Nike, Inc.

For more information on Nike Inc., visit Britannica.com.

Type: Public
On the web: http://www.nikebiz.com
Employees: 34,300
Employee growth: 5.5%

Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, helped others succeed in times of war. NIKE, the world's #1 shoemaker, does more dominating than assisting, to capture a hefty share of the US athletic shoe market. It designs and sells shoes for a variety of sports, including baseball, cheerleading, golf, volleyball, hiking, tennis, and football. NIKE also sells Cole Haan dress and casual shoes, as well as athletic apparel and equipment. In addition, NIKE operates NIKETOWN shoe and sportswear stores, NIKE factory outlets, NIKE Women shops and sells its shoes and apparel online. Overall, it sells its sportswear in some 675 NIKE-owned retail stores in the US and abroad. Nike acquired soccer star Umbro in 2008.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending May, 2009:
Sales: $19,176.1M
One year growth: 2.9%
Net income: $1,486.7M
Income growth: (21.1%)

Officers:
Chairman: Philip H. Knight
President, CEO, and Director: Mark G. Parker
President, Global Operations: Gary M. DeStefano

Competitors:
adidas
New Balance
PUMA AG

Incorporated: 1968 as BRS, Inc.
NAIC: 316219 Other Footwear Manufacturing; 339920 Sporting and Athletic Goods Manufacturing; 422340 Footwear Wholesalers; 448190 Other Clothing Stores; 448210 Shoe Stores

Founded as an importer of Japanese shoes, NIKE, Inc. (Nike) has grown to be the world's largest marketer of athletic footwear, holding a global market share of approximately 37 percent. In the United States, Nike products are sold through about 22,000 retail accounts; worldwide, the company's products are sold in more than 160 countries. Both domestically and overseas Nike operates retail stores, including NikeTowns and factory outlets. Nearly all of the items are manufactured by independent contractors, primarily located overseas, with Nike involved in the design, development, and marketing. In addition to its wide range of core athletic shoes and apparel marketed under the flagship Nike brand, the company also sells footwear under the Converse, Chuck Taylor, All Star, and Jack Purcell brands through wholly owned subsidiary Converse Inc. and sells under the brands Starter, Shaq, and Asphalt in the discount retailer channel through another subsidiary, Exeter Brands Group LLC. The firm also sells Nike and Bauer brand athletic equipment; Hurley surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding apparel and footwear; and Cole Haan brand dress and casual footwear. Nike has relied on consistent innovation in the design of its products and heavy promotion to fuel its growth in both U.S. and foreign markets. The ubiquitous presence of the Nike brand and its Swoosh trademark led to a backlash against the company by the late 20th century, particularly in relation to allegations of low wages and poor working conditions at the company's Asian contract manufacturers.

Nike's precursor originated in 1962, a product of the imagination of Philip H. Knight, a Stanford University business graduate who had been a member of the track team as an undergraduate at the University of Oregon. Traveling in Japan after finishing business school, Knight got in touch with a Japanese firm that made athletic shoes, the Onitsuka Tiger Co., and arranged to import some of its products to the United States on a small scale. Knight was convinced that Japanese running shoes could become significant competitors for the German products that then dominated the American market. In the course of setting up his agreement with Onitsuka Tiger, Knight invented Blue Ribbon Sports to satisfy his Japanese partner's expectations that he represented an actual company, and this hypothetical firm eventually grew to become Nike, Inc.

At the end of 1963, Knight's arrangements in Japan came to fruition when he took delivery of 200 pairs of Tiger athletic shoes, which he stored in his father's basement and peddled at various track meets in the area. Knight's one-man venture became a partnership in the following year, when his former track coach, William Bowerman, chipped in $500 to equal Knight's investment. Bowerman had long been experimenting with modified running shoes for his team, and he worked with runners to improve the designs of prototype Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) shoes. Innovation in running shoe design eventually would become a cornerstone of the company's continued expansion and success. Bowerman's efforts first paid off in 1968, when a shoe known as the Cortez, which he had designed, became a big seller.

