Fast forward three decades and Nike's stock has had four 2-1 splits. Three days later, Woods called a news conference, stepped before the TV cameras and announced that he was quitting college to join the Professional Golf Association Tour. Even Billionaires Like Phil Knight Have Trouble Finding A Parking Spot… For Their $65 Million Private Jets. "I was very aware of shoes when I was running track," Knight says. But Bowerman still wasn't satisfied. You’d like to think they’re lying and will pull up at the last second. Why didn’t anyone care about NAFTA’s benefits for Mexico, the Post wondered, since its GDP had “more than quadrupled since 1987″? To enable Verizon Media and our partners to process your personal data select 'I agree', or select 'Manage settings' for more information and to manage your choices. |. He had earlier given up the presidency to focus on long-range planning. Almost no one bites – they raise just $300. Mixture of both? “There’s a reason the plastics industry likes this. By 1969, at the fortuitous dawn of the jogging boom, Knight sold a million bucks worth of Onitsuka shoes bearing his Blue Ribbon Sports label. For Knight, that means finding new markets to dominate and new products to peddle. He straightens out of a slouch, steadies his gaze and, like a shortstop, waits to field the next question. At the time, Nike was trading at $17 a share so this represented an $8500 gift (which is worth $20,000 after adjusting for inflation). Cesar Marroquín was preparing for his immigration hearing when he was forced by ICE onto a plane to Guatemala and deported. Moreover, if Knight knew the most basic facts about the U.S. economy he would have realized he was wrong without checking. Mr. Knight founded Nike in 1964 with William J. Bowerman, a former Olympic coach and now the company's vice chairman. The company faces a number of strategic issues, he said, adding, ''It is important for me to get back in closer touch with day-to-day operations in order to help us make the necessary decisions most effectively. Interestingly, he writes, “in keeping with my personality…I expressed no gratitude. Or $500. "At this stage in my life, the creative process is of great interest to me," he says. To this day, visitors to his office must remove their shoes--even their $180 Air Pamirs--before entering. he toys with a can of Diet Pepsi or fiddles with the watch he took off at the start of the interview. An impenitent Knight shrugs when asked about these issues. In fiscal year 1996, Nike's revenue hit a stratospheric $6.5 billion (with $550 million in income). See the article in its original context from. "And he helped build that connection in our culture.". Nike is certainly not the first or only corporation to wield considerable influence in the sports world, but it is the most brazen and visible. Eventually, Blue Ribbon's deal with Onitsuka soured and then expired altogether. Nike was perceived as demanding that its athletes put shoe company before country. "In a very short period of time, Phil Knight created one of the greatest American commerce stories of the 20th century," says sports agent David Falk, who has frequently butted heads with Knight over the marketing and representation of athletes. It's like picking up John DeLorean in a Yugo. "But we are bigger, and thus more visible, so we get more flack. (Nike also owns Cole-Haan, the dress-shoe manufacturer, and Canstar Sports Inc., the world's largest hockey equipment company.) He correctly predicted that American culture was a marketable commodity--that teenagers from Paris to Shanghai would be just as taken with Charles Barkley's ample attitude as teenagers in Trenton and San Diego. It does not. (Chicago's store is one of the city's top tourist attractions.) Like this article? Knight offered to pay Carolyn $2 an hour to create the charts and graphs. He reads broadly, covering a wide range of subjects including finance, management, health, and society. "Our business practices are no different than those of our competitors," he says. Knight's overriding goal is to ensure Nike's legacy. Before Shortform, he co-founded PrepScholar, an online education company. Nor did he make "Just Do It" the slogan that best encapsulates the 1990s. Philip Hampson Knight (born February 24, 1938), is an American billionaire businessman. Especially for a college student. ", Knight then went on to explain how his side business, Blue Ribbon Sports, had been looking for a part-time graphic designer to help create charts and graphs for an upcoming meeting with a group of Japanese business executives. It was pure Philip Hampson Knight: innovative, controversial and very, very successful. In a barrage of new TV spots and full-page newspaper ads, Nike unveiled its latest pitchman: pro golfer Tiger Woods. Shoes cost $5, and you would come back from a five-mile run with your feet bleeding. Phil offers him a job opening Blue Ribbon’s second retail store in Eugene, Oregon. No company has put as much creative energy and resources into marketing celebrities as Nike. Once dubbed the "most powerful man in sports" by the Sporting News, Knight presents himself as affable, albeit slightly stiff and a tad shy. That means Carolyn's original 500 shares are now 8000 shares. I bet it was 100x cooler for you, ha. And Knight took leave of our interview by forming a steeple with his hands and bowing. Today, the average American boy owns 10 pairs of sneakers. The name stuck. He signals that a question is not to his liking by deftly shifting the focus to Nike, lapsing into corporate-speak or even abruptly cutting himself off in mid-sentence and waiting--in stony silence--for the next question. In keeping with Nike's collegiate, fraternal atmosphere, the company's sprawling complex was officially dubbed the Campus. Plato may have thought the unexamined life was not worth living, but what did he know? So Bowerman began making shoes himself, and since I wasn't the best guy on the team, I was the logical one to test the shoes.". But fledgling Boston-based Reebok high-stepped right in, creating a somewhat flimsy, but attractive shoe that women bought like tickets to a Meryl Streep movie. Knight, who with his wife of 28 years, Penny, has two grown sons, shuns publicity and self-explication the way Howard Stern courts it. And while that may not seem like a lot, Carolyn never sold a single share. When the Onitsuka deal died, Phil Knight decided Blue Ribbon needed to be re-branded with a shiny new name and shiny new logo. Nike has been criticized for its low pay and abusive treatment of some workers. "Genius" is the one attribute on the list that Knight questions. He has made more money from athletics than anyone, ever. Stanford changed Knight's life. And it was in Frank Shallenberger's small-business class that Knight conceived Nike. Photo: Nike Co-founder and Chair Phil Knight attends day nine of the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Team Trials at the Hayward Field on June 30, 2012, in Eugene, Oregon. Knight also understood that this lust for heroes and appreciation for in-your-face attitude is not limited to American youth. But first, he traveled to Japan, where he became enamored of Japanese culture and business practices. Nike already owns 25 percent of the world market, dwarfing its competitors. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. There are countless more difficulties to resolve – a larger warehouse on the East Coast, a larger scale advertising agency, new endorsements for more sports. Phil Knight actually approached Carolyn after he overheard her complain to a friend that she couldn't afford to take an oil painting class. Sales double again – on track for $140 million in 1979. It's the central, unifying culture of the United States and the stuff of romance and dreams. All he wore was a pair of sandals. Today Phil Knight is worth $19.2 billion dollars. Sign up for a free trial here. Phil offers him a job opening Blue Ribbon’s second retail store in Eugene, Oregon. They have factories in Taiwan, Korea, England, and Ireland. IN A RECENT INTERVIEW with USA Today, Phil Knight, the co-founder and chair of Nike, expressed puzzlement over Americans’ anger about trade agreements like NAFTA, and concern that this anger is having an effect on the presidential race. Reebok's blindside tackle gave Knight pause. Reebok's sales surpassed Nike's in 1987.