Comparison Of Bill Bowerman And Knight

Bill Bowerman had been a Track and Field coach at the University of Oregon for 24 years. He trained 31 Olympic athletes, 52 All-Americans, 12 American record holders, and attained 4 NCAA titles. During this time he was continuously looking to enhance the performance of his athletes through improving their footwear. Phil Knight was a former middle distance runner under Coach Bowerman. After completing his Stanford MBA, Knight was interested in manufacturing shoes in Japan and selling them in the United States, in order to be able to compete with the German shoes on the market (Nike, Inc. Success Story, 2017). So, together they founded Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964 which was changed to Nike, after the Greek Goddess of Victory, in 1971(Theodoros, 2014).
Bowerman and Knight took their two man business and built a multinational company that employees over 74 thousand employees worldwide. Nike’s headquarters is in Beaverton, Oregon which has 1,000 employees. Nike also has over 20,000 retailers world-wide with its primary focus in North America, Europe, …show more content…
They have done that and so much more. As of 1982 Nike had become the No. 1 athletic training shoes in America. By this time their “Swoosh” logo and “Just Do It” tag line could be commonly recognized in most households. The signing of the then NBA rookie Michael Jordan in 1985 catapulted their sales to new heights (Nike, Inc. Success Story, 2017). As a result, Nike began designing apparel and endorsed other international teams like the Brazil football team, and the Men’s and Women’s US soccer teams. Nike continued to sign celebrity endorsements to include Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, LeBron James and many more. Today, Nike has 58% of the global market for athletic footwear and 42% for their apparel, equipment and accessories. These accessories include bags, balls, eyewear, timepieces, digital devices, bats, gloves, golf clubs, and much