Nike is one of the greatest global sports equipment and apparel companies on the face of the earth. The company has partnered with legendary world-class athletes to perform on the world sports stage with his sports equipment. Co-founder Phil Knight attended the University of Oregon and then Stanford for his MBA. He grew up in Portland, Oregon, and ran track at the U of O. His first job out of undergrad was as a CPA and then as an accounting professor at Portland State University. Importantly, before he went to Stanford, Knight joined the U.S. Army in 1959 and was a Distinguished Military Graduate. While at grad school he planned to import high quality and low-cost running shoes from Japan to the U.S. market. Post school he discovered the Tiger running shoes that were made in Japan and met with the owner of the company. He made his first deal with them and brought the Tiger shoes to the Western U.S. The shoes were usually sold from the trunk of his Plymouth Valiant. Knight served one year in the Army on active duty and then seven more years in the Army Reserve. Yes, the co-founder of Nike made his business while serving and continued to serve in the Reserves once established.
Knight’s co-founder was his college track coach and WWII veteran Bill Bowerman. Bowerman was a highly acclaimed coach by having trained 31 Olympic athletes, 51 All-Americans, 12 American record holders and 22 NCAA champions. Bowerman was in ROTC in college and also served in the Army Reserve. He joined the Army as a second lieutenant days after Pearl Harbor was attacked and served on the European Front during the war with the 10th Mountain Division. Bowerman earned a Silver Star and four Bronze stars during his service. He returned home stateside and began coaching.
The first name for Nike was Blue Ribbon Sports and the two co-founders operated under a handshake agreement on January 25, 1964. Knight ran the business side and Bowerman worked on the shoe designs. The team’s first tester was Otis Davis, later an Air Force veteran and winner of two gold medals at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Davis stated, “I didn’t like the way they felt on my feet. There was no support and they were too tight. But I saw Bowerman make them from the waffle iron, and they were mine.” Bowerman’s overall shoe designs led to the Nike Cortez in 1968. Many shoes came from Bowerman’s work; however, he spent much time in non-ventilated areas with toxic chemicals in the making of the shoes. This led to many health problems such as severe nerve damage. He had become mobility-challenged and could not even run in the shoes he made for the world. By the late 1970s, Bowerman reduced his role in the firm and passed down his stake to other employees before the IPO. He passed in late 1999 at the age of 88.
In 1968, Knight married Penny Parks and had two sons, Travis and Matthew (deceased). By 1969 Knight had left his accountant job to work full time for his company. Blue Ribbon Sports changed its name to Nike in 1971 based on the suggestion of their first employee Jeff Johnson. He thought the company should be named after Nike, the Greek-winged goddess of victory. Their “swoosh” logo was designed by Carolyn Davidson for $35 in 1971. Knight didn’t initially love the logo and gave Davidson a “few hundred shares” of stock when the company went public in September 1983. He took the company to new heights and made Nike a household name. The company in 2024 has a revenue of $51.36B, an operating income of $6.472B, overall assets of $38.11B and a total equity of $14.43B. Nike employs over 83,000 people and owns its former rival, Converse. The company ranked 89th on the Fortune 500 list in 2018 and is ranked 239th on the Forbes Global 2000 companies in 2024. That is a pretty good return on investment from two Army veterans. Knight stepped down as CEO on November 18, 2004, and ceded his role as chairman in June 2015. His retirement from the company’s board took place at the end of June 2016, although he comes back at times to do things for the firm.
Of the many successes for Knight, he helped support many top-level athletes and made them Nike stars. This practice began with him and has continued. Nike has partnered with the following athletes from multiple sports like professional basketball, golf, baseball, tennis, soccer, golf and many more including Michael Jordan, Cristiano Ronaldo, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Naomi Osaka, Kevin Durant, Rafael Nadal, Kobe Bryant, Deion Sanders, Maria Sharapova, Bo Jackson, Jerry Rice, Roger Federer and Russel Wilson. Many of these athletes are gold medalists and championship winners in their sport of choice.
Knight and his wife have done many philanthropic things for people with his monetary success. He has a net worth of $60.8B in USD. He has donated over a hundred million to the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Rhodes Scholarship and has donated hundreds of millions to the University of Oregon in different departments. Knight resides in Hillsboro, Oregon, and was recently portrayed by Matt Damon in the film Air.