The legendary leader of Nike, a former long-distance runner, and one of the most eccentric leaders in Fortune 500 companies. Phil Knight (shown in the picture below), the founder of the famous brand "Nike", has always been ranked among the top 10 companies in the United States among the 1,000 companies ranked by Fortune magazine from 1986 to 1996. ?In 1991?, Nike became the only sports and fitness company in the world with assets of more than 3 billion US dollars.
What is little known is that Knight himself is a sports fan, and as an unexceptional athlete, he has become the king of the business arena, creating a miracle of blossoming inside and outside the wall. In China, we believe that all roads lead to Beijing, and Knight’s success may be an inspiration to many Chinese entrepreneurs. In 1938, an ordinary boy was born in the United States. Like most of his peers at that time, he liked sports, playing basketball, baseball, and running. His name was Phil Knight. As an ordinary young man, He is very familiar with sports brands such as Puma, but what is unexpected is that it is this ordinary young man who later created a new brand - Nike, which even surpassed Adidas' dominance in the sports field.
Nate has always been fond of sports. Almost all of his high school papers were related to sports. Even in college, he chose the University of Oregon, the home of American track and field. Although Knight likes sports, he is just a mediocre 1-mile runner. His worst time is 4 minutes and 13 seconds. He is just shy of joining the ranks of world-class athletes (with a score of 4). There are so many people! But fortunately, otherwise we would not have a great entrepreneur today.
In Oregon, Knight met his lifelong mentor and friend, his coach Bill Bowerman. Bowerman continuously broke world long-distance running records in the 1950s, and Eugene, Oregon became famous for this. He is a very enterprising person who is determined to make his sports team better than other teams. During training and competition, athletes' foot problems are the most common problem. Bowerman wanted to design a shoe with a light sole, good support, low friction and strong stability, which could reduce the pain of athletes' feet. Get good results. So Bowerman carefully designed several patterns of sneakers. He found several shoe-making companies, but no one paid attention to him. The stubborn Bowerman simply asked a cobbler to learn how to make shoes. At a sports meeting, his athletes wore shoes made by him, which looked like Ugly but light and comfortable shoes, the result was a better place than any previous race.
After graduation, Knight went on to study for an MBA at Stanford University, while Bowerman continued to coach track and field and design sports shoes at the university.
In 1960, Knight graduated. During this period, he mentioned in an investigative report that many sports celebrities and ordinary athletes actually have the same goal: to let more and more athletes wear high-quality and low-price running shoes produced in Japan - Tigers. After graduation, Knight decided to go to Japan to look for an opportunity.
At an exhibition in Japan, Knight met the Japanese Tiger sports shoe manufacturer, who claimed to be a "blue ribbon" from the United States. Sports Company". It happened that Tiger needed an agent to enter the U.S. market, so he gave the agency rights to this fledgling young man.
After getting the agency rights, Knight immediately found Bowerman. The two of them invested US$500 to form the real Blue Ribbon Sports Company and became the exclusive distributor of Tiger sports shoes in the United States. This "Blue Ribbon" was the predecessor of "Nike". p>When we first started, there was no warehouse, so Knight put the inventory in the basement of Knight's father-in-law's house. One of him and Bowerman was in charge of finance, and the other was in charge of design. Facts have proved that he has a tacit understanding of the market. The prediction was correct, and sales of this low-priced sneaker were very good, with $8,000 worth of goods sold in the first year.
In 1968, Bowerman's modified Cortez shoes became Tiger Sports. Shoes are the best-selling product, and Knight has laid a solid financial foundation for the company's development.
The company's business began to gradually improve.
Soon, the Japanese head office noticed that the products were selling well and asked them to remit the money first before shipping. As a result, Bowerman and the others' costs were greatly increased, and they had to redouble their efforts to sell. However, Japan often fails to deliver goods on time, and even secretly keeps first-class products for sale in Japan and sends defective products to the United States. Once, Bowerman and the others received a batch of shoes. The customer wore them for two weeks, and the soles and uppers fell apart. They had no choice but to swallow their anger and promptly return or exchange products to customers in order to maintain their reputation.
