Nike : Business Analysis : Nike

Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight started Nike Inc. in 1971, formally known as Blue Ribbon Sports. Bill Bowerman was a former track and field coach at the University of Oregon, and Phil Knight was a student-athlete at the University of Oregon. After numerous years of supplying under Blue Ribbon Sports, the two decided to enter the athletic shoe manufacturing business. The first employee of the company was Jeff Johnson, who helped them with branding what is known today as NIKE Inc.

Nike was founded on January 25, 1964, as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight (Citation) and was officially named Nike Inc. on May 30, 1971. The company initially operated as a distributer for Japanese shoe maker Onitsuka Tiger (Citation). Nike first started making shoes by the help of Bowerman. He made track shoes for Phil Knight, a track and field athlete, at the time, attending the University of Oregon. In Blue Ribbon Sports first year of business, they sold 1,300 pairs of running shoes. In 1966, Blue Ribbon Sports opened their first retail store located in Santa Monica, California next to a beauty salon (Citation). Then the infamous Nike swoosh was created in 1971 by Carolyn Davidson (Citation). The company has been flourishing ever since opening and is showing nothing, but upside for its consumers.

Nike, Inc or Nike is a very popular and successful business that originated in the early 70s. This business firstly began, known as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964, however, 7 years later saw them changing their name into what we know them today as; Nike Inc.

Nike is one of the most well established companies who sponsor famous athletes that impact their buyers in a more inspirational and positive way. Although Nike has been keeping their illegal sweatshops in hiding and not revealing the truth to its consumers. Nike could solve these problems of their illegal sweatshops and fix their business image and still be one of the biggest companies.

Nike is the leading and yet renowned supplier of athletic apparel and shoes. The company controls close to 33% of the global athletic shoe market (Dogiamis & Vijayashanker,2009).Nike was founded by Bill Power and Phil Knight in 1962 as a Blue Ribbon Support and then was later on renamed to Nike in the year 1968 (Patrow,2003).The company supplies very high quality product in close to 100 countries with major markets being located in the U.S,U,K, Asia Pacific as well as in the Americas. The company has managed to attain its lead and legendary position via the application of innovative and yet attractive product design which is backed by quality production as well as well crafted marketing strategies.

A. According to a Stanford Magazine article written by Jackie Krentzman (2007), Nike's success is a direct result of it ability to take athlete endorsements to the next level.

When people think about shoes most of them have one superior shoe company come to mind, Nike. This dominant company was founded by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman in 1964. Little do some know this company hasn’t always been on the top of shoe companies. When it first started off it was called Blue Ribbon Sports, but it was later changed to its iconic name Nike in 1973. Matter in fact it was started in the back of a car, and now it’s worth roughly around $15 million dollars. This change didn’t happen overnight. It took a lot of grit from Knight and Bowerman to achieve this elite status, which was obtained through two individuals with great ideas on how to reach it, and the grit to back their ideas up.

Nike is a company that has thoroughly embedded itself into the psyche of people around the world. It's a company that started with humble origins from selling footwear in the basement to becoming the behemoth in the athletic industry. Bill Bowerman, University of Oregon track & field coach, and Phil Knight, middle-distance runner under Bowerman co-founded Nike. Nike was first established as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964 as a partnership and the name Nike was officially adopted on May 30, 1978. The infamous Nike Logo - Swoosh, was created for a fee of $35 by Carolyn Davidson, a graphics design student. In 1980, Nike becomes a publicly traded company with the completion of its Initial Public Offering of 2,377,000 shares

1964 marked the creation of “Nike” which at first was called “Blue Ribbon sports”. Nike was created by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman. At first

Nike was introduced in 1971, as a small organization which has grown into a multi-billion organization, as one of the top sellers of sports apparel as well as having

What started with a handshake between two running geeks in Oregon in January 1964 are now the world 's most competitive sports and Fitness Company. Bill Bowerman the legendary University of Oregon track &field coach and Phil Knights a University of Oregon runner under Bowerman coach, found the Nike Company, named by the Greek winged goddess of victory. First the company was named Blue Ribbon Sports. The Nike athletic machine began as a small distributing outfit located in the trunk of Phil Knight 's car. From these rather unpromising beginnings, Knight 's idea grew to become the shoe and athletic company that would come to define many aspects of popular culture. Bill Bowerman 's search for

Phil Knight and his track-and-field coach Bill Bowerman found one of the world’s well-known sports brand, Nike in 1964. With the beginning of Nike first “office” being the laundry room of Knight’s family home it has now become the biggest sports and fitness company in the world with international recognition. The vision statement of Nike as an organization was to think ahead in the long term and not to simply focus and be content with the present as described by Tom Clarke, chief executive of Nike.

The company I am presenting is Nike which was founded in 1965 by the athlete Phil Knight. Nike is a well known brand which is selling its products worldwide and has 36% of the market share.

Nike began as Phil Knight’s semester-long project to develop a small business, which included a marketing plan. This project was part of Phil Knight’s MBA course at Stanford University in the early 1960s. Phil Knight had been a runner at the University of Oregon in the late 1950s. His idea for his project was to develop high quality running shoes. He thought that high quality/low cost products could be produced in Japan and then shipped to the United States to be sold at a profit. His professor thought that Knight’s idea was interesting, but not much more than a project.

Nike’s management understands how important a relevant strategy is in the global environment, as Don Blair, Nike’s CFO, stated “...we are refocusing our efforts, increasing our investments in innovation, using our voice for stronger advocacy and looking at how we incubate new, scalable business models that enable us to thrive in a sustainable economy.”