Phil Knight, the founder of "Nike" company
Wealth File
Phil Knight, the founder of the famous brand "Nike", in From 1986 to 1996, it was always ranked among the top 10 companies in the United States ranked by Fortune magazine. In 1991, Nike became the only company in the world with assets of more than 3 billion US dollars. Sports and Fitness Company.
Business Type
Shoe Industry
Growth Record
In the spring of 1985, millions in the United States. TV viewers saw this advertisement: A basketball rolled quickly to one end of the court. A handsome young man waiting there easily hooked the ball into his palm with his feet wearing colorful sneakers and began to move with the ball. , the harsh noise of the engine was heard, the roar of the engine became louder and louder, and the young man soared into the sky. The last 10 seconds of the commercial were Jordan's "Walking in the Clouds", which even viewers who had never watched a basketball game would recognize. You will marvel at his superb skills. This advertisement not only proves that Jordan has special flying ability, but also implies that the shoes under his feet are inevitably related to it.
In this advertisement, that magic is. The young man is the famous NBA sports star Michael Jordan, and the pair of sneakers under his feet are the famous brand "Nike". Before retiring, Jordan sincerely lamented: "Phil Knight and Nike have turned me into a dream. figure. "The Knight here is the founder of "Nike". It was he who turned a small company into a large group and pushed the once unknown Jordan to the position of a superstar.
Unqualified athletes< /p>
In 1938, an ordinary boy was born in the United States. Like most of his peers at that time, he liked sports, playing basketball, baseball, and running. His name was Phil Knight. As an An ordinary young man, he is very familiar with sports brands such as Adidas and Puma. However, what is unexpected is that this ordinary young man will later create a new brand - Nike, which even surpasses Adidas in the field of sports. Dominance.
Knight has always liked sports. Almost all of his high school papers were related to sports. Even the university chose the University of Oregon, the home of American track and field. Sports, but he is just a mediocre 1-mile runner. His worst time is 4 minutes and 13 seconds. He is just short of joining the ranks of world-class athletes (with a score of 4). A person with such poor performance is too Much more! But fortunately, otherwise we would not have seen a great entrepreneur today.
In Oregon, Knight met his lifelong mentor and friend, his coach Bill Bowerman. Bowerman broke world long-distance running records continuously in the 1950s, and the city of Eugene, Oregon became famous for this. He was a very enterprising person who was determined to make his sports team surpass other teams in training and competition. is the most common mistake, Bowerman wanted to design a shoe with a light sole, good support, low friction and strong stability, which can reduce the pain of athletes' feet and achieve good running results.
So Bowerman carefully designed several patterns of sports shoes. He found several shoe-making companies, but no one paid attention to him. The stubborn Bowerman simply asked a cobbler to make shoes himself. , at a sports meeting, his athletes put on the ugly-looking but lightweight and comfortable shoes made by him, and the results were better than any previous competition.
After graduation, Knight went on to study for an MBA at Stanford University, while Bowerman continued to work as a track and field coach and design sports shoes at the university. In 1960, Knight mentioned in an investigative report during his graduation. It turns out that many sports stars and ordinary athletes actually have the same goal: to defeat Adidas and let more and more athletes wear the high-quality and low-price running shoes produced in Japan - Tigers. After graduation Knight decided to go to Japan to look for an opportunity.
At an exhibition in Japan, Knight met the Japanese Tiger sports shoe manufacturer. He claimed to be the "Blue Ribbon Sports Company" from the United States. Tiger brand needed an agent to enter the US market, so it gave the agency rights to this young man who was just starting out.
After getting the agency rights, Knight immediately found Bowerman. The two of them invested US$500 to form the real Blue Ribbon Sports Company and became the exclusive distributor of Tiger sports shoes in the United States. Initial entrepreneurship. This "blue ribbon" is the predecessor of "Nike".
Nike's Glory
When it first started, there was no warehouse. Knight put the inventory in the basement of Knight's father-in-law's house. He and Bowerman were in charge of finance and management. The design works very well together. Facts have proved that his prediction of the market was correct. The low-priced sneakers sold well, selling $8,000 worth of goods in the first year.
In 1968, the Cortez shoes modified by Bowerman became the best-selling product of Tiger sports shoes, and Knight laid a solid financial foundation for the company's development. The company's business began to gradually improve.
Soon, the Japanese head office noticed that the products were selling well and asked them to remit the money first before shipping. As a result, Bowerman and the others' costs were greatly increased, and they had to redouble their efforts to sell. However, Japan often fails to deliver goods on time, and even secretly keeps first-class products for sale in Japan and sends defective products to the United States. Once, Bowerman and the others received a batch of shoes. The customer wore them for two weeks, and the soles and uppers separated. They had no choice but to swallow their anger and promptly return or exchange products to customers in order to maintain their reputation.
What is even more irritating is that Tiger sent representatives to Eugene and proposed to purchase 51% of the shares of Bowerman Company and occupy two seats among the five directors. If this request was rejected, Discontinue supply immediately. Bowerman and Knight, who had suffered so much from the Japanese businessmen, couldn't bear it and flatly rejected this undue request.
Knight and Bowerman decided to open a company of their own, which he named Nike, after the Greek god of victory. In the eyes of Westerners, the name NIKE is very auspicious, easy to read and remember, and very popular. They quickly launched sports shoes named after "Nike" and designed a beautiful trademark. Nike's famous "swoosh" trademark is very eye-catching, visually attractive, and dynamic as sports shoes and other sporting goods should be, symbolizing power and speed.