{"id":1457,"date":"2019-09-18T19:25:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T23:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=1457"},"modified":"2021-11-12T15:25:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T19:25:27","slug":"jeff-johnson-nike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/jeff-johnson-nike\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Johnson and Nike: A Key Early Employee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In 1965, Nike founder <strong>Phil Knight hires his first full-time employee, a fellow Stanford runner named Jeff Johnson<\/strong> who will sell shoes in Los Angeles. Jeff Johnson has a messianic view on running\u2014believing running done right is akin to enlightenment\u2014and Phil hasn\u2019t met anyone with his passion for running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the story of Jeff Johnson and Nike, from Phil Knight&#8217;s book Shoe Dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1966<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Blue Ribbon\u2019s first salesman, Jeff Johnson has a personality quirk \u2013 he sends Phil mountains of letters, detailing his every development, every sale and notable customer. (Shortform note: Just take a minute to remember that business used to be done entirely through phone and letters, not email). Jeff Johnson sends advertising ideas (Phil doesn\u2019t believe in advertising), shoe designs (Phil already has enough to deal with with Bowerman), and his insistence on opening a retail shop in Los Angeles.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phil feels smothered and rarely replies to Jeff Johnson\u2019s letters. From studying war heroes and generals, he holds a virtue: <strong>\u201cDon\u2019t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Jeff Johnson delivers results. His customers love him, depending on Johnson to solve their problems in both running and life. Even when he gets in a car crash and breaks his skull, he continues to sell shoes. Phil even issues him a challenge \u2013 sell 3,250 pairs of shoes in a few months, and Johnson could open his retail space in LA. And sell he does \u2013 now Blue Ribbon has an official runner mecca in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At one point, Jeff Johnson sends one letter that Phil can\u2019t ignore. One of Johnson\u2019s customers says that he can start getting Tiger running shoes from another seller \u2013 a wrestling coach somewhere in the East Coast. That same wrestling coach from 1964 who was supposed to stick to wrestling shoes.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s only one person crazy and passionate enough to do this at a moment\u2019s notice \u2013 Jeff Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1967<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Jeff Johnson does leave for the East Coast, but not without a fight. His father, a salesman himself, pushes Johnson to ask for more \u2013 a partnership in Blue Ribbon, $600 in monthly salary, and a third of all profits after 6,000 pairs sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Neither Phil nor Bowerman, the only owners of Blue Ribbon, want to give up their equity. So Phil flies to Jeff Johnson and his father to negotiate. Despite the arguments of Johnson\u2019s father, Phil holds steady \u2013 he would give Johnson a $50 raise, and that was it. Jeff Johnson looks torn, but he doesn\u2019t want to quit. He needs Blue Ribbon, and despite Phil\u2019s refusal to answer his letters, Johnson feels like he thrives.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blue Ribbon moves out of Phil\u2019s apartment and into its first real office. It\u2019s a fixer-upper, with tissue thin walls and broken windows. Jeff Johnson has settled on the location of their first East Coast office \u2013 Wellesley, MA, a place where runners seemed to abound and the Boston Marathon runs through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1965, Nike founder Phil Knight hires his first full-time employee, a fellow Stanford runner named Jeff Johnson who will sell shoes in Los Angeles. Jeff Johnson has a messianic view on running\u2014believing running done right is akin to enlightenment\u2014and Phil hasn\u2019t met anyone with his passion for running. This is the story of Jeff Johnson and Nike, from Phil Knight&#8217;s book Shoe Dog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,33],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-1457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-people","tag-shoe-dog","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jeff Johnson and Nike: A Key Early Employee - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 1965, Nike founder Phil Knight hires his first full-time employee, Jeff Johnson. Johnson is critical to Nike&#039;s sales efforts. 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