BRS sold 1,300 pairs of Japanese running shoes in 1964, its first year, to gross $8,000. By 1965 the fledgling company had acquired a full-time employee and sales had reached $20,000. The following year, the company rented its first retail space, next to a beauty salon in Santa Monica, California, so that its few employees could stop selling shoes out of their cars. In 1967 with fast-growing sales, BRS expanded operations to the East Coast, opening a distribution office in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Bowerman's innovations in running shoe technology continued throughout this time. A shoe with the upper portion made of nylon went into development in 1967, and the following year Bowerman and another employee came up with the Boston shoe, which incorporated the first cushioned midsole throughout the entire length of an athletic shoe. Also in 1968 the company was incorporated as BRS, Inc.

By the end of the decade, Knight's venture had expanded to include several stores and 20 employees and sales were nearing $300,000. The company was poised for greater growth, but Knight was frustrated by a lack of capital to pay for expansion. In 1971, using financing from the Japanese trading company Nissho Iwai Corporation, BRS was able to manufacture its own line of products overseas, through independent contractors, for import to the United States. At this time, the company introduced its Swoosh trademark and the brand name Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. These new symbols were initially affixed to a soccer shoe, the first Nike product to be sold.

A year later, BRS broke with its old Japanese partner, Onitsuka Tiger, after a disagreement over distribution, and kicked off promotion of its own products at the 1972 U.S. Olympic Trials, the first of many marketing campaigns that would seek to attach Nike's name and fortunes to the careers of well-known athletes. Nike shoes were geared to the serious athlete, and their high performance carried with it a high price.

In their first year of distribution, the company's new products grossed $1.96 million and the corporate staff swelled to 45. In addition, operations were expanded to Canada, the company's first foreign market, which would be followed by Australia, in 1974.

Bowerman continued his innovations in running-shoe design with the introduction of the Moon shoe in 1972, which had a waffle-like sole that had first been formed by molding rubber on a household waffle iron. This sole increased the traction of the shoe without adding weight.

In 1974 BRS opened its first U.S. plant, in Exeter, New Hampshire. The company's payroll swelled to 250, and worldwide sales neared $5 million by the end of 1974. This growth was fueled in part by aggressive promotion of the Nike brand name. The company sought to expand its visibility by having its shoes worn by prominent athletes, including tennis players Ilie Nastase and Jimmy Connors. At the 1976 Olympic Trials these efforts began to pay off as Nike shoes were worn by rising athletic stars.

The company's growth had truly begun to take off by this time, riding the boom in popularity of jogging that took place in the United States in the late 1970s. BRS revenues tripled in two years to $14 million in 1976, and then doubled in just one year to $28 million in 1977. To keep up with demand, the company opened new factories, adding a stitching plant in Maine and additional overseas production facilities in Taiwan and Korea. International sales were expanded when markets in Asia were opened in 1977 and in South America the following year. European distributorships were lined up in 1978.

Nike continued its promotional activities with the opening of Athletics West, a training club for Olympic hopefuls in track and field, and by signing tennis player John McEnroe to an endorsement contract. In 1978 the company changed its name to Nike, Inc. The company expanded its line of products that year, adding athletic shoes for children.

By 1979 Nike sold almost half the running shoes bought in the United States, and the company moved into a new world headquarters building in Beaverton, Oregon. In addition to its shoe business, the company began to make and market a line of sports clothing, and the Nike Air shoe cushioning device was introduced.

By the start of the 1980s, Nike's combination of groundbreaking design and savvy and aggressive marketing had allowed it to surpass the German athletic shoe company adidas AG, formerly the leader in U.S. sales. In December 1980, Nike went public, offering two million shares of stock. With the revenues generated by the stock sale, the company planned continued expansion, particularly in the European market. In the United States, plans for a new headquarters on a large, rural campus were inaugurated, and an East Coast distribution center in Greenland, New Hampshire, was brought on line. In addition, the company bought a large plant in Exeter, New Hampshire, to house the Nike Sport Research and Development Lab and also to provide for more domestic manufacturing capacity. The company had shifted its overseas production away from Japan at this point, manufacturing nearly four-fifths of its shoes in South Korea and Taiwan. It established factories in mainland China in 1981.

By the following year, when the jogging craze in the United States had started to wane, half of the running shoes bought in the United States bore the Nike trademark. The company was well insulated from the effects of a stagnating demand for running shoes, however, because it gained a substantial share of its sales from other types of athletic shoes, notably basketball shoes and tennis shoes. In addition, Nike benefited from strong sales of its other product lines, which included apparel, work and leisure shoes, and children's shoes.

