Nike is today’s leading brand in
sports apparel, footwear, and equipment. It has a rich history, success
stories, but also a lot of problems and challenges that need to be solved in
the near future. Nike was founded in Washington County, Oregon by a track coach
Bill Bowerman and his student Philip Knight in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports. They
originally started the company to be a distributor for ASICS (a very well know
Japanese shoe company), so they can sell their Onitsuka Tiger running shoes.
Because both Bowerman and Knight were involved in running and were very
interested in the sport they enjoyed selling these shoes but they always had a
motive to make their own line of running shoes. In 1966 Blue Ribbon Sports
opened their first store in Santa Monica, California selling ASICS shoes. In 5
years the relationship between the two companies was dying down and the
distribution contract ended. On January 22nd, 1974, the world famous
Swoosh was registered as the company’s trademark and the company was creating
its own set of footwear and clothes. They hired an advertising company to do
their marketing and started gaining market share little by little. In 1978 the
company was officially changed to “Nike Incorporated” or “Nike” for short and
two years later in December 1980 Nike went public on the NYSE owning about half
of the sports footwear market in the USA. Nike got its name from the Greek
goddess Nike that represented victory. Now it is one of the world's most recognizable companies.
While Nike is not my athletic brand of choice, I do respect the expert branding and marketing they have done. They have one of the most loyal following ever and it is definitely a testament to their superb marketing and advertising skills. I also happen to be a big fan of the Nike name the name's origin. It is extremely fitting for an athletic brand.
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