Nike, Phil Knight's Tiger Shoes

Nike was founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. The two men met when Bowerman was coaching track and field at the University of Oregon and Knight was a middle distance runner on his team. After earning an MBA from Standford, Knight returned to Oregon and approached Bowerman with an idea to bring in low priced, high-tech athletic shoes from Japan to compete in the United States athletic shoe market. With a handshake and a five hundred dollar investment by both men, Blue Ribbon Sports was born in 1964. BRS began importing shoes from Onitsuka Tiger, with Knight making sales at high school track meets and Bowerman

Nike is a huge supplier if athletic shoes for the world these days. Philip H. Knight, the founder of this corporation came up with an idea of an athletic shoe at the track field of the University of Oregon.

Nike is the leading and yet renowned supplier of athletic apparel and shoes. The company controls close to 33% of the global athletic shoe market (Dogiamis & Vijayashanker,2009).Nike was founded by Bill Power and Phil Knight in 1962 as a Blue Ribbon Support and then was later on renamed to Nike in the year 1968 (Patrow,2003).The company supplies very high quality product in close to 100 countries with major markets being located in the U.S,U,K, Asia Pacific as well as in the Americas. The company has managed to attain its lead and legendary position via the application of innovative and yet attractive product design which is backed by quality production as well as well crafted marketing strategies.

<br>In 1958, Phil Knight, a business major a the University of Oregon, and a miler on the track team, shared with his coach, Bill Bowerman, a dissatisfaction with the clumsiness of American running shoes. They formed a company in 1964 to market a lighter and more comfortable shoe designed by Bowerman. In 1968, this company became NIKE, Inc.--- named for the Greek goddess of Victory. At first, Knight and Bowerman sold their shoes in person, at track meets across the Western US. Their company thrived through a classic combination of entrepreneurship and innovation. Bowerman 's most memorable technical breakthrough was the optimal traction of the waffle soles he invented by shaping rubber in the waffle iron in his kitchen (1972). Other essential innovations were the

Phil Knight started a company that wasn’t even real just to make to build his real vision, which was the company Nike. After Knight graduated at Stanford he met with Bill Bowerman and they became business partners. His dad gave him a small amount of money to start his company that would later become Nike. Knight met with the company Onitsaku Tiger and told them that he wanted to sell their shoes at Blue Ribbon Sports, which wasn’t even a real company (Entrepreneur.) Knight and Bowerman began selling the shoes at high school track events across the state of Washington. After Phil Knight had made three million dollars he and Bowerman decided to cut ties with Onitsaku Tiger and started Nike. The company’s name came from the

Around the world, Nike has become synonymous with running shoes. The Nike brand can be recognized by the mere sight of the notorious swoosh or their famous “Just Do It” slogan. However, Nike has been associated with child labor, poor working conditions, and extremely low wages. Nike has set out to change this association and to convey an image of progress and awareness. Nevertheless, some wonder if Nike’s intention is to change its impression on its customers or to better the lives of the workers. The image of Nike as an American company greatly contrasts how Nike began and expanded. Phil Knight established Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964, which sold speciality running shoes in Japan. Shortly after the company started marketing in the United States,

Philip Hampson, known as “Phil Knight” is known for his business in the Nike Inc. Phil studied at the University of Oregon and Stanford University. He also went to Cleveland High School. He was born February 24, 1938 (age 78). In 2015 Phil was known as the 15th wealthiest guy in the world with a net worth of $28.1 billion. Phil was a son of a lawyer, William Knight and his wife Hatfield Knight. Phil Knight is the co-founder of Nikes. Phil, before becoming the chairman of Nike contribute in the CEO of the company. Phil owns a Stop motion film production located in Laika including with his business with Nikes. January 10, 1959 was the start of Nikes. Nikes started with a contract signed in Kobe, Japan.

