Phil Knight

 

By Charlie

You know how you have to take out the trash and you just do it?  Well do you?  Well that's Nike for you.  part of their biggest campaign ever "Just do it." so tell me is Nike better than Adidas?  I would say the big N is better - because I am the founder, Phil Knight.

I was determined to be the best at a very young age.  I am a very competitive person and I am not embarrassed to say that because that only makes you better.  At a young age I always liked to run but I never thought it was going to be part of my life.  Fast forward, I'm at the University of Oregon, I had a scholarship for being a track and field athlete, and I was going to go to the Olympics but I decided to not and go back to partner up with my former track and field coach.  We started Blue Ribbon Sports and we were selling shoes out of a van.  Our first shoe was the Moon Shoe.  It was a normal shoe on top but the soles were very futuristic-looking I guess.  The soles were made from a waffle iron and it started from there.  

Now, it took us a long time but we were finally sort of popular.  I branched off into Nike, with Swoosh Inc. And that is where my career absolutely skyrocketed.  The first sign we were going to do with the NBA was for three players.  Once of my employees-slash-very good friends of mine was thinking we should only sign one player and that was Michael Jordan.  I was hesitant at first but I slowly realized that this was an extraordinarily awesomely amazingly good idea.  I mean, I am talking Albert Einstein level.  Jordan made my company billions, and we made him billions.  

Fast forward even more and Nike has blown up in every single continent except Antarctica.  Well, actually, scratch that.  Scientists in Antarctica have probably worn Nike.  At least I hope so.  I am 85 now and everyone has all of my shoes going everywhere every time any way.  Now, personally, my favorite Nikes are (disclaimer, you may not know all of these so don't feel bad) the Ben & Jerry's Dunks, the Dior high-tops, the Moneybag Dunks, Supreme Air Force Ones, and that's just a few.  Over my career, I did a lot of work with the Mak-a-Wish Foundation and donated a lot of money to charity.  I only donated $5 Million, but you only need $5 million to make about one million people happy.  Today Nike has more brand deals and shoes and charity work and branches of products just waiting to happen.  

Last but not least, I have had a good life doing what I love.