With no official sales premises, the founding members were forced to sell their shoes out of the trunks of their cars. They could continue to see excellent sales of shoes, and by they had enough revenue to hire their first full-time employee.
In the lates sales had continued to grow, and they further expanded operations into the East Coast of America in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
The rest of the 20th Century would see exponential growth and expansion of the company all around the world. Today the company is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon. The Nike brand also includes other famous shoe-brands like Converse, Hurley, and Jordan.
But why was the name chosen? Originally co-founder Knight wanted to name their brand "Dimension Six". Various other suggestions were bounced around by other early employees, including Jeff Johnson, BRS's first-ever employee.
In a famous recollection of the meeting , Hollister believed they should take a leaf out of Puma's book. But despite reaching a sort of consensus amongst existing staff members, Knight was not too enamored with the name.
She sketched out a few ideas, but one of the ones she decided to show Nike's founders was the now-iconic "Swoosh". Despite its destined fame, Knight was not too impressed with it the time. Davidson received a gold Swoosh ring with an embedded diamond at a luncheon honoring her, along with a certificate and an undisclosed amount of Nike stock, in recognition of the Swoosh design logo. According to Sotheby's one of the first, if not the first, Nike shoe was the so-called "Moon Shoes".
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 maybe it will grow on me. After coming into existence proper on May 30, , Nike, Inc.
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.
Since then, the company has only continued to grow, helped on in part by a series of clever ad campaigns, most famously the "Just Do It" ad campaign apparently inspired by the last words of American murderer Gary Gilmore before the firing squad, "Let's do it. The company's other greatest asset has been its celebrity endorsements. 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 Air Jordans continue to be a cash cow for Nike. Nike responds by instating its first factory codes of conduct. OSHA clean-air standards in overseas factories.
Perez becomes the company's new CEO. 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.
Not much was noted of this until activist Jeff Ballinger published a report in , documenting the poor working conditions of Nike's 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 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.
With protests around college campuses, calls for boycotting the company, and pressure put on its stars like Michael Jordan to denounce the brand, Nike made a concerted effort in to improve the labor conditions of its factories. It included raising the minimum age among workers, increasing the monitoring of factory conditions, and enforcing U. This was followed by Nike's creation of the Fair Labor Association in , and audit of roughly factories between , and the public disclosure of all of its factory locations in While reports of abuse at the Nike factories still persist, many human rights activists have acknowledged Nike's efforts to have minimized the worst problems at these factories, and the public outcry today over the company's labor conditions is a shadow of what it once was.
The 49ers quarterback had become a lightning rod for controversy after being the first football player to take a knee during the national anthem in protest of police brutality toward black Americans. He received a mix of support and backlash from the public, with some calling him a hero and others criticizing his actions as "un-American. This controversy only intensified with Donald Trump making criticism of the protest Kaepernick started a central talking point in his campaign and, later, presidency.
When Philip Knight and Bill Bowerman ceased importing and distributing running shoes through Blue Ribbon Sports and launched Nike as a designer and maker of athletic shoes, the Cortez silhouette carried over to the new brand.
Nike Cortez, the iconic shoe designed by Bill Bowerman at the end of the sixties and released in , returns in its original colorway - as seen in the cult movie "Forrest Gump" - to celebrate 43th anniversary Email This BlogThis! Nike "Swoosh" logo by Carolyn Davidson.
The store distributed Onitsuka Tiger shoes. Nike shoes U. The upper is preferably made of nylon tricot fabric outer layer, a polyurethane foam middle layer, and a porous synthetic fabric inner layer. This greatly reduces the weight of a football shoe made in accordance with the invention so that it is approximately one-half the weight of a conventional leather football shoe as well as providing great comfort and enabling use in wet weather without damage.
The sole has short multi-sided polygon shaped studs of square, rectangular or triangle cross section, having a plurality of flat sides which provide gripping edges that give greatly improved traction».
Rare Nike handmade "waffle" prototype shoes by Bill Bowerman. Jeff says he was given the shoe in by Tom Bowerman, one of the sons of Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman.
0コメント