Given slowing growth in the U.S. market, however, the company turned its attention to foreign markets, inaugurating Nike International, Ltd. in 1981 to spearhead the company's push into Europe and Japan, as well as into Asia, Latin America, and Africa. In Europe, Nike faced stiff competition from adidas and Puma, which had a stronghold on the soccer market, Europe's largest athletic shoe category. The company opened a factory in Ireland to enable it to distribute its shoes without paying high import tariffs, and in 1981 bought out its distributors in England and Austria, to strengthen its control over marketing and distribution of its products. In 1982 the company outfitted Aston Villa, the winning team in the English and European Cup soccer championships, giving a boost to promotion of its new soccer shoe.

In Japan, Nike allied itself with Nissho Iwai, the sixth largest Japanese trading company, to form Nike-Japan Corporation. Because Nike already held a part of the low-priced athletic shoe market, the company set its sights on the high-priced end of the scale in Japan.

By 1982 the company's line of products included more than 200 different kinds of shoes, including the Air Force I, a basketball shoe, and its companion shoe for racquet sports, the Air Ace, the latest models in the long line of innovative shoe designs that had pushed Nike's earnings to an average annual increase of almost 100 percent. In addition, the company marketed more than 200 different items of clothing. By 1983, when the company posted its first ever quarterly drop in earnings as the running boom peaked and went into a decline, Nike's leaders were looking to the apparel division, as well as overseas markets, for further expansion. In foreign sales, the company had mixed results. Its operations in Japan were almost immediately profitable, and the company quickly jumped to second place in the Japanese market, but in Europe, Nike fared less well, losing money on its five European subsidiaries.

Faced with an 11.5 percent drop in domestic sales of its shoes in the 1984 fiscal year, Nike moved away from its traditional marketing strategy of support for sporting events and athlete endorsements to a wider-reaching approach, investing more than $10 million in its first national television and magazine advertising campaign. This followed the "Cities Campaign," which used billboards and murals in nine American cities to publicize Nike products in the period before the 1984 Olympics. Despite the strong showing of athletes wearing Nike shoes in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games, Nike profits were down almost 30 percent for the fiscal year ending in May 1984, although international sales were robust and overall sales rose slightly. This decline was a result of aggressive price discounting on Nike products and the increased costs associated with the company's push into foreign markets and attempts to build up its sales of apparel.

Earnings continued to fall in the next three quarters as the company lost market share, posting profits of only $7.8 million at the end of August 1984, a loss of $2.2 million three months later, and another loss of $2.1 million at the end of February 1985. In response, Nike adopted a series of measures to change its sliding course. The company cut back on the number of shoes it had sitting in warehouses and also attempted to fine-tune its corporate mission by cutting back on the number of products it marketed. It made plans to reduce the line of Nike shoes by 30 percent within a year and a half. In addition, leadership at the top of the company was streamlined, as founder Knight resumed the post of president, which he had relinquished in 1983, in addition to his duties as chairman and chief executive officer. Overall administrative costs were also reduced. As part of this effort, Nike also consolidated its research and marketing branches, closing its facility in Exeter, New Hampshire, and cutting 75 of the plant's 125 employees. Overall, the company laid off about 400 workers during 1984.

Faced with shifting consumer interests (i.e., the U.S. market move from jogging to aerobics), the company created a new products division in 1985 to help keep pace. In addition, Nike purchased Pro-form, a small maker of weightlifting equipment, as part of its plan to profit from all aspects of the fitness movement. The company was restructured further at the end of 1985 when its last two U.S. factories were closed and its previous divisions of apparel and athletic shoes were rearranged by sport. In a move that would prove to be the key to the company's recovery, in 1985 the company signed basketball player Michael Jordan to endorse a new version of its Air shoe, introduced four years earlier. The new basketball shoes bore the name "Air Jordan."

In early 1986 Nike announced expansion into a number of new lines, including casual apparel for women, a less expensive line of athletic shoes called Street Socks, golf shoes, and tennis gear marketed under the name "Wimbledon." By mid-1986 Nike was reporting that its earnings had begun to increase again, with sales topping $1 billion for the first time. At that point, the company sold its 51 percent stake in Nike-Japan to its Japanese partner; six months later, Nike laid off 10 percent of its U.S. employees at all levels in a major cost-cutting strategy.

