Nike Inc: Just Do It: History and Facts, Interesting facts about Nike, Nike Shoes, Nike brand analysis, First Nike shoe, Nike History Timeline, Nike logo, Nike background information, Nike brand history, Nike Brand Name, Nike brand campaigns, Nike Brand Endorsers,Nike Air Max
Nike Brand Information
The timeline and facts the Nike swoosh looms large over the footwear industry. This uncontested giant of the field has built itself up through high-profile endorsements sleek designs and PR campaigns successful enough to etch its way into pop-culture history.
But the brand of LeBron James, Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan didn't come from nowhere. To understand Nike(NKE) we require understanding a story that began with a self-described average track runner coming out of college and a coach obsessed with the connection between speed and design.
Nike Brand History: How was Nike founded
The story of nike begins with the story of blue ribbon sports back in 1964. Around that time Phil Knight had just gone through university of Oregon followed by a stint at Stanford for his MBA leaving him with two crucial experiences that set the trajectory of his future.
At university of Oregon he ran for the schools track and field team putting him into contact with their coach Bill Bowerman. Aside from an intensely competitive ethos Bowerman displayed a fascination with optimizing his runners shoes constantly tinkering with different models after learning from a local cobbler.
According to Nike knight was the first student to try one of Bowermans shoes. Seeing him as a safely-unimportant runner to test his shoes on Bowerman offered to take one of his shoes and fix them up with his custom design. Knight accepted the offer and supposedly the shoes worked so well that his teammate Otis Davis took them and ended up using them to win gold in the 400-meter dash in the 1960 olympics.
Knight got the chance to put this theory to the test with a trip to japan shortly after his 1962 graduation. he struck a deal with a group of japanese businessmen to export the country's popular tiger shoes into the u.s. coach Bowerman who long believed that german shoes though the best on the market weren't anything too special to be replicated or even improved on supported Knights venture entering into a 50-50 business deal for ownership of their new company blue ribbon sports established in Eugene Oregon on Jan 25th 1964.
History of nike after founding Blue Ribbon Sports Knight tested the waters for his imported shoes initially selling them out of his car when he came back to the states. It quickly became clear that a demand existed for these cheaper but still high-quality alternatives to the Adidas addyy and Pumas pumsy that dominated the market.
In 1965 the ever-inventive Bowerman proposed a new shoe design to the tiger shoe company one that sought to provide the right support for runners with a cushioned inner sole soft sponge rubber in the forefoot and top of the heel hard sponge rubber in the middle of the heel and a firm rubber outsole. This design would turn out to be both a major success and source of conflict between blue ribbon and its japanese supplier.
Dubbed the tiger cortez the shoe dropped in 1967 and became an instant hit for its comfortable sturdy and stylish design. Around the time of its success though relations soured between blue ribbon and tiger.
Knight claims that the Japanese company was seeking a way out of its exclusivity deal with blue ribbon and sought to sink the company. Tiger claims to have discovered blue ribbon sports selling their own version of the tiger cortez under a new line of shoes they called nike. Either way the two formally split in 1971 with a lawsuit from tiger following.The split with tiger blue ribbon sports fully rebranded itself as Nike.
Nike: Brand Name from the Greek Goddess
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| Famous Nike Swoosh |
A checkmark logo: Nike swoosh
Before this though the new brand needed its own logo. They reached out to a design student at the nearby Portland state university Carolyn Davis to provide sketches.
Phil Knight reluctantly settled on a swoosh design reportedly saying "well I don't love it but may be it will grow on me". Davis charged $2/hour and received a total of $35 for the logo.
In 1983 Phil Knight apparently having come around to the logo held a party for Davidson and awarded her 500 shares of stock speculated to be worth roughly $1 million today.
First Nike Shoes
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| First Nike Shoes 1972 |
In 1972, the primary line of Nike footwear is introduced, including the so-called "Moon Shoes" and therefore the Nike "Cortez", that became the company's hottest product.
Nike's Global Success with Nike brand Shoes
After coming into existence proper on may 30 1971 Nike Inc. continued the success of Blue Ribbon Sports helped first by the success of the Tiger cortez and then by Bowermans innovative waffle sole design.
While thinking over breakfast on a way to give running shoes more traction the coach saw the grooves in the waffle his wife made him and wondered what it would look inverted.
Not one to pass on an idea Bowerman poured melted urethane into his waffle iron. unfortunately he forgot to add any anti-stick agent onto the iron and it glued shut, but nevertheless the idea had taken root and with the help of another waffle iron and presumably a good spray he designed his ideal sole and the iconic waffle trainer was born.
Nike brand shoe was a major success for Nike the first of many to come as the company maintained a strong and steady growth through its early days culminating in its 1980 IPO which immediately made Phil Knight a millionaire with shares worth $178 million.
