NIKE - Special Contributions

From a waffle iron and the trunk of a car, Nike is one of Oregon’s – and America’s – most inspirational business success stories.

The company began in 1964 when former University of Oregon runner Phil Knight and Oregon track and field coach Bill Bowerman put in $500 each to form Blue Ribbon Sports. Knight, a graduate of Cleveland High, Oregon and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, had already secured the distribution rights to the West Coast from a Japanese shoe company that sold Tiger brand running shoes.

With Knight’s business and sales drive and Bowerman’s support and credibility, Blue Ribbon Sports prospered with Knight regularly selling shoes from the trunk of this car at track meets. It took five years, though, for Knight to leave his job as an accountant in Portland and work full-time for the company.

Blue Ribbon Sports began producing and marketing its own shoes – soccer shoes called Nike - in 1971 and developed the Swoosh a year later. The company began selling running shoes at the 1972 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials that were held in Eugene. The shoes included the now famous “waffle” soles, the design having come from Bowerman pouring urethane into his wife’s waffle iron.

The company gained national and international exposure from Steve Prefontaine, who used and promoted the shoes until his untimely death in 1975. Blue Ribbon Sports continued to promote its Nike running shoes and then officially changed its name to Nike, Inc., in 1978.

 Nike grabbed as much as 50 percent of the U.S. market and went public in 1980. Since then, Nike has become an icon in the sports world, developing the slogan “Just Do It” in 1988, using Michael Jordan’s name to brand a line of basketball shoes and apparel, and Tiger Woods for golf shoes and apparel.

Nike has acquired a variety of footwear and apparel companies, including Cole Haan, Converse, even Hurley International, a maker of surf apparel.

The Swoosh, originally designed by a student at Portland State, is known worldwide. Based in Beaverton, Nike is one of Oregon’s two remaining Fortune 500 companies.