THE BIRD’S-EYE VIEW
If you think drones aren’t for your business—well, these founders once thought that too
IN LATE 2016, MICHAEL E. JORDAN wanted to boost holiday sales for his fledgling athletic-wear company, UNRL, which is based in St. Paul. So he hired a drone operator to shoot some sweeping aerial footage of the city—his hometown—and created a video interspersing that footage with mannequins and people wearing UNRL clothing.
The video went viral, getting 50,000 Facebook views, and, Jordan says, UNRL’s sales over that Black Friday weekend tripled the prior year’s. The company now counts the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks as a client. And Jordan continues to make videos with drones. “We’re not Nike and didn’t
