Nike

What is Nike?
Nike is the first leading sportswear and sports items manufacturer in the world. It was
founded in 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight and named it Blue Ribbon Sports and
transformed to the name of Nike in 1978. “Just do it” is its famous trademark tag line and its
logo is Swoosh. Basketball and running players are the main market purchasers of Nike. Many
of the basketball stars and athletes are sponsoring it.

How Was Nike Founded?

The story of Nike begins with the story of Blue Ribbon Sports back in 1964. Around
that time, Phil Knight had just gone through University of Oregon followed by a stint
at Stanford for his MBA, leaving him with two crucial experiences that set the
trajectory of his future.
At University of Oregon, he ran for the school's track and field team, putting him into
contact with their coach, Bill Bowerman. Aside from an intensely competitive ethos,
Bowerman displayed a fascination with optimizing his runners' shoes, constantly
tinkering with different models after learning from a local cobbler.

According to Nike, Knight was the first student to try one of Bowerman's shoes.
Seeing him as a safely-unimportant runner to test his shoes on, Bowerman offered to
take one of his shoes and fix them up with his custom design. Knight accepted the
offer, and, supposedly, the shoes worked so well that his teammate Otis Davis took
them and ended up using them to win gold in the 400-meter dash in the 1960
Olympics. Otis Davis insists to this day that Bowerman made the shoes for him.

After the University of Oregon, Knight went through Stanford's MBA program, during
which he wrote a paper theorizing that the production of running shoes should move
from its current center in Germany to Japan, where labor was cheaper.

Knight got the chance to put this theory to the test with a trip to Japan shortly after
his 1962 graduation. He struck a deal with a group of Japanese businessmen to
export the country's popular Tiger shoes into the U.S.

Coach Bowerman, who long believed that German shoes, though the best on the
market, weren't anything too special to be replicated or even improved on,
supported Knight's venture, entering into a 50-50 business deal for ownership of
their new company, Blue Ribbon Sports, established in Eugene, Oregon, on Jan. 25,
1964.

Nike Timeline

1964 - Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman found Blue Ribbon Sports.

1971 - Cutting ties with Onitsuka Tiger (now Asics), Blue Ribbon Sports becomes Nike
Inc., using swoosh logo created by Portland State University student Carolyn Davis
for $35
1971 - Bowerman comes up with iconic sole pattern for Waffle Trainers after putting
rubber into a waffle iron

1972 - Romanian tennis player Ilie Nastase becomes the first athlete to sign an
endorsement with Nike.

1979 - Nike introduces patented "Air" technology with new Tailwind shoe.

1980 - Nike completes IPO with a price of 18 cents a share.

1984 - Nike signs Michael Jordan, launching Air Jordan series.

1987 - Nike drops ad for new Air Max shoes set to The Beatles' "Revolution," making
it the first ad to use the band's music.

1988 - First "Just Do It" campaign launches with ad featuring 80-year-old running
icon Walter Stack running across the Golden Gate Bridge.

1989 - "Bo Knows" ad campaign drops featuring baseball and football star Bo
Jackson.

1990 - First Niketown store opens in Portland, Oregon.

1991 - Activist Jeff Ballinger publishes report exposing low wages and poor working
conditions among Indonesian Nike factories. Nike responds by instating its first
factory codes of conduct.

1996 - Nike signs Tiger Woods.

1998 - In the face of widespread protest, Nike raises the minimum age of its workers,
increases monitoring, and adopts U.S. OSHA clean-air standards in overseas
factories.
1999 - Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman dies at 88.

2002 - Nike acquires surf-apparel company Hurley.

2003 - Nike signs Lebron James and Kobe Bryant.

2004 - Nike acquires Converse for $309 million.

2004 - Phil Knight steps down as CEO and president of Nike, but retains chairman
role as William D. Perez becomes the company's new CEO.

2008 - Nike signs Derek Jeter.

2012 - Nike becomes official supplier for NFL apparel.

2015 - Nike becomes official supplier for NBA apparel.

2018 - Nike unveils ad campaign featuring athlete and political activist Colin
Kaepernick, garnering a mix of public approval and backlash.

What's Happening in 2019?

Over 2019, most news on Nike has revolved around its political stances. Days before
the Fourth of July, the company canceled the release of a sneaker bearing the 13-star
American flag of Betsy Ross on the shoe's heel. Reportedly, this decision came after
Colin Kaepernick privately voiced his criticisms of the design to Nike, seeing as the
13-star flag represented America during a time of slavery and has been used in
tandem with the Confederate flag by hate groups including the Ku Klux Klan.

