Nike History

I. Complete Company History: The NIKE Company

The NIKE industry, originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports, began on January 25, 1964 with a $500 investment, a handshake and a mutual trust between Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman. This handshake and investment led to what is known as a multi-million dollar company, that has more than lived up to its mission statement, to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” (Bowerman) From the moment the investment was made, even up to today, NIKE has been following Bowerman and Knights principle values to keep not only the product going but to show their team are exceptional people as well.

In the 1950s, Bill Bowerman was a respected track and field coach at the University of Oregon. While coaching, Bowerman, was also constantly seeking ways to give his athletes the competitive edge. To do this, he experimented different running surfaces, re-hydration drinks and of course innovations to running shoes. When his ideas were ignored by current footwear manufacturers, Bowerman began making shoes for his runners.

The other co-founder, Phil Knight, was a talented middle-distance runner from Portland. He enrolled at University of Oregon in the fall of 1955 and competed for Bowerman’s team. When Knight graduated from Oregon, he earned a MBA degree in finance from Stanford University. He wrote a paper that would propose quality running shoes could be manufactured in Japan. His letters to these said manufacturers in Japan and Asia were never answered. This is where Knight decided to take a stand and a chance. Knight then made a call to Kobe, Japan and finally persuaded a manufacturer of Tiger shoes to make him a distributor of Tiger running shoes in the US. After receiving the first sets of sample shoes, he sent Bowerman several pairs. Instead of selling the shoes for Knight, Bowerman offered to instead become his partner and also offered to provide his design ideas to Tiger....