shoe-dog

<blockquote>"The 1960s were just underway, the age of rebellion, and I was the only person in America who hadn't yet rebelled."</blockquote><p>Thus begins the education of Phil Knight. "The ultimate dream was to be a great athlete. Sadly, fate made me good, not great." So, at twenty-four he had a crazy idea. His favorite athletic activity was running and his crazy idea was to import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan and sell them to his fellow running enthusiasts.</p><p>The concept for Nike was formulated in an MBA class on entrepreneurship at Stanford University in 1962. The idea was advanced when Knight shared it with his former track coach at the University of Oregon, Bill Bowerman. The business took shape when Knight began importing shoes from Japan. This retelling covers the early years of the company from 1962 to 1980.</p><p>After five years and a handful of employees, Knight still couldn't justify taking a salary. So, he grew the business of selling shoes while working accounting-related day jobs. It wasn't until after his 30th birthday that Knight felt comfortable drawing a full-time salary from his running shoe import company. The shoes were manufactured by a Japanese company called Tiger and Knight's import business was known as Blue Ribbon at the time.</p><p>Going into the 1968 Olympics the world's two biggest athletic shoe companies were Adidas and Puma. The Nike brand had still not yet been created. A contractual dispute between Knight and the Japanese company led to the birth of the Nike brand and the accompanying swoosh (It's the sound of something going past you) in 1971. The branding of Nike coincided with the arrival of Steve Prefontaine and the subsequent running boom. "Pre" would die tragically four years later at the age of 24 holding every American distance record from 2,000 meters to 10,000 meters.</p><p>The 1976 Olympics became the first to feature athletes wearing Nikes. The next year delivered an innovation known as Air. The following year brought apparel. And then ... a public offering. After 18 years of running a running shoe company, Phil Knight was suddenly worth $178 million.</p><p>No unique business advice to glean from this memoir beyond your typical perseverance, lawsuits and a dollop of luck. Nonetheless, <b>[book:Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike|27220736]</b> is a fun read, especially for running enthusiasts (I count myself among them). It has earned its rating as one of the <b><a href="https://beantownweb.blogspot.com/2017/01/best-business-books-2016.html" target="_blank">Best Business Books of 2016</a></b>.</p>