A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
Phil Knight
Summary
Shoe Dog is about the story of Nike, told by Nike’ creator Phil Knight. In business school, Phil wrote a paper on Japanese running shoes. It became an obsession to maybe license them and bring them to the US. The Japanese shoes were cheap and high quality, and thus he thought it could be something that would could rival Adidas’s otherwise dominant force in running shoes. Utilizing the Oregon running connection, he was able to start the company and be a distributor of the Japanese “Tiger” shoes. He had to work as an accountant for several years even after starting the company as the future was uncertain. After 10+ years of working with the Japanese he eventually was able to manufacture shoes himself. During the business relationship the Japanese had sometimes late deliveries, a high intensity relationship where it’d be unclear whether they’d build out their own US distribution. The memoir goes on to detail other business challenges that he ran into while starting Nike, lawsuits, IPO, etc.
Quotes
Cowards never started and the weak died along the way, that leaves us
In regards to Oregonions who made it via the Oregon trail.
My thoughts
The most interesting part is how it really started. He just went to Japan, without a business, cold-called one of their biggest shoe distributors and asked to be their US distribution. He lied many times while starting out, claiming he had an already existing company called “Blue Ribbon”.
Being apart of the Oregon running community also seemed to have such a huge boost. Just having Bill Bowerman as a partner was huge, and many of the best salesmen where Oregon runners.