Following these moves, Nike announced a drop in revenues and earnings in 1987, and another round of restructuring and budget cuts ensued, as the company attempted to come to grips with the continuing evolution of the U.S. fitness market. Only Nike's innovative Air athletic shoes provided a bright spot in the company's otherwise erratic progress, allowing the company to regain market share from rival Reebok International Ltd. in several areas, including basketball and cross-training.

The following year, Nike branched out from athletic shoes, purchasing Cole Haan, a maker of casual and dress shoes, for $80 million. Advertising heavily, the company took a commanding lead in sales to young people to claim 23 percent of the overall athletic shoe market. Profits rebounded to reach $100 million in 1988, as sales rose 37 percent to $1.2 billion. Later that year, Nike launched a $10 million television campaign around the theme "Just Do It" and announced that its 1989 advertising budget would reach $45 million.

In 1989 Nike unveiled several new lines of shoes and led its market with $1.7 billion in sales, yielding profits of $167 million. The company's product innovation continued, including the introduction of a basketball shoe with an inflatable collar around the ankle, sold under the brand name Air Pressure. In addition, Nike continued its aggressive marketing, using ads featuring Michael Jordan and actor-director Spike Lee, the ongoing "Just Do It" campaign, and the "Bo Knows" television spots featuring athlete Bo Jackson. At the end of 1989, the company began relocation to its newly constructed headquarters campus in Beaverton, Oregon.

In 1990 the company sued two competitors for copying the patented designs of its shoes and found itself engaged in a dispute with the U.S. Customs Service over import duties on its Air Jordan basketball shoes. In 1990 the company's revenues hit $2 billion. The company acquired Tetra Plastics Inc., producers of plastic film for shoe soles. That year, the company opened NikeTown, a prototype store selling the full range of Nike products, in Portland, Oregon.

By 1991 Nike's Visible Air shoes had enabled it to surpass its rival Reebok in the U.S. market. In the fiscal year ending May 31, 1991, Nike sales surpassed the $3 billion mark, fueled by record sales of 41 million pairs of Nike Air shoes and a booming international market. Its efforts to conquer Europe had begun to bear fruit; business there grew by 100 percent that year, producing more than $1 billion in sales and gaining the second place market share behind Adidas. Nike's U.S. shoe market had, in large part, matured, slowing to 5 percent annual growth, down from 15 percent annual growth from 1980 and 1988. The company began eyeing overseas markets and predicted ample room to grow in Europe. Nike's U.S. rival Reebok, however, also saw potential for growth in Europe, and by 1992 European MTV was glutted with athletic shoe advertisements as the battle for the youth market heated up between Nike, Reebok, and their European competitors, Adidas and Puma.

Nike also saw growth potential in its women's shoe and sports apparel division. In February 1992 Nike began a $13 million print and television advertising pitch for its women's segment, built upon its "Dialogue" print campaign, which had been slowly wooing 18- to 34-year-old women since 1990. Sales of Nike women's apparel lines Fitness Essentials, Elite Aerobics, Physical Elements, and All Condition Gear increased by 25 percent in both 1990 and 1991 and jumped by 68 percent in 1992.

In July 1992 Nike opened its second NikeTown retail store in Chicago. Like its predecessor in Portland, the Chicago NikeTown was designed to "combine the fun and excitement of FAO Schwartz, the Smithsonian Institute and Disneyland in a space that will entertain sports and fitness fans from around the world" as well as provide a high-profile retail outlet for Nike's rapidly expanding lines of footwear and clothing.

Nike celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1992, virtually debt free and with company revenues of $3.4 billion. Gross profits jumped $100 million in that year, fueled by soaring sales in its retail division, which expanded to include 30 Nike-owned discount outlets and the two NikeTowns. To celebrate its anniversary, Nike brought out its old slogan "There is no finish line." As if to underscore that sentiment, Nike Chairman Philip Knight announced massive plans to remake the company with the goal of being "the best sports and fitness company in the world." To fulfill that goal, the company set the ground plans for a complicated yet innovative marketing structure seeking to make the Nike brand into a worldwide megabrand along the lines of Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Sony, and Disney.

