Founded by a university track athlete Phil Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman in 1964, Nike Inc., an American multinational corporation, is the world’s largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel. Here are some interesting and lesser known facts about Nike.
Unknown facts about Nike
1) Nike was started when founder Phil Knight was working on one of his college assignments. Knight worked on a business plan about creating better running shoes with cheap labor, probably from Japan. With the idea, Phil Knight, along with Bill Bowerman, started importing Japanese shoes to America and started selling them to high school students and athletes.
2) The Company was initially named Blue Ribbon Sports and was a distributor of Japanese shoemaker Onitsuka Tiger. After it ended its relationship with Onitsuka Tiger, it was renamed Nike, after the Greek Goddess of Victory. Before choosing the name Nike, the Company was almost named Dimension Six, before the founders changed their mind.
3) Nike’s famous slogan “Just Do It” was inspired by an unusual source. The advertising agency which created the slogan, credited the last words of a convicted murderer Gary Gilmore’s, “Let’s do it,” as the inspiration behind Nike’s world famous tagline.
4) Nike’s logo Swoosh was initially called Stripey. The logo was designed by a University of Portland student for just $ 35. After the Company became successful, the student was given stakes worth $ 640,000 in Nike.
5) In the 1987 advertisement for Nike’s Air Max shoes, the Company used The Beatles’ song Revolution for their campaign. This did not sit well with The Beatles and they sued Nike for $ 15 million.
6) Tinker Hatfield, Nike’s shoe designer and Vice President for Design and Special Projects, also designed the hoverboarding shoes worn by Michael J. Fox’s character Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part II.
7) Nike created and patented a shoe which has an embedded computing device capable of communicating with the wearer’s smartphone.
8) Known for its unique advertising campaigns, Nike has won two Emmy Awards for its commercials in 2000 and 2002 respectively.
Even after 55 years of its founding, Nike still remains one of the top brands in the world, with an annual revenue of $ 36.39 billion. Which of these facts about Nike surprised you the most? Comment below and let us know.
Info Edge, the parent of Naukri.com, has achieved a 36% gross internal rate of return (IRR) on its startup investments since 2007, turning a total investment of INR 3,959 crore across 111 startups into a portfolio now valued at INR 36,855 crore-a nearly 9X gain. Early bets on Zomato and Policybazaar have been especially lucrative, with holdings in these two companies alone worth INR 31,500 crore as of March 2025.
The company’s investment strategy spans multiple vehicles, including the SEBI-registered Info Edge Venture Fund (IEVF), Info Edge Capital, and Capital 2B, with a combined fund corpus of INR 3,423 crore and Info Edge committing INR 1,614 crore. Early-stage investments now contribute 30-40% of the company’s overall value.
Info Edge’s Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) investments have yielded an IRR of 18.7%. Many portfolio companies, such as TrueMeds, Geniemode, Attentive.ai, and InPrime, have attracted follow-on funding from major investors like Accel, Peak XV Partners, and Tiger Global. Notably, BlueStone, the largest investment of Info Edge Capital, has filed for an IPO after securing investments from Prosus, Peak XV, and Steadview Capital. Founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani emphasized the company’s focus on strong governance and financial controls, with a preference for value realization through public listings or strategic exits.
Bengaluru-based investment bank IndigoEdge, in partnership with entrepreneur Hitesh Ahuja, has launched PixelSky Capital, a secondaries fund targeting INR 400 crore. The fund will invest in eight late-stage tech and consumer companies expected to go public within three to four years, with cheque sizes of INR 40–50 crore each. PixelSky has already invested in beauty retailer Purplle and aims to close a second deal by June 2025.
The fund focuses on secondary transactions, allowing existing shareholders to sell stakes to new investors, providing liquidity ahead of IPOs. Founders have committed INR 10–15 crore, with additional capital coming from domestic family offices and startup founders. Final close is expected by March 2026.
Led by Hitesh Ahuja, who sold his foodtech startup Yumlane in 2023, and IndigoEdge cofounder Zerin Rahiman, PixelSky marks IndigoEdge’s expansion from advisory and proprietary investments into fund management. The firm has facilitated over 150 transactions worth around $3 billion and invested INR 25–30 crore as a limited partner in multiple VC funds. PixelSky is currently evaluating about 20 companies before finalizing its portfolio
Meta is developing its first true AR glasses, set to launch in 2027. Before the public release, employees will test the device starting in 2024. The company is also releasing new generations of Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2023 and 2025 with enhanced features like a “viewfinder” display.
Specifications and Features
The AR glasses are expected to feature OLED displays and Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets, offering sophisticated AR and AI capabilities. They will enable users to interact with virtual objects and project high-quality holograms of avatars onto the real world.
Design and Competition
Meta aims for a sleek design, potentially building on its Ray-Ban partnerships. The AR glasses market is competitive, with Apple and Google also investing heavily. Meta seeks to make its AR glasses a game-changer by offering a unique user experience.
Future Plans
In addition to AR glasses, Meta is expanding its VR offerings with new headsets like the Quest 3 and exploring other wearable technologies. The company is focused on reducing costs to make the AR glasses more consumer-friendly by launch.