This was not in response to Kamdy, whose post above came in while I was still typing. It was in response to the fear that kids pick schools because of their shoe company affiliation.
The shoe obsession is a funny thing. It sounds childish, but I have no doubt that SOME kids do pick based on athletic gear. If you go to some of the recruits from Chicago twitter pages you can see the amount of money they dump into shoes, specifically Jordans. I don't think that Nike has much more appeal than Adidas, but Jordan definitely does.
The popularity of Jordan shoes is undeniable. There's a reason why they can charge 175+ per pair and still sell out instantly.
Anyone know if Nike sponsored schools provide Jordan shoes? Or does the player use their personal gear and Nike is okay with it?