What’s even more annoying is that Tiger sent another representative to Eugene, proposing to purchase 51 shares of Bowerman Company and occupy two seats among the five directors. If this request was rejected, the company would immediately Discontinued supply. Bowerman and Knight, who had suffered so much from the Japanese businessmen, couldn't bear it and flatly rejected this undue request. Knight and Bowerman decided to start a company of their own, which he named Nike, after the Greek god of victory. In the eyes of Westerners, the name NIKE is very auspicious, easy to read and remember, and very popular. They quickly launched sports shoes named after "Nike" and designed a beautiful trademark. Nike's famous "swoosh" trademark is very eye-catching, visually attractive, and dynamic as sports shoes and other sporting goods should be, symbolizing power and speed.
On a Sunday morning in 1975, Bowerman fiddled with a urethane rubber in a waffle iron mold and used it to make a new type of shoe sole. The biscuit-style shoes are equipped with small rubber round spikes, making the soles more elastic than other popular shoes on the market. This seemingly simple product improvement became the starting point of Knight and Bowerman's career.
In 1976, Nike's revenue soared from US$8.3 million the previous year to US$14 million. It grew like wildfire, and the company spent huge sums of money developing new styles of running shoes.
Among these improvements, Nike Air has left a deep impression. Nike Air Cushion is an inflatable cushion used to be embedded in the heel of a shoe. It is a trump card in the company's shoemaking technology. It retains its elasticity longer than foam sponge or rubber. Comfortable and stable to wear. Now, almost all authentic Nike sneakers produced by Nike are embedded with this air cushion.
What’s interesting is that consumers don’t know the secret. However, this is where Nike’s high quality, high performance and high quality lie. What to do? The sales planners then used their brains on advertising. Soon a very distinctive and attractive advertising painting appeared. Two "windows" are opened in the heel of a Nike shoe, and people can see the Nike air cushion on the sole through the "windows". This advertising painting greatly attracted consumers and made it clear to them that Nike was superior to other sports shoes. Over the next two years, Nike's sales quadrupled. By the late 1970s, Nike had nearly 100 researchers, many of whom had degrees in biology, chemistry, experimental biology, engineering technology, industrial design, chemistry, and a variety of related fields. This strong research force has developed more than 140 different styles of products, many of which are the most novel and technologically advanced in the market. These styles are designed for different foot types, weights, running speeds, training programs, gender and different skill levels.
These products of different styles, different prices and multiple uses have attracted thousands of runners and made them feel that Nike is the manufacturer that provides the most complete range of running shoes. Runners of all kinds and abilities have adopted this concept. In 1984, Nike began to re-establish its image through the strategy of advertising spokespersons. He signed a five-year contract with Jordan. The conditions for Jordan also included gifting Nike stock and using Jordan's name on Nike sneakers as an unprecedented courtesy. Almost everyone thinks this is done by a fool and is nothing more than a spokesperson. But Knight insisted on doing so, and Jordan's influence on Nike was huge. Jordan embodies energy, prestige, high level of competition and inspiring sportsmanship. His weight exceeds any ideal Nike logo.
Nike created a new brand "AirJordon" with the help of Jordan to produce colorful basketball shoes and matching clothing. "Feathering Jordan" was both a successful advertising campaign and a victory in the brand war, with sales reaching $100 million in its first year. The first time Jordan wore the sneakers, they were banned by NBA officials, who believed they violated the league's dress code. Nike keenly felt that this was a good opportunity to conduct a public relations campaign, so it launched an advertising campaign, claiming that the reason for the ban of "Feather Jordan" was its "revolutionary design." As a result, Nike and "Flying Jordan" appeared on the cover headlines of countless newspapers and magazines, and the NBA was under siege. The matter ultimately ended in favor of Nike. Many people will think of using athletes to advertise, but only Knight is the most successful. Today, Nike's football product sales have reached 100 million US dollars, occupying about 1/4 of the market share, and surpassed Adidas in Europe for the first time, not to mention that it spent 450 million US dollars to seize the 14-year lease of the Premier League giant Manchester United. Equipment sponsorship rights. In fiscal 2004, Nike's sales increased by 15% to $12.3 billion, and its return on capital reached an astonishing 22%. However, Knight is still worried about Nike's future: the popularity of retro sports shoes may once again hit Nike's high-end line, and emerging brands such as Diesel, K-swiss and Puma will attract general consumer groups who have not yet formed brand loyalty.