Phil Knight founded Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964 with his former track coach Bill Bowerman to sell running shoes out of the back of his mini van. Blue Ribbon Sports became Nike Corporation in 1976 and grew to be one of the largest shoe and clothing companies in the world, hitting $6.5 billion in revenue by 1996. Although Knight was criticized for labor practices in Nike factories overseas, he worked to improve regulations and Nike became known for major endorsement deals with star athletes like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Kobe Bryant. Knight retired as Nike's CEO in 2004 but remained chairman and still owns 20% of the company, making him one of the richest Americans.