The choice to drop the shoe nevertheless sparked a media firestorm with
conservative pundits and social media commentators criticizing Nike for its lack of
patriotism.
Outside of the political sphere, Nike has also unveiled plans for a subscription service
for kids. This comes at a time when apparel companies are increasingly looking
toward subscription-based models to attract customers. It'll be Nike's first test of this
and opens the door for kids 2 through 10 to have varying access across a selection of
roughly 100 shoes for a monthly fee.

Nike Stock

As with many companies in 2019, Nike's fate has been closely tied to the ongoing
speculation over tariffs in the current China-U.S. trade war. Given that Nike
manufactures roughly 27% of its apparel in China, the prospect of increasing tariffs
poses a real problem to its supply chain. The company has been proactive in dealing
with this issue, slowly shifting more of its operations from China into Vietnam.

How Green is Nike?

While Nike's taken strides to increase its eco-friendliness, joining the Sustainable
Apparel Commission and implementing a number of reusable materials in its
clothing, it still has a way to go.

The primary environmental criticism following Nike has been its refusal to eliminate
hazardous materials from its supply chain. As pointed out by Greenpeace, this affects
everything from factory workers to waterways to consumers. The hazardous
chemicals pollute the environment, threaten to poison those who work with them,
and allow a potential health risk to persist among users of Nike's apparel.

Nike has claimed to be working toward elimination of these toxic chemicals. While
these claims have been met with dubiousness over the past couple years, in 2018,
Nike showed some serious signs of growth, expanding its PFC-free portfolio to 93%
of products.
Controversy

Sweatshops

Nike has faced a long history of controversy over its labor practices. The company
was founded on a principle of finding cheaper labor to produce same-quality goods
and followed this unfailingly, till it finally came back to bite them.

Nike's factories were initially in Japan, but then moved to cheaper labor in South
Korea, China, and Taiwan. As the economies of these countries developed, Nike
again shifted, moving away from labor in South Korea and Taiwan to focus on China,
Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Not much was noted of this until activist Jeff Ballinger published a report in 1991,
documenting the poor working conditions of Nike's operations across Indonesia. This
was followed with a popular article in Harper's Magazine, detailing the life of an
Indonesian Nike employee who worked for 14 cents an hour.

Outrage fermented among the public, with protests against the shoe ware giant at
the 1992 Olympics and an increased media scrutiny on the plight of sweatshop
workers. This came at the same time the company sought to expand its Niketown
retail stores, resulting in mass protests around the planned expansions.

With protests around college campuses, calls for boycotting the company, and
pressure put on its stars like Michael Jordan to denounce the brand, Nike made a
concerted effort in 1998 to improve the labor conditions of its factories.
It included raising the minimum age among workers, increasing the monitoring of
factory conditions, and enforcing U.S. standards for clean air. This was followed by
Nike's creation of the Fair Labor Association in 1999, and audit of roughly 600
factories between 2002-2004, and the public disclosure of all of its factory locations
in 2005.

While reports of abuse at the Nike factories still persist, many human rights activists
have acknowledged Nike's efforts to have minimized the worst problems at these
factories, and the public outcry today over the company's labor conditions is a
shadow of what it once was.

Colin Kaepernick

On Labor Day of 2018, Nike made a huge splash, tweeting a photo of NFL player Colin
Kaepernick as the new face of its brand.

The 49ers quarterback had become a lightning rod for controversy after being the
first football player to take a knee during the national anthem in protest of police
brutality toward black Americans. He received a mix of support and backlash from
the public, with some calling him a hero and others criticizing his actions as "un-
American."

This controversy only intensified with Donald Trump making criticism of the protest
Kaepernick started a central talking point in his campaign and, later, presidency.
49ers management consequently did not renew Kaepernick's contract and no other
NFL team signed him. Fittingly, the ad overlay of the black-and-white photo of
Kaepernick's face with the text, "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing
everything," and the classic Nike slogan, "Just Do It." below.

The ad garnered a predictable mix of support and controversy. Some, seeing Nike's
endorsement of Kaepernick as a betrayal of patriotic values, chose to quite publicly
announce their boycott of Nike by posting videos of themselves burning their Nike
shoes.

This proved largely ineffectual, with most people mocking Nike boycotters on social
media, and the company's stock soaring, increasing by over $6 billion less than a
month after the campaign began.

Some on the left also took issue with the ad, citing it as an example of "commodity
activism," whereby corporations co-opt a social movement for profits.