Nike continued expansion of its high-profile NikeTown chain, opening outlets in Atlanta, Georgia, in the spring of 1993 and Costa Mesa, California, later that year. Also in 1993, as part of its long-term marketing strategy, Nike began an ambitious venture with Mike Ovitz's Creative Artists Agency to organize and package sports events under the Nike name, a move that potentially led the company into competition with sports management giants such as ProServ, IMG, and Advantage International.

Nike also began a more controversial venture into the arena of sports agents, negotiating contracts for basketball's Scottie Pippin, Alonzo Mourning, and others in addition to retaining athletes such as Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley as company spokespersons. Nike's influence in the world of sports grew to such a degree that in 1993 Sporting News dubbed Knight the most powerful man in sports.

Critics contended that Nike's influence ran too deep, having its hand in negotiating everything in an athlete's life from investments to the choice of an apartment. But Nike's marketing executives saw it as part of a campaign to create an image of Nike not just as a product line but as a lifestyle, a "Nike attitude."

Nearly everyone agreed, however, that Nike was the dominant force in athletic footwear in the early to mid-1990s. The company held about 30 percent of the U.S. market by 1995, far outdistancing the 20 percent of its nearest rival, Reebok. Overseas revenues continued their steady rise, reaching nearly $2 billion by 1995, about 40 percent of the overall total. Not content with its leading position in athletic shoes and its growing sales of athletic apparel, which accounted for more than 30 percent of revenues in 1996, Nike branched out into sports equipment in the mid-1990s. In 1994 the company acquired Canstar Sports Inc., the leading maker of skates and hockey equipment in the world, for $400 million. Canstar was renamed Bauer Nike Hockey Inc., Bauer being Canstar's brand name for its equipment. Two years later Bauer Nike became part of the newly formed Nike equipment division, which aimed to extend the company into the marketing of sport balls, protective gear, eyewear, and watches. Also during this period, Nike signed its next superstar spokesperson, Tiger Woods. In 1995, at the age of 20, Woods agreed to a 20-year, $40 million endorsement contract. The golf phenom went on to win an inordinate number of tournaments, often shattering course records, and was on pace to eclipse golf legend Jack Nicklaus's illustrious lifetime record of winning 18 majors, more than validating the blockbuster contract.

For the fiscal year ending in May 1997, Nike earned a record $795.8 million on record revenues of $9.19 billion. Overseas sales played a large role in the 42 percent increase in revenues from 1996 to 1997. Sales in Asia increased by more than $500 million (to $1.24 billion), while European sales surged ahead by $450 million. Back home, Nike's share of the U.S. athletic shoe market neared 50 percent. The picture at Nike soon turned sour, however, as the Asian financial crisis that erupted in the summer of 1997 sent sneaker sales in that region plunging. By 1999, sales in Asia had dropped to $844.5 million. Compounding the company's troubles was a concurrent stagnation of sales in its domestic market, where the fickle tastes of teenagers began turning away from athletic shoes to hiking boots and other casual "brown shoes." As a result, overall sales for 1999 fell to $8.78 billion. Profits were falling as well, including a net loss of $67.7 million for the fourth quarter of 1998, the company's first reported loss in more than 13 years. The decline in net income led to a cost-cutting drive that included the layoff of 5 percent of the workforce, or 1,200 people, in 1998, and the slashing of its budget for sports star endorsements by $100 million that same year.

Nike was also dogged throughout the late 1990s by protests and boycotts over allegations regarding the treatment of workers at the contract factories in Asia that employed nearly 400,000 people and that made the bulk of Nike shoes and much of its apparel. Charges included abuse of workers, poor working conditions, low wages, and use of child labor. Nike's initial reaction, which was highlighted by Knight's insistence that the company had little control over its suppliers, resulted in waves of negative publicity. Protesters included church groups, students at universities that had apparel and footwear contracts with Nike, and socially conscious investment funds. Nike finally announced in mid-1998 a series of changes affecting its contract workforce in Asia, including an increase in the minimum age, a tightening of air quality standards, and a pledge to allow independent inspections of factories. Nike nonetheless remained under pressure from activists into the 21st century. Nike, along with McDonald's Corporation, the Coca-Cola Company, and Starbucks Corporation, among others, also became an object of protest from those who were attacking multinational companies that pushed global brands. This undercurrent of hostility burst into the spotlight in late 1999 when some of the more aggressive protesters against a World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle attempted to storm a NikeTown outlet.