Nike’s main strategy revolves around product branding. Their brand compromises of a swoosh logo which is accompanied by a message of “just do it”. The logo was imprinted on all of their products with the message developed to express the individuality of their target group. The branding was further promoted by Nike’s relentless approach on the quality of their product as demonstrated when considering overseas business opportunities, quality must not be compromised in order to do so. This ensures consumer satisfaction and loyalty towards Nike.

Before Michael Jordan became the prophet of the basketball shoe, he was the face of the basketball court. It was 1984 and a young, fresh-faced kid from North Carolina astonished the sports world by earning both a collegiate national title and an Olympic Gold Medal (“The History”). At the same time, the fast-rising sports apparel brand, Nike, had experienced something it never had before: a quarterly loss (Rovell). The two seemed to be a perfect match; the rising star of Jordan was just what Nike needed to turn things around. Suffice to say, Nike inked Jordan to a hefty contract - five years and $2.5 million, to be exact. (“The History”). What came next was the birth of what would forever change the basketball shoe, the Air Jordan line. The first of its kind was the Air Jordan I, which was introduced in 1985 and was quickly banned by the NBA for violating its rules applying to colorful wear (“The History”). Nike, in response, used this as a medium for advertising since lot of buzz began to hover the shoe; selling for $65, the Air Jordan I was the most expensive basketball shoe on the market (“The History”). Many more versions of Air Jordans were released and, in fact, are still being released to this day. The shoes’ popularity only increased, as their name-bearer, Michael Jordan, put together one of the most impressive careers of all-time. Jordan won six championships and holds a multitude of personal records. The brand’s advertising campaign, which utilizes Jordan’s

The athletic shoe industry is made up of companies that produce footwear for athletic use. This is a strong industry and has been around for over 100 years. The athletic shoe industry is one of the fastest growing footwear industries and have top growing sales compared to other footwear industries (NDP Group, 2016). The key players that currently dominate the market are Nike, Adidas, and Puma (Kates & Bolduc, 2013). This paper will use the porter five forces, industry life cycle, and the key players to understand the industry. Over these years the athletic shoe industry has grown into a competitive market.

Phil Knight and his track coach Bill Bowerman founded Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964. The company started as being a distributor of Onituska Tiger athletic shoes which were imported from Japan. In 1971 they broke away from Onituska and created their own of shoes. The company was renamed, Nike. It became the largest worldwide seller of athletic shoes. They branched out and created various products lines; shoes, clothing, sporting goods and digital devices. They used celebrities to promote their products. The first athlete to wear and promote their show was runner Steve Prefontaine. Their now well know swoosh was first seen in the 1972 US Track and Field Trials. Every basketball player in high school wanted a pair of Michael Jordan’s,

In 1964 in Oregon, Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman join together to make a new enterprise; each contributed about $500 to the partnership. The company started bringing low priced and high tech athletic shoes from Japan to replace the German domination of athletic shoes in the industry. In 1971, a graphic design student created the Swoosh trademark for a $35 fee. In the same year Jeff Johnson, Blue Ribbon Sports ' first employee, made his most durable contribution to the company in coming up with a new name, Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory. NIKE is the world 's #1 shoemaker and controls over 20% of the US athletic shoe market.

Nike began as Phil Knight’s semester-long project to develop a small business, which included a marketing plan. This project was part of Phil Knight’s MBA course at Stanford University in the early 1960s. Phil Knight had been a runner at the University of Oregon in the late 1950s. His idea for his project was to develop high quality running shoes. He thought that high quality/low cost products could be produced in Japan and then shipped to the United States to be sold at a profit. His professor thought that Knight’s idea was interesting, but not much more than a project.

Before Nike came into existence Nike's brand was conceptualized at the University of Oregon .at university bill Bowerman was knights track coach.. After his running days were over at university knight enrolled at the prestigious Stanford business school for his master's degree in finance. Whilst

Nike began as an enterprise in Oregon with its founder, sports enthusiast Phil Knight. In 1962, Nike started under the name Blue Ribbon Sports. During this time, the athletic shoe industry was dominated by the Adidas and Puma companies. Knight recognized there was segment of serious athletes that had specialized needs that were not being addressed by the major companies.