Adidas vs. Nike

Last Modified on September 20, 2019 By: Harold G

Adidas and Nike are two brands which are in competition with each other.
Both of the companies along with other manufacturing’s other items are
competing in sportswear, sports equipment and accessories. Nike was founded
and established in 1964 while Adidas was founded and established in 1948.
Nike is a U.S based brand of sportswear while Adidas is a German-based
company. Logo of Nike is Swoosh while that of Adidas is 3 Stripes.

What is Adidas?
Adidas is not only the second leading manufacturer of sportswear in the world
but also the first leading manufacturer in Europe. It was founded in 1984 by
Adolf Dassler and is a German-based company. Its logo “3 Stripes” is well
known which is three parallel bars. Its main market by the tennis and soccer
players. It is not only expelling in sportswear but also manufactures shirts,
bags, eyewear and other products.
 Key Differences
1. Nike was founded and established in 1964 while Adidas was founded and
established in 1948.
2. Adidas is an older brand as compare to Nike by the date of establishment.
3. Nike is a U.S based brand of sportswear while Adidas is a German-based
company.
4. Logo of Nike is Swoosh while that of Adidas is 3 Stripes.
5. Basketball and running players are the main market purchasers of Nike while
Adidas has main market by the tennis and soccer players.
6. Along with sportswear, Nike has been producing sports equipment for a long
time but Adidas has recently started producing sports equipment.
4 Reasons Nike is Still King of
Branding
1. Young shoppers are more focused on health and wellness.
The number of people participating in running events has grown an average
of 9% every year since 2005, according to Morgan Stanley. Data also shows
that millennials believe exercise is essential for health, while their parents
only focused on diet.

"Increased activity leads to increased athletic apparel and footwear

spending," the analysts write. "We see athletic footwear and apparel as
more than a fashion trend."

2. More competition is leading to better products.

Nike is facing competition from companies like UnderArmour, New Balance,
Adidas, and Lululemon. The arms race has led to a rush of innovation, and
products that consumers can't resist.

For instance, Nike's Flyknit shoes have been wildly successful.

The Flyknit material, which debuted two years ago, is lightweight,

minimalist, and fits like socks.

Nike uses "automated, high-tech knitting [technology] to 'weave' the shoe's

upper" half into one piece, instead of several pieces that are stitched
together, according to a recent research note by Deutsche Bank.

3. People like being comfortable.

While the popularity of yoga pants and sneakers is often cited as a fashion
trend, Morgan Stanley analysts believe that shoppers are hooked on casual
comfort.
Nike is good at a lot of things: manufacturing quality shoes; supplying equipment and gear
for many professional and collegiate athletic teams; and making a ton of money. But where
the company truly excels is its marketing. Nobody does branding quite like Nike. I would be
shocked if there is a single person reading this article who hasn’t heard of Nike; in fact,
most of you probably own at least one Nike product (As I write this, I’m actually wearing an
article of clothing with a Nike logo on it).

So how did Nike reach the pinnacle of the sports world and become a corporate
juggernaut? It wasn’t because of their shoes (which are good but often unremarkable). Nike
dominates the sports gear industry because of their brilliant branding strategies. Here are
four of the reasons why Nike is the reigning king of branding:

The analysts believe that shoppers will continue to choose this kind of
apparel over denim.

This bodes well for Nike, which just opened its first store for women.

As this trend continues, the company could continue to expand assortments

— and rake in profits.

4. Athletic apparel is going international.

The rising middle class in regions like China and Latin America are
increasingly demanding athletic apparel.

These largely untapped markets could provide big opportunities for

companies like Nike.

"As the GDP per capita rises the consumer has more discretionary income to
spend and we broadly see sport participation rising," the analysts write.
Nike has opened a store just for women.
Understanding how to make an impression

Many established companies have rather timid advertising campaigns, preferring to rest on
their laurels and history of success. Nike is not one of those companies. Instead, it’s
constantly tinkering, innovating and pushing the envelope to create campaigns people will
talk about. From Nike’s early success with commercials featuring Mars Blackmon
proclaiming “It’s gotta’ be the shoes!” to the brutally honest black and white ad showing an
emotional Tiger Woods being chastised by his father, Nike has never been afraid to take
chances with its ad campaigns. The company makes commercials you don’t forget.

The messaging is unfailingly consistent

Don’t even pretend you don’t know Nike’s slogan: Just do it. It’s been the same for nearly
30 years, and the logo (the Nike “swoosh”) has been around even longer than that. And
despite the fact that Nike co-founder and chairman Phil Knight admitted he “didn’t love”
the swoosh in the beginning, he stuck with it. It is now one of the most easily recognized
logos in the world, even being used in a silly anachronistic manner in the 2001 film A
Knight’s Tale.