Seeking to recapture the growth of the early to mid-1990s, Nike pursued a number of new initiatives in the late 1990s. Having initially missed out on the trend toward extreme sports (such as skateboarding, mountain biking, and snowboarding), Nike attempted to rectify this miscue by establishing a unit called ACG, short for "all-conditions gear," in 1998. Two years later, the company created a new division called Techlab to market a line of sports-technology accessories, such as a digital audio player, a high-altitude wrist compass, and a portable heart-rate monitor. Both of these initiatives were aimed at capturing sales from the emerging Generation Y demographic group. In early 1999 Nike began selling its shoes and other products directly to consumers via the company web site. The company finally earned some good publicity in 1999 when it sponsored the U.S. national women's soccer team that won the Women's World Cup. In December 1999 Nike cofounder Bowerman died, and the company later introduced a line of running shoes in his honor.

Nike's struggles continued into the early 2000s, but by 2002 the company appeared to have turned a corner. Surprisingly, the turnaround stemmed in large part not from clever marketing or new high-tech sneakers but from concentrating more attention on the more mundane aspects of running a business, such as investing in start-of-the-art information systems, logistics, and supply-chain management. Equally important was Knight's willingness to cede more control of the company to a number of underlings, some recruited from the outside. Donald W. Blair was brought onboard from PepsiCo, Inc. to become chief financial officer in 1999 after Nike inexplicably had been without a CFO for two years. In 2001 Knight named two longtime company insiders, Mark G. Parker and Charles D. Denson, as copresidents with responsibility for day-to-day operations. On the product side, Nike successfully overhauled its apparel operations, garnered surging sales of its golf equipment after Woods began using Nike golf balls in 2000, and made a big push in the soccer shoe market, where it gained the top spot among European soccer shoe buyers, leapfrogging over Adidas, by 2003. Nike also continued to score endorsement coups, inking high school basketball phenom LeBron James to a $90 million contract in 2003.

The Nike comeback also centered around a commitment to lessen its dependence on the volatile market for high-performance shoes by owning a portfolio of brands covering different market sectors and price points. In 2002 the company bought Hurley International, a teen lifestyle brand, for an estimated $95 million. Based in Costa Mesa, California, Hurley was a designer and distributor of action sports apparel and footwear for surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding. Nike next bought Converse Inc. for $305 million in September 2003. The 95-year-old Converse of North Andover, Massachusetts, was best known for its retro, low-tech Chuck Taylor All-Star sneakers, a product that for many teenagers and young adults had come to be viewed as the very antithesis of everything Nike. Converse's management team remained in place following the takeover, with the company operating as an autonomous subsidiary. In August 2004 Nike bought Official Starter Properties LLC and Official Starter LLC for approximately $47 million. These companies marketed athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories under the Starter, Team Starter, Asphalt, Shaq, and Dunkman brands (the latter two featuring NBA star Shaquille O'Neal), primarily through discount chains such as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. These brands were placed within a new wholly owned subsidiary, Exeter Brands Group LLC, focusing on developing products for value-conscious consumers.

While these acquisitions were unfolding in the United States, Nike was pushing hard into overseas markets, and by 2003 international sales exceeded domestic sales for the first time. Starting in 2002 the company also concentrated on building an extensive program to address the perennial charges of labor exploitation. Nike began allowing a monitoring organization it had cofounded, the Fair Labor Association, to conduct random factory inspections. It also built an in-house staff of approximately 100 employees to inspect hundreds of factories and grade them on labor standards. In early 2005 Nike took an unprecedented step toward greater transparency by issuing a list of its more than 700 contract factories. Such moves provided the basis for an improving relationship between Nike and its critics. There were even a few cases in which activists worked with the company to resolve specific issues at certain factories.

