Have You Ever
Heard of Blue
Ribbon Sports?

by Jeff Antos

In 1962, Phil Knight, a twenty-four year old sports enthusiast, traveled to Japan to pursue his dream of starting a sporting goods company. Returning to the U.S. with a distribution contract, he contacted his track coach, Bill Bowman about the deal. On a handshake, the two formed a new company, Blue Ribbon Sports.

Bill and Phil each chipped in $550 to start the new company. Phil traveled to track meets and sold running shoes out of the back of his car. Bill, who is credited with inspiring the running craze, founded the nation’s first running club, wrote the book Jogging, and experimented with shoe design, by pouring rubber into his waffle iron.

In 1966 they opened their first store in Santa Monica, California selling Onitsuka Tiger shoes. Not satisfied with the Japanese name or shoe design, they decided to design their own. In 1972, their first full-time employee suggested a new name for the company. With boxes of shoes waiting to be shipped from a manufacturing plant in Mexico, they needed a new logo to go with the new name. Phil paid a graphic design student, Carolyn Davidson, at Oregon State University $35 for a logo that he didn’t really care for. He had to use it; he had orders to fill right away.

Their first big break came in 1973, when worldwide track star Steve Prefontaine wore their sneakers, showing them off to global audiences.

Knight started with a vision, wrote a term paper about it at Stanford, and persevered through a variety of trials and challenges as he unseated Adidas, Puma, and Converse. If you haven’t guessed already, Blue Ribbon Sports, a.k.a. Nike, is now a $10 billion company, employing 23,000 worldwide.

Loyal is a word that friends and colleagues use when describing Phil Knight. The Nike office campus in Beaverton, Oregon has a rock garden dedicated to the Japanese businessmen who provided financing for Blue Ribbon Sports years ago when no one else would. Nike sponsored sports stars, such as Michael Jordan, are fiercely loyal to the brand and to Knight.

What ever happened to that graphic designer who received $35 for the Nike Swoosh? In another stunning display of loyalty, in September 1983, Knight summoned her to corporate headquarters to present her with a Nike Swoosh diamond ring and a generous stock package.

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