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Nike history. The Swoosh

Bill Bowerman, University of Oregon coach was the man who not only introduced jogging to America, but also taught his athletes to seek the competitive advantage everywhere – in their bodies, their gear and their passion. Bowerman was the man behind the shoe.
Phil Knight was a University of Oregon student of accountancy and a middle-distance runner under Bowerman

1962

Knight had the crazy idea to import low-price, high-tech athletic shoes to the US from Japan to rattle on the German domination of the US market.
Bill Bowerman and Knight formed a partnership in the same year, they are said to have invested $ 500 each into their company named Blue Ribbon Sports and started importing shoes from Onitsuka Tiger (now Tiger-Asic). which soon appeared on American feet. Knight was the man behind the busines

1964

Knight sold $8000-worth of shoes and bought more until cresting $1 million sales and riding the wave of success Knight devised the Nike name in 1971^and the trademark Swoosh

1965

Jeff Johnson, a former miler of the University of Oregon, joined Blue Ribbon Sports company as its first full-time employee, selling shoes from the back of his van at high school track meets, where he kept in close contact with the athletes, listened to their needs and problems, built prototypes and helped them to win. Johnson hated the idea of being a salesman. He wasn't, he spent his time talking to the athletes and coaches.

1966

Johnson created a runners Mecca by establishing the first BRS retail store in Santa Monica. A store with cosy corners in which the interested customers could read nearly all the books ever written on running. The walls were pasted with pictures of winning athletes wearing BRS shoes, suggesting they were heroes in the local community. The first true running store ever!

1971

Swoosh. Phil Knight still had to top up his modest income from Blue Ribbon Sports with a teaching job at Portland State University. He needed someone to design a shoe stripe for his little company to be named Nike. He offered the graphic design student, Carolyn Davidson, the job. He wanted a design that suggested movement. Pressed for time and needing something quickly, he accepted her Swoosh with the words "I don't love it, bit it will grow on me". Her bill for $ 35 was settled. Needless to say she continued to work for the company until she couldn't handle all the work alone any longer.

1972

Steve Prefontaine, also a University of Oregon runner and middle-distance running prodigy Pre, as he was known, became Nike's first endorsed athlete.
Blue Ribbon Sports separated from Tiger and became Nike. Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, made its public debut at the Olympic trials in the same year. The campaign to get Nike known starts. School sports teams are clad in clothes and shoes with the Nike logo.

1975

Steve Prefonataine, who is later even featured in a Disney film, ran and won his last race on May 29, 1975. The prodigy was killed in a tragic car accident and could never make his dream come true of winning the Olympic Gold medal for the 5000 m run.
CEO Phil Knight introduces the pre-order inventory system. A revolutionary business decision that soon became standard.
After eight years Nike decided to go public

1985

Michael Jordan, a young NBA rookie is signed on, a player that every other company envies Nike for and who launched the new Air Jordan shoes which then gave Nike the leading edge in basket ball shoes. Nike sells street wear. The days of specialty stores for runners are a bygone. The small cosy retailers are replaced by world-wide mega operations.
The company is rocketing. Nike invites Carolyn Davidson to join an intimate get together with a few people she used to work with including Knight. To her surprise she was invited to reap the benefit for her toils. She was presented with a gold Swoosh ring embedded with a diamond. She was also given Nike stock, the quantity remains a secret. According to Carolyn "... I can definitely say that I have been well-compensated for my design".

1988

"Just do it" another great success. It has survived to this day. This successful campaign insinuating that if you bought Nike shoes you could do it, skyrocketed Nike sales as a campaign has never done before.

1990

Nike continued to innovate the running shoe and introduced the Air Huarache, the first laceless technology. It is also in the 1990s that Nike first marketed a shoe with a see-through air pocket, an attraction for young buyers.
The runwalk shoe, also an innovation of the 1990s


Nike is still known today as a company that signs of hundreds of athletes and has a great influence in the sporting world but also as a company which defines the popular culture as we know it today.