Good Nike History Essay Example

Nike, Inc. – is an American company, the worldwide manufacturer of sports goods that is one of the largest sport brand corporations in the world. The history of Nike began in 1964 when a middle-distance runner and student of the University of Oregon Phil Knight came up with the idea to purchase comfortable and affordable footwear in Asian countries and sell it in the United States. In those times, the 1960s, America did not know convenient and at the same time average price sport shoes – all that customers could buy were cheap (5$) and bad-quality American sneakers or high quality but extremely expensive (30$) running shoes from German company Adidas. Phil Knight sought to fill the American market with good sport shoes that everyone could afford to buy, so he made a contract with the Japanese company Onitsuka for the supply of running shoes in the United States.
In 1964 Knight and his track-and-field coach Bill Bowerman founded the Blue Ribbon Sports and initially were selling their sport shoes from the Knight’s minibus. During the first year of their business, Knight and Bowerman earned more than 8 000$, so the young businessmen decided to expand their “company”. They hired salesman Jeff Johnson who gave an idea to rename the Blue Ribbon Sports to Nike (the word comes from the name of Greek goddess of Victory). In 1971, the famous logo of the corporation was invented by Carolyn Davidson, the student of Portland State University, for just 30$. In 1975, Bill Bowerman came up with the idea of “waffle sole” – Nike’s famous invention of grooved sole in order to make the shoe lighter in weight so that the sportsman’s push during running would be strengthened. By the end of 1970s Nike went 270 000 000$ in sales.
In 1984 Nike made a contract with Michael Jordan, having developed the special shoes Air Jordan, and became the first corporation that engaged sport stars into its advertising campaign. In 1988, Wieden+Kennedy, Nike’s main advertising agency, developed one of the most famous and successful slogans in the world - “Just Do It”. Then, the company made a new contract, now with the golfer Tiger Woods who received 40 000 000$ for this deal.
Today Nike continues to be one of the leading multinational corporations that develops, produces and sales sport shoes, clothes, equipment and accessories. It sponsors famous sportsmen, organizes sport events, and develops revolutionary shoes. Its ads inspire, its logo is one of the most recognizable in the world, and its slogan proves – sometimes “just do it” is enough.