Nike

Nike began on 25 January 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports, a partnership between Phil Knight, a middle-distance runner at the University of Oregon, and his coach, Bill Bowerman. From Eugene, Oregon, they imported running shoes from the Japanese maker Onitsuka Tiger, which Knight sold at track meets from the boot of his car. In its first year the business sold 1,300 pairs; in 1966 it opened its first shop, in Santa Monica, California.

Bowerman was an obsessive tinkerer. In 1971, looking for a light sole that would grip without spikes, he poured rubber into his wife's waffle iron, an experiment that led to the Moon Shoe of 1972 and the Waffle Trainer of 1974. By then the relationship with Onitsuka had broken down, and Blue Ribbon Sports launched its own brand. The runner and employee Jeff Johnson suggested the name Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory, and a Portland State University design student, Carolyn Davidson, drew the Swoosh, first used in June 1971. The company formally became Nike in 1971 and went public in December 1980, by which time it held half of the American athletic-shoe market.

The 1980s turned Nike from a running company into a cultural force. Air cushioning, developed from an aerospace engineer's idea, was made visible in the Air Max 1 of 1987, designed by Tinker Hatfield, a former architect who would go on to shape many of the brand's most famous shoes. The signing of a rookie basketball player, Michael Jordan, in 1984 produced the Air Jordan line, which became a business of its own. In 1988 the advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy coined "Just Do It", one of the most recognised slogans in advertising.

Global growth brought hard questions. In the 1990s Nike was a focus of campaigns over wages and conditions in the Asian factories that made its products, prompting reforms and factory disclosure. Its 2018 campaign featuring the quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who had knelt during the national anthem in protest at racial injustice, showed its willingness to take a public stance.

Knight stepped back as chief executive in 2004 and later as chairman. Mark Parker, a designer by training, led the company from 2006 to 2020, followed by John Donahoe, whose push into direct sales was followed by a slowdown. In October 2024 Elliott Hill, a Nike veteran who had begun as an intern, returned as chief executive to lead a turnaround focused on sport, product and wholesale partners. Six decades after a car boot full of shoes, Nike remains the benchmark in sportswear.