TABLE OF CONTENTS If you have a body, you are an athlete
And as long as there are athletes, there will be Nike.
In 1962, a young business student by the name of Phil Knight was inspired to write a school paper after overhearing staff from the Oregon Journal debate whether Japanese Nikon cameras would one day replace the expensive, German-made Leicas. A middle-distance runner for the University of Oregon, Knight argued that if low-cost Japanese producers could manufacture good quality running shoes, the price differential would open up a new market, undercutting European manufacturers like Adidas and Puma. Though Knight graduated and went on to work as an accountant, he set out on a summer trip in 1963 and travelled to Japan, where he met the managers of the Onitsuka Company which produced Tiger running shoes. Stirred by the sight of the cheap, lightweight shoes, which were decent imitations of their European counterparts, Knight was motivated to purchase samples which he brought home to show his old track and field coach, Bill Bowerman. The legendary Oregon coach was impressed enough to agree to invest $500 in a partnership and the two contracted with Onitsuka and bought 1000 pairs of Tiger shoes under the name of Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) (Katz, 1944). Retailing the shoes out of the trunk of his car at sports meets, Knight sold $8000 worth of shoes in just a year and immediately quit his job and ordered more stock. Knight hired a small team...
