How Nike Became A Billion Dollar Company | TheRichest.com
Nike is one of the most famous American multinational billion-dollar brands in the world of sports today. But Nike was not always as grand as it is now. It started as a small idea and, more importantly, a dream.
Today Nike is a strong contender for the other two famous American multinational corporations manufacturing sports goods, Puma and Adidas. These two brands are, in fact, way older than Nike. But Nike has a net worth of about $35 billion which is more than that of Puma or Adidas. Plus, it has its hands in almost every sport that is played professionally on the planet.
This is how the famous story of the sports company, Nike, came to be.
This sports company’s journey began in 1962 with co-founder Phil Knight, but it was not known by Nike’s name back then. The naming happened years later. In 1962, Phil had just graduated from Stanford University and wanted to create his mark on the world. He was already quite an expert in sports shoes because he was himself a distance runner.
Being a business graduate, Phil wanted to pursue his career as an entrepreneur but was not very well connected. However, Knight’s high conviction and resourcefulness made up for this slack. He decided that if Japanese cameras could be a good competitor against German cameras in the American market, so could Japanese shoes.
Almost on an impulse, he traveled to Japan and looked for a good shoe brand that could be part of his dream. In the city of Kobe, he finally found the shoe store of Onitsuka Tiger and knew at that moment that he wanted to work with them. Phil came up with the name ‘Blue Ribbon Sport’ on the spot and presented himself as an American distributor of shoes. This got him a deal, and he managed to import Japanese sports shoes in America on a small scale initially.
Next came the challenge to rising marker scales and popularizing these Japanese shoes. Puma and Adidas were already making impressive sales in America at this point. Phil knew that he needed expert guidance and aid to launch a massive business in the USA. This was when he contacted his coach at the University of Oregon, Bill Bowerman.
Phil was well aware of his former coach’s fame in America as a coach who was part of the Olympics as well, and he somehow wanted to use this popularity to expand his business. Phil successfully attracted the attention of Bill Bowerman in this business endeavor, and they both invested $500 each to start with.
‘Blue Ribbon Sports’ started in 1964 with the $1,000 that the founders invested. In a year they hit a sales figure of $8000; but the very next year it grew into more than double, $20000. As it turned out, Bill Bowerman was the perfect choice Phil had made for a business partner. The exponential rise in sales resulted from Bill’s reach in the market and the sports world.
Bill Bowerman just had the right tricks in his bag. He knew he had to do something extra to make BRS big. In 1965 he wrote a book on the necessity and benefits of jogging. This helped in raising the sale of BRS shoes for jogging and running. With Bill’s fantastic ideas, ‘Cortez’ was launched into the mainstream line of sportswear. He also kept sending kites back to Onitsuka Tiger to make improvments in the shoe building process.
As jogging shoes became a popular trend with Bill’s book on jogging, BRS shoes’ demand increased. At one point, the demand was so high that it crossed the supply figures. Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman also realised that Onitsuka Tiger sent them a supply after they were done catering to their local Japanese needs.
It was then that they decided that it was time to own the business entirely. Fortunately enough, the contract that they had signed with Onitsuka Tiger was also reaching its expiration date. By 1972, they would be free to make their shoes instead of being mere distributors. It was 1971, and the Munich Olympics were knocking on the door. The co-founders realized it was the perfect time to make it big.
Moreover, they also had enough money to hire sales executives and other staff. Finally, Nike was launched, and the idea of the name was borrowed from Greek mythology. The slogan of ‘Just Do It’ was so inspiring and straightforward that it led to even more popularity. Knight and Bowerman hired a graphic designing student to design the swoosh logo for merely 35 dollars and thus, began the epic journey of Nike.
Nike has been part of a lot of controversies in its later years. However, each time it got involved in one, the sports giant emerged victorious and more powerful. The story of Nike is in sync with its slogan. Today, Nike’s story serves as an inspiration for many new-age entrepreneurs and dreamers.
Sources - Start Business Journey, Success Secrets TV, Medium, Business Casual
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