Two visionary men, Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, pioneered a revolution in athletic footwear. Bowerman, a track coach, experimented with innovations in running shoes but manufacturers ignored his ideas, so he began making shoes himself. Phil Knight was a runner for Bowerman and later distributed Tiger shoes from Japan after manufacturers there responded to his proposal. Bowerman stunned Knight by offering to become his partner and provide design ideas to Tiger, laying the foundation for what would become Nike.

1. FIRST STEPS, NIKE
Before there was the Swoosh, before there was Nike, there were two visionary men who
pioneered a revolution in athletic footwear that redefined the industry.
Bill Bowerman was a nationally respected track and field coach at the University of Oregon, who
was constantly seeking ways to give his athletes a competitive advantage. He experimented with
different track surfaces, re-hydration drinks and – most importantly – innovations in running
shoes. But the established footwear manufacturers of the 1950s ignored the ideas he tried to
offer them, so Bowerman began cobbling shoes for his runners.
Phil Knight was a talented middle-distance runner from Portland, who enrolled at Oregon in the
fall of 1955 and competed for Bowerman’s track program. Upon graduating from Oregon, Knight
earned his MBA in finance from Stanford University, where he wrote a paper that proposed
quality running shoes could be manufactured in Japan that would compete with more
established German brands. But his letters to manufacturers in Japan and Asia went
unanswered, so Knight took a chance.
He made a cold-call on the Onitsuka Co. in Kobe, Japan, and persuaded the manufacturer of
Tiger shoes to make Knight a distributor of Tiger running shoes in the United States. When the
first set of sample shoes arrived, Knight sent several pairs to Bowerman, hoping to make a sale.
Instead, Bowerman stunned Knight by offering to become his partner, and to provide his
footwear design ideas to Tiger.