Phil Knight co-founded Nike in 1964 with his former track coach Bill Bowerman after completing his MBA. Knight began by importing shoes from Japan under his company Blue Ribbon Sports. In the 1970s, Nike began manufacturing their own shoes. A pivotal deal was signed with Michael Jordan in 1984 to create the iconic Air Jordan brand, transforming Nike into a global powerhouse. Through iconic products, bold marketing campaigns, and endorsement deals with star athletes, Nike became the world's largest sportswear company worth over $33 billion.

1. Phil Knight & Bill Bowerman
Phil Knight Bill Bowerman
Co founders of Nike. Story of Nike By Hassan Rasool

2. History
It all started from 1962 by Phil Knight when he Completed his
MBA from Stanford university During his MBA he caught up the
plan of this Business while having an assignment of a topic Small
business and Marketing Plan, he was mostly into in sports and
concerning that assignment he decided to write about the
business of Shoes.
In his assignment one of his argument was “the way the
Japanese cameras replaced the Germany’s Cameras same the
way Japanese Sports Shoes take over the German sports shoes”

3. Where it all Started
After completing his MBA in 1962 he aimed to establish a shoe brand.
He know much about shoes.
Indeed he knew the Quality of Japanese shoes was awesome.
He decided to outsource Shoes from japan that’s why in November 1962 he went to
japan as a tourist he started exploring different shoe brands of japan in the markets.
During this he found Onitsuka Tiger company. They were known for their best Quality
Sports shoes, Phil decided to Import their product to America.

4. Starting New Company
He presented himself as an owner of a Blue Ribbon Sports company which was
existing at that time. He did this Because of their condition to become the distributor
of Onitsuka Tiger company.
He made a Meeting with the CEO of Onitsuka and became their American distributor.
In 1963 and then he started his business, at that time he was selling his shoes in the
trunk of his Car but this way was not scalable.

5. Co Founders
Then he went to his college coach Bill Bowerman because he had much knowledge of
shoes. When he came to know about shoes and Phil’s strategy he offered and became
the partner of Phil in this.
In 1964 both made a Company Name Blue Ribbon Sports. They spent 1000$ one their
first order and they sell 300 pairs in only 2 months.
They sold total 1300 pairs worth 8000$ and in next year it touches 20k$.
in 1966 they opened their first store in Santa Monica In California.

6. Strategies
Their shoes were in high demand.
Both Phil and Bowerman Contributed same For the company.
Phil was handling the business operations while Bowerman was handling Innovation
part.
Their shoe Cortez became the best shoe of year 1968, they earned 300k$ in 1969.

7. Strategies
Because of their shoes increasing popularity and high demand they were facing the
shortage of products and also the delivery procedure of Onitsuka tiger company was
slow too which was also the main reason of shortage of shoes.
Then in 1971 they decided to terminate their contract with Onitsuka company as they
were facing different difficulties.
Then blue ribbon sports started working on manufacturing their own shoes. In 30th
may 1971 they changed their company name form BLUE RIBBON SPORTS to with
swoosh as its logo.

8. Chicago Bulls Strategy
A deal was signed in 1984, which led to the birth of the world-famous Air Jordan
sneakers and transformed Nike.
The deal with Nike, however, would not have happened had Jordan’s agent at the time,
David Falk, failed in his quest to convince the basketball genius to take up the
company’s offer.
Because Michael Jordan wanted to be the ambassador of Adidas at that time, and
Converse was focusing on other players then his mother and his manager Convinced
him to make a deal with Nike shoes made for himself
AIR JODAN 1.
So, Jordan heard what Nike had to say. Nike offered him a deal that was unheard of for
a Rookie of USD 500,000 per year contract as base pay for a five-year deal. The figure
was thrice that of any other deal in the NBA at the time.

9. Michael Jordan & Nike
After naming their first shoe Air Jordan 1 for
Michael Jordan. Also known as Air Jordan
Bred.
Michael Jordan wore the first Air Jordan shoe
on 18 October 1984.
He played many matches and made many
records wearing Nike Air Jordan 1 like 6 time
NBA champion,11 times MVP,14 times all
Stars and many more titles.

10. NBA & Nike
However, the distinctive red-black-and-white
sneakers were banned by the NBA due to the
association’s strict rules about shoe color.
All players had to wear white sneakers.
Jordan was asked to pay a fine of USD 5,000 every
time he wore the shoe on the court.
Nike paid the fine thoroughly and initiated a
marketing campaign in 1984 with a commercial
that brilliantly capitalized on the “drama” that NBA
created.

11. NBA & Nike
Banning Jordan 1 made a blast in the popularity of
Nike’s Jordan shoes.
And became the hype beast shoe/sneakers brand .
Nike's Jordan Brand brought in $5.1 billion in fiscal
2022.
5% of that under his deal with Nike. The athlete
Michael Jordan linked with Nike in 1984, Michael
Jordan may have earned $256.1 million last year from
licensing his name to Nike.

12. Air Jordan
Nike was so confident in the shoe’s hold over
the fans that Nike even let go of its iconic
Swoosh logo from the sides of the Air Jordan
II, which was released in 1986 the only shoe
of the line made in Italy.
At that time Air Jordan wings logo was used.

13. Air Jordan
And then came the Jump man logo. Widely
recognized as one of the most famous brand
logos of all time
it is Basically a Figure of Jordan leaping into
the air, about to dunk.
The logo first appeared on the Air Jordan III
in 1988 and has since remained a fixture on
all Air Jordans.
Which actually helped Nike to become No.1
Shoe Brand of the world.

14. Nike
After this many other famous Sportsmen
were signed for the promotion of Nike like
Ronaldo, Lebron James, Rafael Nadal and
many more.
Because of Nike’s many strategies and bold
steps like Black Lives Matters in 2018,
Nike became the world’s biggest brand of
Sports wear and sneakers. Having worth of
33 Billion USD till 2022.