BIOGRAPHY:

Phil Knight, founder and chairman of Nike Inc., has become a legend in the world of retail and marketing. He has become something of an industry hero, with admiring articles written about him in popular magazines. It’s a reputation that Knight has earned over the years as a visionary businessman and a hard-nosed CEO who will stop at nothing to get things done.

The man Sporting News named the 1993 “most influential” person of the year in sports was not a professional athlete, talented coach or referee. This is a man who has been shoeing great sports stars for almost 30 years. The former college runner called Nike’s headquarters his “camp” and ran it from there. His every move is scrutinized by the media as carefully as the appearances of glamorous superstars wearing Nike sneakers.

Childhood:

Knight was born in Portland, Oregon on February 24, 1938, the son of William H. and Lola (Hatfield) Knight. Oregon’s only billionaire developed his philosophy of self-reliance as the son of an overbearing but loving father who was the publisher of the now-defunct Oregon Journal. As a child, Knight loved sports and wanted to join them in any way possible. He was too young to excel in contact sports, so he took refuge in athletics. When his father refused to give him a summer job at his newspaper, believing his son should find a job on his own, Phil went to a rival newspaper, The Oregonian, where he worked the night shift studying sports performance. At the same time, every morning he ran seven miles home.

Duet of Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman:

Phil Knight’s crazy idea was apparently his own athletic shoe company, which later became Nike. He didn’t do it alone—his companion was Bill Bowerman , who had known Phil since the track and field team at the University of Oregon, where he received his bachelor’s degree. Bill was a coach and knew Phil well, who, although not a champion, showed consistently high results – his best time was a mile (1.6 km) in 4 minutes 10 seconds, and in 57, 58 and 59 he received certificates for their performance.

Phil Knight paid attention to how Bill was working to improve the sneakers and how this affected the team’s results. Later, at Stanford, Phil devoted one of his papers to comparing the competitiveness of German and Japanese sneakers, coming to the conclusion that it was noticeably more profitable to make them in Japan. The combination of all this knowledge and experience gave Phil the “Crazy Idea” that he launched under the Blue Ribbon Sports brand on January 25, 1964.

Blue Ribbon Sports was based on an agreement with the Japanese company Onitsuka Tiger , which gave the duo exclusive rights to distribute the sneakers in the United States. To do this, Phil Knight visited the city of Kobe, Japan, in November 1962, where he personally met with Mr. Onitsuka and discussed all the details of cooperation. More than a year later, the first samples arrived in America, and Phil sent two pairs to Bill, hoping to get advertising and orders – to his surprise, Bowerman offered to become a business partner.

The first sales came from the trunk of the iconic American car Plymouth Valiant near US running tracks and stadiums, making it clear that there was demand. But even great demand did not save us from big problems. Deliveries were rarely delivered on time and new staff had to be hired at the same time – despite constantly doubling sales, two banks broke off their partnership with Phil Knight and his Blue Ribbon Sports.

New sneakers:

An interest in sports and especially athletics gave Knight the impetus to study the process of manufacturing and selling running shoes. It was the end of the 1950s. On the topics of the functioning of the sports equipment industry, Phil loved to talk with his coach, the famous Bill Bowerman from the University of Oregon, who in the future became a full-fledged member of the Nike team and tried on the status of co-founder of the brand. Together they came to the conclusion that American sports shoes were inferior in design and quality, too heavy and too easily deformed. At the same time, the Japanese were experimenting with new models of sneakers made of lightweight and durable nylon. Knight wrote a course work on this topic at Stanford Business School, and a few years later he personally took part in negotiations with representatives of the Onitsuka Tiger brand, visiting Japan and organizing the import of sneakers to the United States.

Knight’s idea was to promote high quality, inexpensive Japanese shoes, although high quality was then rarely associated with Japanese goods. Ultimately, Phil wanted to push adidas, the German three-stripe sneaker brand respected by all serious mid-century athletes, out of the market. To cooperate with the Japanese, it was necessary to organize an official company. Thus, Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), Nike’s predecessor, was born.

Knight and Bowerman, with the imported Japanese Onitsuka Tiger sneakers, were able to stay ahead of the competition through innovation. At the same time, they also managed to keep production costs low. Big players like Puma and adidas still produced gear that was expensive to make. While freshly minted businessmen from Oregon found an option with cheap production in Asia.

This fact still draws criticism towards Phil Knight and Nike from those who talk about the huge difference between the wages of a factory worker in Indonesia and the salaries of top managers of the brand and any Nike ambassador. But Knight insists he is not fooling anyone, as Indonesia is just now in the process of industrializing. Nike gives these people a chance to earn money and feed their families. True, these words cause even more controversy.

But Knight’s reputation will never fall. He earned respect not only in the conference rooms, but also in the world of athletics, which at one time gave him a serious advantage. The best advertisement for the sneakers he brought was the positive reviews from athletes. And already as the head of Nike, he concluded lucrative contracts with promising and unknown athletes, who later became stars and advertised Nike products with their very appearance. Notable examples of this approach were the contracts with Steve Prefontaine and Alberto Salazar.

