveling had a falling out many years back.   However, the reasons and story leading up to that were not nearly as clear.    The pen-ultimate chapter provides details of how the relationship began but also had it had unraveled through the years.    What was interesting in this reading experience was that Raveling’s recent book, What Your Made For, made little if any reference to his relationship with Sonny Vacarro.    

In a book of nearly three hundred and twenty pages, it is a fairly easy and often fascinating read of Mr. Vaccaro’s unlikely life journey, experiences and interactions with well-known people in the sports, athletic retail and even movie industries respectively.     Basketball fans could likely find some connection to Vaccaro and his story although this memoir is hardly limited to just fans of the hardwood game.    For some, Vaccaro may not exactly rate as a legend and his journey has been met with soured, fractured personal and business relationships but there is no doubt about his influence on basketball, particularly in how players, coaches and fans alike go about choosing their shoes.    

 

·       You might like to read this book if you want to learn more about John “Sonny” Vaccaro.  

·       You might like to read this book If you enjoy reading about Michael Jordan. 

·       You might like to read this book if you seek stories about Nike and other athletic shoe outlets. 

·       You might like to read this book if you are interested in reading about endorsements in advertising but also the economic aspects of basketball. 

·       You might like to read this book if you enjoy autobiographies particularly about sports and basketball related stories.      

 

Learn more about the author on X:    https://x.com/c0verthespread