Nike
History and progression
Nike was started by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman. The company started as Blue Ribbon Sports in Beaverton, Oregon in 1964. Knight started the distribution company out of the trunk of his car selling Tiger track shoes at meets. The company grew quickly and began to make more money because athletes loved the quality of the shoes. Soon, Knight wanted to expand his company because he wanted to branch out to basketball and baseball shoes. He bought a factory made his own brand called Nike and developed the signature Swoosh. He paid athletes to wear the shoes. This helped advertise the brand. Knight started branching out into sportswear along with shoes.
His goal was to become the number one shoe and sportswear producer in the world. But the company had a barrier. Knight soon realized that he needed to address the biggest played sport in the world….soccer. Adidas was the biggest soccer equipment producer in the world at the time. Nike started sponsoring soccer events for advertizing. They also made the uniforms that had the signature Swoosh. This inclined players to wear Nike cleats because then the uniform would match the cleats.
In 1970 right before the Olympics, Reebok came out with a new women's running shoe that put Reebok on top of the list for number one sportswear producer in the world. Nike had completely ignored women's’ sports and had lost its place as #1 sports provider. To get back on top, Nike sponsored women's Olympic athletes. This had high school and college women athletes buying Nike products. This helped put Nike back on top.
Impact on society
Nike had a big impact on society because it brought new life to a dying economy in Beaverton, Oregon. The economy was bad in the United States and it was worse there because of the hard it was to get to the area because it was surrounded by mountains. Nike created jobs that helped many families survive. The economy now is good with Nike headquarters being there. It attracted other big businesses and now the city is thriving. Nike also brought light onto not only mens sports but also women's sports. Overall, Nike revolutionized the world of sports by changing the ideas of material and grip. Nike also added bright colors to the world of sports.
Influential person
Phil Knight ran track for The University of Oregon. He started Blue Ribbon Sports because he wanted to provide good quality track shoes at an affordable price. Knight also attended Stanford University to study business. It is amazing that someone who started their business out of the trunk of his car now has a net worth of 22.4 billion dollars.
The most important product of Nike
I think the most important product that Nike made was the Air Jordan's. Air Jordan's really helped Nike grow because most people agree that Michael Jordan was the best NBA player of all time. Nike even makes Air baseball and football cleats because Jordan also played baseball and football. The also make Jordan sportswear.