The World's Best Book Summaries
In Nike founder Phil Knight’s memoir Shoe Dog, Knight discusses a man who would be Nike’s mortal enemy—Shoji Kitami, an executive at Japanese company Onitsuka. Onitsuka is supposed to be Knight’s partner, but Kitami selfishly has other plans. He undermines Phil Knight and harasses him over years, eventually leading Knight to found Nike to get out of Kitami’s reach. These are highlights about Onitsuka’s Kitami from Shoe Dog.
Bob Woodell was one of Phil Knight’s early hires at Nike, just a few years after starting the company. A former runner, he was paralyzed from the waist down after an accident. Phil likes that Bob therefore has a chip on his shoulder and is eager to prove himself. Learn more about Bob Woodell and his early history at Nike.
Nike founder Phil Knight started his shoe career selling imported Japanese shoes from the company Onitsuka, not by manufacturing his own. His original company was called Blue Ribbon Sports. He sold his first shoes at track meets out of the trunk of his car, and their design and quality become a hit. Over time, frictions with Onitsuka over distribution rights, slow shipments, and creating new shoe designs forced him to found Nike. If they’d kept their partnership amiable, Phil might have kept working with Onitsuka, and Nike might never have happened. This is the story of Blue Ribbon Sports before
Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, started what would later become Nike in the 1960s when he was in his mid-20s. What was young Phil Knight like? How did he come upon the idea of Nike, and how did he build it into the world’s most recognizable athletic brand? Let’s start at the beginning of Phil Knight’s young life.
Nike is a juggernaut company today, but early in its history, it ran into constant financial problems. It was so aggressive in expanding that it always had issues paying back its bank. At one point, its bank said enough was enough. It would no longer extend Nike credit to grow. Phil Knight is devastated. Until he gets a new partner: Nissho Iwai. From his memoir Shoe Dog, here are the key details about Nike and Nissho.
One of Phil Knight’s key partners at Nike was Bill Bowerman, a star Olympic track coach and Phil’s former running coach from college. Bowerman was the mad scientist of the group, experimenting with new shoe designs and rubber formulations to produce a better running shoe. In one landmark experiment, he squeezed rubber in his wife’s waffle iron, producing the waffle sole. Learn more about Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman’s partnership here, with an excerpted summary of Phil Knight’s autobiography, Shoe Dog.
At Nike, one of Phil’s key partners was Bill Bowerman, a star Olympic track coach and Phil’s former running coach from college. Bowerman was the mad scientist of the group, experimenting with new shoe designs and rubber formulations to produce a better running shoe. In one landmark experiment, he squeezed rubber in his wife’s waffle iron, producing the waffle sole. Learn about the history of Nike’s waffle shoes here.
Rob Strasser was an attorney on a critical lawsuit between Nike and Onitsuka. He did such an impressive job that Phil Knight hired him to be in-house legal staff. Later, Strasser signs Jordan to Nike and creates the Air Jordan brand. But he gets a bit too ambitious and leaves Nike for their rival Adidas, a move that Nike founder Phil Knight never forgave.
Before Nike, Phil Knight started his shoe career selling imported shoes from the Japanese company Onitsuka, not by manufacturing his own. He sold his first shoes at track meets out of the trunk of his car, and their design and quality become a hit. Over time, frictions with the Japanese company over distribution rights, slow shipments, and creating new shoe designs forced him to found Nike. If they’d kept their partnership amiable, Phil might have kept working with Onitsuka, and Nike might never have happened. Learn the history of Nike and Onitsuka’s painful business relationship, from the beginning of Nike.
How did Nike gets its name? It’s not what you expect. Founder Phil Knight didn’t come up with the name. In fact, when he first heard the name “Nike,” he didn’t like it! Learn the origin of Nike’s name here, as well as the names that came before.