History of the Nike Accessories brand
Almost everyone knows the legendary Nike logo called the Swoosh. It is supposed to symbolize movement, speed and dynamism. The Nike brand is currently one of the largest manufacturers of sports and leisure clothing, footwear and accessories in the world. This famous American company is based in the city of Baverton, Oregon, with a global presence. What is the history behind the phenomenon of the Nike brand?
Nike was founded in 1964 under the name Blue Ribbon Sports. The founder was Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight .
Bill Bowerman was a track and field coach at the University of Oregon, where, for example, he coached the US Olympic team in 1972. He was dedicated to the personal potential of each existing athlete. He tried to properly motivate them and awaken their competitiveness. These values, which Bowerman supported in his athletes, are also the basis of today's corporate philosophy of Nike. Bill clearly defines the mission of the company: " To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete! "
The Nike slogan - " JUST DO IT ", which is also a trademark of the Nike company, was created in 1988 and is a successful example of a very successful marketing campaign. Thanks to it, awareness of the Nike brand has spread across various areas of sports and lifestyle.
Phil Knight, was a former student of Bill's and a not very successful athlete. He founded Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) and Bowerman became his business partner. During the early years, the company was the American distributor of the Japanese Tiger brand of running shoes. In 1962, Phil Knight traveled all the way to faraway Japan to meet sports shoe manufacturer Onitsuka. He arranged a meeting with executives and began presenting his work from the Stanford Business School. In it, he describes in detail the high potential of the US market and the huge opportunity that the Japanese manufacturer Onitsuka could use to enter the market there, thereby undermining adidas, the dominant brand at the time. In the first year, they sold over 1,300 pairs of sneakers, and their collaboration ended not quite well.
They opened their first retail store in 1966. Five years later, the company was renamed Nike, Inc. and in the next two years it entered the stock exchange. During 1972, they launched the first Nike brand shoes. By the early 2000s, Nike had retail stores and distributors in more than 170 countries, and its iconic logo—the curved checkmark called the "Swoosh"— was recognized worldwide. What is its history?
The logo of the Nike company - Swoosh was created in 1971 completely by accident, when the student of graphics of Portland State University Carolyn Davidson had no money and Phil Knight was preparing his own production at that time and realized at the last moment that his products needed their own logo. He instructed her to come up with some graphic brand as quickly as possible. It wanted something original and at the same time something easy to remember. While designing, she remembered how the professor explained about ancient sculptures and came across a picture of Niké - the statue of the goddess of victory (the name of the whole brand is derived from her) in publications with photographs. Carolyn was fascinated by the simple curve, which she quickly sketched and arrived in the office to see Phil Knight and the other managers. When Carolyn showed her designs, she was met with the reaction that it was just a weird hook. She defended her logo design by saying that it symbolizes speed, movement and victory. And since production was to start in two days, the logo agreed and issued Carolyn a check for $35, and the history of one of the lesser known logos of our time was begun. Currently, the value of the logo is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.
Nike focused on connecting athletes and customers on a personal level, and it's proven to be a cornerstone of their success to this day. The collaboration between Nike and Michael Jordan is a successful example of the creation of the highly successful Air Jordan sub-brand in 1984. Nike sponsored and supported many famous faces of sports such as: Tiger Woods, Lebron James, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams or Elina Svitolina.
Thanks to the increasing success of the company, the Nike brand has expanded its specialization into other sports sectors. The company's portfolio is huge. The first product was running shoes, and then every year the brand expanded to sports such as athletics, tennis, football, basketball, hockey, golf and many others. Today, it is hard to find a sport in which Nike products do not appear. Of course, there are products intended for men, women and kids of different age categories. Converse has also been their subsidiary since 2003.
