Nike Unknown Facts

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.