Gentry Humphrey

When you first think of Nike’s Jordan Brand, you probably think of coveted sneakers and Michael Jordan. The Jordan Brand was created in 1998 and employee #3 was Gentry Humphrey. Humphrey started his Nike career in 1989 where he took on the role of Nike account executive in sales. He then later moved into a merchandising role as the conduit between product creation and sales for Nike Basketball. Humphrey’s love for product creation, landed him a product line manager role in Nike Basketball in the early 1990s. This is where he connected with Michael Jordan.

Humphrey navigated through the ranks of the Jordan Brand to eventually become the Jordan vice president of footwear and global GM. He was then asked to introduce the cohesion of basketball lifestyle footwear and apparel to the Nike Sportswear division as VP of basketball and training. In 2016, Humphrey expressed an interest in working in the category of golf and became the VP of Golf Footwear. Here, he changed the trajectory of Nike Golf Footwear with the introduction of Nike footwear Icons, a new take on traditional golf footwear and a formal introduction of Jordan Golf footwear. Humphrey was then asked to go back to Jordan to reignite the brand in 2018. He did so until September 2021, when he decided to retire – having a 32 year career at Nike, taking the Jordan business from its inception at $160M to ultimately reaching $6B in revenue. But it wasn’t over! Prior to walking away, Michael Jordan asked him to lead the entire Jordan Golf business, a subdivision of the brand.

Today, as the CEO of his GH Consulting firm, Humphrey leads the charge on everything Jordan Golf as their golf VP/GM. Along with this responsibility, he is the CEO of his own shoe company, Code by Gentry which launched in July of 2023. Humphrey is also the co-founder of a company called Link250, which is an innovative platform that collaborates with a virtual studio in Las Vegas, NV, to launch products, brands, and concerts. This platform has the ability to capture 1.5 million viewers in a single setting.

As the founder of his non-profit, The Urban Country Club, Humphrey gives back to the game of basketball by building basketball courts in under privileged parts of the world, where young athletes love and aspire to play the game.

In October of 2023, Humphrey signed a deal with Alcon & Disney where he will introduce a book and be the executive producer of a three-part documentary, sharing his impact on sneaker culture.

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