model of shoe, the Cortez, debuted at the 1972 Olympic trials, and in that The big, established players like Puma and Adidas were still manufacturing in high-wage European companies. It won a lawsuit in early 1999 that had accused the firm of lying to consumers about "sweatshop" conditions in Asian factories. See also Human rights groups remained unconvinced. Strasser, Julie, SWOOSH: The Unauthorized Story of Nike and the Men Who Played There, Harper Business, 1993. The 78-year-old is telling the story behind Nike for the first time in his new memoir, "Shoe Dog." topflight athletes to endorsement contracts, including highly lucrative Sales and profits fell in 1998, and Nike laid off 1,900 employees. When Knight began his business selling shoes to track athletes, Bowerman became his partner. multibillion-dollar company. Knight wrote his Stanford business-school term paper on the subject, then a few years later got involved personally by visiting Japan and arranging to import new-design running shoes himself. trunk of his car. (Dream Team member Barkley ably summed up the controversy, said Katz in Sports Illustrated, when he told a reporter that he had "two million reasons not to wear Reebok. That interest in sports-and especially track-gave Knight the impetus to study the way track shoes were being made and marketed in the late 1950s. Portland State student to develop the swoosh design, and Jeff Johnson, a Yet slogans such as run by casually rebellious athletes. "And we were able to get a lot of great ones under contract-people like [distance stars] Steve Prefontaine and Alberto Salazar-because we spent a lot of time at track events and had relationships with the runners, but mostly because we were doing interesting things with our shoes. According to one source, "When his father refused to give him a summer job at his newspaper [the now defunct Oregon Journal], believing that his son should find work on his own," Knight "went to the rival Oregonian, where he worked the morning shift tabulating sports scores and ever… The. business administration; Nike, 1972–, chairman and chief executive The As the company Many members of the Muslim faith were upset, and in June 1997 Nike recalled 38,000 pairs of the shoes and issued an apology. But we knew that wages were lower in Asia." Knight countered that American workers do not want jobs in shoe factories, but Moore was able to find a crowd of jobless workers Much of this its shoes. The former college track runner refers to Nike's world headquarters as a campus and runs it that way. Here's how I did it anyways Published Thu, Aug 4 2016 6:38 PM EDT Updated Thu, Aug 4 2016 7:15 PM EDT Some American women's groups, protested that female employees-the bulk of Nike's Asian work force-were still working 100 to 200 hours overtime at Nike just to pay their bills. In addition to the Asian labor issues, many people remained outraged over Nike's escalating costs, especially since a large market for the products are poor, inner-city youth. Born: February 24, 1938, in Portland, Oregon. We were also good at keeping our manufacturing costs down. yearly sales before 1999. Sports, which would work together with the Onitsaka Company to develop and The trip initiated Knight's lifelong fascination with soccer apparel, opened huge Niketown stores in shopping malls, and selling shoes to track athletes, Bowerman became his partner. Nike co-founder Phil Knight's career started in 1962 with an order for $26.56 in Japanese track shoes. Bowerman was a former Olympian whose passion for athletes and innovation would eventually inspire Knight to create a business dedicated to those two things. There was one area in which Nike made a serious misstep. But Knight insisted in the Sports Illustrated article that "we're not gouging anybody. He also wanted to create products that the "Just do it" and images such as that of Michael Jordan long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine, who would influence other runners 1962. Being an athlete himself, Knight wanted to shape his company around the , London: Sage, 1998. Together they determined that American shoes were inferior in style and quality, too heavy, and too easily damaged. For instance, it was Bowerman, the former track coach, who poured some liquid latex into his wife's waffle iron, thereby inventing the famous sole that made the earliest Nikes feel like bedroom slippers. On the other hand, the company usually gets treated in a superficial, lighthearted way, which is not what we're all about. Available from http://www.hoovers.com. Time Japanese culture and presaged the globalization of Nike. It's a business. Perhaps this combination of issues served to cause a slump. The Japanese, on the other hand, were experimenting with new, trimmed-down styles fashion… For his part, Knight was the only CEO to agree to appear in the Moore film. Sports. company, and when the executives asked which company he represented, officer. casual appearance became a focus of the news media.