Creation of the Nike brand:

Bill Bowerman’s coaching ability to bring people together came in handy during the company’s rapid development – Phil Knight was able to quit his job as an accountant and concentrate fully on the business, which already employed 45 people. But in 1971, the exclusivity of cooperation with Onitsuka Tiger was under threat – it was urgent to find new factories for the production of sneakers and even come up with a new name. Knight initially wanted to call himself “Dimension Six,” but Jeff Johnson, their first hire, suggested “Nike,” after the Greek goddess Nike. Phil was not sure whether he liked this option, but he preferred it to others – it turned out quite well.

The first model released was Nike Cortez , developed during collaboration with Japanese partners. The sneakers were wildly successful – the combination of competent marketing and thoughtful design left no chance for competitors. On December 2, 1980, Nike Inc. went public, and in 1986 sales reached a billion dollars. After such success, Phil Knight paid significant attention to charity – in 2006, he donated $105 million to the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and in 2016, $400 million to Stanford University to launch new educational programs. On September 27, 2013, Phil donated 500 million to the Oregon Institute to fight cancer.

Unique image and new technologies:

From the very beginning, Nike shoes have had an original look, including the distinctive swoosh logo, and a unique, recognizable concept. Phil Knight put his marketing mindset into full swing: the name itself after the Greek goddess of victory, the development of a recognizable logo and impressive advertising campaigns confirm this. For example, at one competition, the commentator told the audience that 4 of the top 7 marathon runners that day were wearing Nike sneakers; it’s a pity he forgot to mention that all three first places were occupied by runners wearing adidas sneakers. And Knight’s handwriting can be read in this news. No one else could have come up with a publicity stunt like this.

By the mid-1970s, Nike was at the forefront of introducing technological developments into athletic footwear. For example, Bill Bowerman poured some liquid latex into his wife’s waffle iron and invented the famous Waffle sole, which made Nike’s first sneakers so popular. Phil Knight tried to make the most of such developments, but was still in search of a new breakthrough idea that could bring the brand to the forefront in the industry.

The turning point came in the 1980s, when tennis star Jimmy Connors won Wimbledon wearing Nike sneakers, and John McEnroe, after injuring his ankle while wearing his old sneakers, unexpectedly donned a little-known Nike high-top sneaker. After which all 10,000 pairs of tennis shoes were sold. And the next year, sales of Nike sneakers reached 1 million pairs. Phil Knight became an overnight millionaire.

But it’s worth mentioning Knight’s marketing blunder. The 80s saw the peak of popularity of aerobics, rhythmic aerobic movements accompanied by music. Phil thought about developing at least one model for this popular discipline, but deep down he did not attach serious importance to it. Therefore, the idea of ​​aerobics shoes was forgotten. Which gave a chance to the British company Reebok, which burst into the American market with lightning speed with its Freestyle sneaker model. And suddenly Nike was faced with the emergence of a new serious competitor that had gained favor with the female audience.

Although sales and profits fell in the mid-1980s, Nike regained market dominance in 1984. This happened immediately after Knight returned from a trip to Asia. Phil is a firm believer in the Japanese way of doing business and is impressed by their way of life in general. For example, he might greet his secretary with an elegant bow or the Japanese equivalent of “Hello!” (“moshi-moshi”). She also loves sliding screen doors and cotton slippers.

So, in Asia, Phil Knight realized that he needed to continue to pursue his line: the company again began to rely on technology and turned to the basketball sneaker market, where they were a huge success, making them forget about the failure with the female audience.

Ambassadors:

Signing arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan, was a key step in the development of the brand. This event finally established the brand in first place in the niche of sports shoe manufacturers. And Nike’s slogan “Just Do It” went viral and became widespread in pop culture. At the same time, the foundation was laid for the creation of the now popular sub-brand – Air Jordan, or simply Jordan.

In addition to Jordan, Nike began signing contracts with controversial athletes such as John McEnroe, Andre Agassi and Charles Barkley. Their outrageous antics, willy-nilly, advertised Nike sneakers better than any television advertising campaigns. The apogee of this was the outburst of American basketball players at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, ​​when the athletes refused to wear Reebok uniforms for the awards, preferring to go out in Nike gear.

Beyond Nike:

Now that Phil Knight is no longer at the helm of Nike, he can safely enjoy the fruits of his success. Phil and his wife Penelope Parks have two grown sons and one adopted daughter. They live in good old Oregon in a no-frills house surrounded by a bunch of pets. Knight’s only luxury items are a black Lamborghini and a red Ferrari.

At the same time, the opinion of the brand founder is taken into account. He often appears on Nike’s campus and talks to new executives about his vision for the company. Knight is confident about Nike’s future as the company expands its product line to include a wide range of apparel and accessories. And the brand’s sphere of influence is only growing.

The man who built an empire on shoes still cherishes the words of his coach and colleague Bill Bowerman: “Play by the rules, but be fierce.” He described the rest of his principles in his author’s book “Shoe Salesman.”

Phil Knight’s book “The Shoe Salesman”

In late 2015, Phil Knight announced that he was writing a book about the early days of Nike. In English, the book is called “Shoe Dog” and published on April 26, 2016 – it describes the difficult moments and problems that had to be faced in building the legendary brand: from importing Japanese sneakers to getting caught in a federal investigation. The book was published in Russian under the title “Shoe Seller” . The Story of Nike as Told by Its Founder” received rave reviews from audiences for its authentic story about the underbelly of business, which focuses on the process rather than the personality of the author. Thus, Phil Knight forever inscribed his name in history, not only as a founder, but also as an excellent mentor for future generations.