Phil Knight, co-founder of nike shoes Phil Knight, the co-founder of nike shoes, has taken nike shoes from being nothing to a HUGE business that brings in billions of $$ in sales of shoes & apparel.
In this section I will explain how he did it.
It all started in 1962, on a trip to Japan. Phil got in contact with the president of "Tiger" shoes. Phil came up with a great plan to sell shoes in the U.S. for his company. When really Phil didn work for a shoe sales company, he had nothing. He quickly thought of a name, BRS (Blue Ribbon Sports). He was now in business.
In December of 1963, Phil recieved his first shipment of "tiger" shoes from Japan. He bagan to sell them at track meets from the back of his truck.
IN 1964 Phil Knight joins forces with Bill Bowerman. That year BRS sells 1,300 pairs of shoes. BRS made $8000, Phil Knight only made a profit of $250 dollars that year.
5 years later BRS has 20 full time employes. They are no longer selling the shoes from the back of cars, they have several retail outlets. There revenues where close to $300,000 After awhile BRS started making there own shoes. With the help of his former track coach and Jeff Johnson they start to create there own shoes. Just before the shoes went into production, Jeff came up with the idea to change the name from BRS to nike shoes and put a swoosh on the side of the shoe. That is how nike shoes is born.
, cooked some rubber in his waffle iron and then glued it to the buttom of a pair of shoes. He gave them to his athletes to test them out, they came back with great reviews. This show is what launched nike shoes into the BIG TIME! The new shoes with waffle soles were the most innovative shoe of the 70''''s.
Bill Bowerman
Now that they had the best shoe of the time, . nike shoes decided to sponsor John McEnroe, a tennis player who generated lots of attention when he played because he would constantly swear at the umpires.
By 1979, nike shoes was the most popular running shoe in the states. And now nike shoes starts selling more then shoes, they start selling nike shoes apparel and sports equipment for most sports.
There was one thing that was bothering nike shoes, Rebook. Rebook eventually surpassed nike shoes in shoe sales, but nike shoes came back by including a specific shoe for each sport and activity.
nike shoes''''s biggest breack would be Michael Jordan, signed fresh right out of the University of North Carolina. This is what got nike shoes away from Rebook''''s competition. Even thought Michael Jordan was big, he wasn''''t Phil Knight''''s first choice. nike shoes was looking to get Larry Bird or Magic Johnson, 2 of the most popular athletes at the time.
First Air Jordans nike shoes designed a shoe especially for Michael Jordan, called the Air Jordans. One thing that made them really popular was that they were illegal in the NBA. The Air Jordans where white, red and black. Black shoes were not allowed in the NBA. For every game that Jordan wore the shoes he got fined $1000, that did not stop him from wearing the shoes though.
In the 80''''s nike shoes''''s profits kept rising, they eventually rose into the billions. The way nike shoes did this was with the endorsmont of popular athletes and there commercials and ads. There commercials were different, that''''s why people like them, they were like music video''''s
IN 1988, Dan Wieden intraduced the "Just Do It" Campaign. Along with the Bo Knows commercials nike shoes was reaching the billion $ mark in revenues.
That is how Phil Knight and his partners took a small business and with some great ad campaigns and some risk taking they could turn it into a billion dollar corporation.
1957: Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman meet The future co-founders of nike shoes, Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, meet at the University of Oregon in Eugene, America running citadel. Bowerman, already one of the top U.S. track coaches, and Knight, a middle distance runner on Bowerman
track team, begin a relationship that will change the face of sports and fitness.
1959: Knight earns a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Oregon in Eugene Knight begins active duty in the U.S. Army Transportation Corps; he stays in for a year.
1960: After active duty with the U.S. Army Transportation Corps, Knight moves on to do post-graduate work in business at Stanford University in California. Bowerman continues tinkering with new designs for athletic shoes. Early tributes to Bowerman creative skills come when world-class runners from his U of O team and future Olympians break records in shoes he hand-crafted.Knight attends Stanford Business School after active duty with the U.S. Army Transportaion Corps Knight was part of the U.S. Army Reserves until 1967 Bowerman continues tinkering with new designs for athletic shoes.
1962: Knight finishes his market research paper at Stanford Knight receives a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University Knight travels to Japan Knight makes up a company named "Blue Ribbon Sports" (BRS). Knight concludes his market research paper at Stanford with the assertion that low-priced, high-tech, well-merchandised exports from Japan could replace Germany domination of the U.S. athletic shoe industry. After receiving his MBA, Knight takes a world tour. Stopping in Japan, he contacts the Onitsuka Tiger company, manufacturer of quality athletic shoes, and convinces it of great marketing opportunities for its product in the U.S. When asked who he represents, Knight makes up a company name, giving birth to "Blue Ribbon Sports," the forerunner of nike shoes.
1963: Knight first shipment of Tiger shoes, 200 in all, arrives in December. 1963: 200 shoes from Onitsuka (Asic) Tiger arrive in December Knight is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) at Coopers & Lybrand; he is there for a year. |