Nike Brand Building Strategy
Brilliant Nike Brand Campaigns with effective adverts: Just Do it
The company has only continued to grow helped on in part by a series of clever ad campaigns most famously the 1988 Just Do It ad campaign apparently inspired by the last words of american murderer Gary Gilmore before the firing squad 'lets do it'.
Cultural History of Nike Air Max
1987: Nike Air Max 1 was released by Nike Designer Tinker Hatfield who cut a little window into the Air Max 1's padded sole, making Nike Air obvious just because he was inspired
by the open engineering of Paris.
1990: Nike Air Max 90 designed with its stand-apart sideboard, the AM90 was its very own unrest. Its unique "Infrared" colorway still drums up some excitement with each reissue.
1991: Nike Air Max 180 attracted the eyes directly to that 180°Air padding.Its Max Air unit wasn't simply greater—it likewise wrapped right under the shoe. A perfect, smooth nike design helped it to be popular.
1997: Nike Air Max 97 was the primary Nike Air Max shoe with full-length Nike Air padding, the 97 looks staggeringly cutting edge.Nike designers really took their design inspiration from the normal magnificence of waves in water.
2006: Nike Air Max 360: Nike accomplished first no-froth designing innovation with it's Max Air padding. This leap forward commenced another period of Nike Air Max innovation.
2018: Nike Air Max 270 with powerful heel unit has
noticeable for a full 270 degrees made it perhaps the boldest style statement throughout the entire existence of Nike Air Max.
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| Nike Air Max 720 |
2019: Air Max 720: The most recent entry from the Air Max family conveys energetic design, with a show stopping attractive look and an amazing bouncing feature. For the present it includes tallest-ever Nike Air pad.
Nike's Superstar Endorsers and Ambassadors
The company's other greatest asset has been its celebrity endorsements. They struck big signing athletes like Tiger woods, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James in the early stages of their career. Nike's other Superstar Endorsers include Ronaldinho,Michael Jordan,Roger Federer, Michelle Wie,Maria Sharapova and Paul Rodriguez Jr.
By far the most lucrative endorsement Nike has ever had both for the company and its sponsor has been with Michael Jordan. Spotting potential Nike tried to swoop in for an endorsement from Jordan before the start of his first season with the pros in 1984. despite having never worn a pair of Nikes before and harboring hope for a deal with Adidas Jordan ended up signing on with Nike after a meeting in which they promised the soon-to-be star $500 000 a year for five years two die cast mercedes cars and shoes customized to his specific requests.
Nike: Embracing the Controversies
Nike has faced a long history of controversy over its labor practices. The company was founded on a principle of finding cheaper labor to produce same-quality goods and followed this unfailingly till it finally came back to bite them. Nike's factories were initially in japan but then moved to cheaper labor in south korea china and taiwan, as the economies of these countries developed Nike again shifted moving away from labor in South Korea and Taiwan to focus on China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Everything was going well until activist Jeff Ballinger published a report in 1991 documenting the poor working conditions of Nikes operations across Indonesia. This was followed with a popular article in harper's magazine detailing the life of an Indonesian Nike employee who worked for 14 cents an hour. Outrage fermented among the public with protests against the shoe ware giant at the 1992 olympics and an increased media scrutiny on the plight of sweatshop workers. This came at the same time the company sought to expand its niketown retail stores resulting in mass protests around the planned expansions.
How Green is Nike brand Factory?
While Nike's taken strides to increase its eco-friendliness, joining the Sustainable Apparel Commission and implementing a number of reusable materials in its clothing, it still has a way to go.
The primary environmental criticism following Nike has been its refusal to eliminate hazardous materials from its supply chain. As pointed out by Greenpeace, this affects everything from factory workers to waterways to consumers. The hazardous chemicals pollute the environment, threaten to poison those who work with them, and allow a potential health risk to persist among users of Nike's apparel.
Nike has claimed to be working toward elimination of these toxic chemicals. While these claims have been met with dubiousness over the past couple years, in 2018, Nike showed some serious signs of growth, expanding its PFC-free portfolio to 93% of products.
What's Happening in 2019?
Over 2019, most news on Nike has revolved around its political stances. Outside of the political sphere, Nike has also unveiled plans for a subscription service for kids. This comes at a time when apparel companies are increasingly looking toward subscription-based models to attract customers. It'll be Nike's first test of this and opens the door for kids 2 through 10 to have varying access across a selection of roughly 100 shoes for a monthly fee.
Nike Inc: Just Do It: History and Facts, Interesting facts about Nike, Nike Shoes, Nike brand analysis, First Nike shoe, Nike History Timeline, Nike logo, Nike background information, Nike brand history, Nike Brand Name, Nike brand campaigns, Nike Brand Endorsers,Nike Air Max
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