Motivational Leaders: Phil Knight

Phil Knight is a co-founder and chairman of the company Nike Inc. He has also been the CEO and chairman of the company in the past.

When Phil Knight was in college during an assignment to invent a new business, he came up with a blueprint that involved a business dealing in sports shoes. With this paper, he realized he wanted to involve himself in a business that dealt with sports shoes.

After graduation, Phil Knight decided to tour the world. In 1962, he was in Japan where he discovered the Tiger brand running shoes which were made and distributed by Onitsuka Company. He was so intrigued with the quality of the shoes and their low cost that he entered into a distribution contract with the company. He was to distribute the shoes in the United States. He returned to Portland and took an accounting job while he waited for the shipping of the shoes from Japan to materialize. He entered into a partnership with his former coach, Bill Bowerman, to distribute the running shoes in the United States.

In 1964, the Company Blue Ribbon Sports was formed following the partnership. The company worked so hard that they had retail stores in Eugene, Oregon, California and Santa Monica. The hard work of Knight and Bill gave then good profits in return. In 1971, the company started having problems with Onitsuka Company and so Knight, and Bill decided to form their own company. A friend of theirs, Jeff Johnson, suggested that they name the new company ‘Nike.’ Knight was determined to design products that would be loved by athletes globally. Nike’s model shoes ‘The Cortez’ debuted at the 1972 Olympic trials, and it was well accepted and brought into the company a lot of profit.

The profits that were coming into the company were so much that by 1980, Nike had captured one half of the athletic shoe market. Nike was successful throughout the 1980s and 1990s that sportsmen such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Charles Barkley approached Nike for endorsements.

Brand's commercial success went hand in hand with the endorsement deals signed with the biggest and the world's most charismatic stars of the subsequent eras."