Nike is a multinational company based in the US, which is known as the world’s largest manufacturer of athletic shoes. Along with this, it manufactures many other sports-related products, such as – T-shirts, gloves, caps, bats, caps, etc. This is why Nike is the most valuable brand in the sports business today. There is an interesting story behind Nike reaching this point, which teaches a person to do something big. Let’s know its success story.
The company was started by Phil Knight in 1962 when he was pursuing his MBA from Stanford University. When Phil Knight was pursuing his MBA, he was given an assignment on small business and marketing plans. Phil was very interested in sports and running, so he wrote about the shoe business in assignments. During this time he got the idea of making cheap and good quality sturdy shoes. With this idea, he went to Japan to give his dream flight, where he saw Tiger Company shoes made by Onitsuka Company.
Phil Onitsuka meets with the company’s owner and takes over the rights to sell Tiger Company’s shoes, revealing that he owns the company “Blue Ribbon Sports”. This “Blue Ribbon Sports” company was just what Phil had in mind that didn’t exist. Now Phil leaves the market with a sample of Tiger’s shoes to sell, first to “Bill Boorman” who had been his sports coach during his graduation. When “Bill Boorman” saw these shoes, he loved the shoes and the business model was so enticing that he became Phil Knight’s partner.
Now both “Bill Boorman” and “Phil Knight” start a footwear company named “Blue Ribbon Sports” on January 25, 1964, with an investment of $1000. Thereafter, he orders 300 pairs of Tiger brand shoes from Onitsuka Company. Now he started selling these shoes from the trunk of a car outside the school. In the first year, he sold a total of 1300 pairs of shoes, from which he earned about $ 8000. The next year his earnings increased to $ 20000. Seeing the growing success of the business, two years later in 1966, the “Blue Ribbon Sports” company opened its first showroom in California.
A year later, the demand for his shoes increased so much that he opened another store in Massachusetts and moved on to distribution. In 1971, the contract between “Blue Ribbon Sports” and Onitsuka Company expired. Now “Blue Ribbon Sports” decided to create its brand of footwear. In 1971, the company’s name was officially changed from “Blue Ribbon Sports” to Nike, named after the Greek goddess. The company had its logo designed by a graphic designer named Carolyn in the form of a tick mark. Soon this logo became the identity of Nike.
Around the year 1980, the company expanded its business to include footwear as well as many other products such as tracksuits and clothing accessories. Now the company had become another name for fashion for American youth. The colorful shoes and sneakers launched by Nike increased the demand among the youth of America and with this Nike shoes captured 50% of the shoe market in the year 1980. In the year 1984, Nike signed famous basketball player Michael Jordan for its promotion. And later many famous players like Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, Rafael Nadal, Ronaldo, and Serena Williams also became the identity of this brand.
In the year 2005, Nike also became the official kit sponsor of the Indian cricket team. And by the year 2015, the revenue of this company had increased to $ 30 billion, with which Phil Knight came at number 15 in the list of the world’s richest people.
So this was the success story of Nike. From this, we get the lesson that “if there is a desire to do something big in the heart, the path opens automatically, if everything is needed then a small beginning”