Nike enjoyed record results in the fiscal year ending in May 2004, posting profits of $945.6 million on revenues of $12.25 billion. Profits surged past the $1 billion mark the next year, hitting $1.21 billion, while revenues jumped to a new high of $13.74 billion. Late in 2004 Knight stepped aside from his executive position, while remaining chairman, to bring William D. Perez onboard as president and CEO. Perez, a marathon runner and avid golfer, was hired away from S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., the family-controlled consumer products company, where he spent 34 years and rose to the top as president and CEO. His vast international experience was expected to help Nike as it continued its expansion abroad, and Perez was known as an excellent marketer with a stellar reputation of acquiring and managing well-known brands. Within months of Perez's appointment, Nike's need for such an experienced hand appeared to grow when adidas-Salomon AG agreed to buy Reebok International Ltd. for approximately $3.8 billion. The deal, announced in August 2005, promised to combine two of Nike's biggest rivals, giving the newly enlarged company about 30 percent of the worldwide athletic footwear market, compared to Nike's 37 percent. A revitalized Nike nevertheless seemed to have the strategies in place to fend off this new threat and stay on top of the global sneaker heap.

Principal Subsidiaries

Bauer Nike Hockey Inc.; Cole Haan Holdings Incorporated; Converse Inc.; Hurley International LLC; Exeter Brands Group LLC.

Principal Competitors

Reebok International Ltd.; adidas-Salomon AG; Fila USA, Inc.; PUMA AG Rudolf Dassler Sport; Skechers U.S.A., Inc.

Further Reading

Buell, Barbara, "Nike Catches Up with the Trendy Frontrunner," Business Week, October 24, 1988, p. 88.

Collingwood, Harris, "Nike Rushes in Where Reebok Used to Tread," Business Week, October 3, 1988, p. 42.

Dash, Eric, "Founder of Nike to Hand Off Job to a New Chief," The New York Times, November 19, 2004, p. C1.

Dowdell, Stephen, "No Finish Line," Footwear News, November 25, 2002, p. 12.

Eales, Roy, "Is Nike a Long Distance Runner?," Multinational Business, 1986, pp. 9+.

"Fitting the World in Sport Shoes," Business Week, January 25, 1982.

Gallagher, Leigh, "Rebound," Forbes, May 3, 1999, p. 60.

Gilley, Bruce, "Sweating It Out," Far Eastern Economic Review, December 10, 1998, pp. 66-67.

Gold, Jacqueline S., "The Marathon Man?," Financial World, February 16, 1993, p. 32.

Grimm, Matthew, "Nike Vision," Brandweek, March 29, 1993, p. 19.

Heins, John, "Looking for That Strong Finish," Forbes, May 4, 1987, pp. 74+.

Holmes, Stanley, "The New Nike," Business Week, September 20, 2004, pp. 78-82, 84, 86.

Holmes, Stanley, and Christine Tierney, "How Nike Got Its Game Back," Business Week, November 4, 2002, pp. 129-31.

Jenkins, Holman W., Jr., "The Rise and Stumble of Nike," Wall Street Journal, June 3, 1998, p. A19.

Kang, Stephanie, and Joann S. Lublin, "Nike Taps Perez of S.C. Johnson to Follow Knight," Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2004, p. A3.

Katz, Donald R., Just Do It: The Nike Spirit in the Corporate World, New York: Random House, 1994, 336 p.

"Kennel Mates: Nike Bites into Fogdog Ownership," Sporting Goods Business, October 11, 1999, p. 10.

Klein, Naomi, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2000, 490 p.

Labich, Kenneth, "Nike vs. Reebok: A Battle for Hearts, Minds, and Feet," Fortune, September 18, 1995, pp. 90+.

LaFeber, Walter, Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism, rev. ed., New York: Norton, 2002, 220 p.

Lane, Randall, "You Are What You Wear," Forbes 400, October 14, 1996, pp. 42-46.

Lee, Louise, "Can Nike Still Do It?," Business Week, February 21, 2000, pp. 120-22+.

Loftus, Margaret, "A Swoosh Under Siege," U.S. News and World Report, April 12, 1999, p. 40.

McGill, Douglas C., "Nike Is Bounding Past Reebok," The New York Times, July 11, 1989, p. D1.

Murphy, Terence, "Nike on the Rebound," Madison Avenue, June 1985, pp. 28+.

"Nike Pins Hopes for Growth on Foreign Sales and Apparel," New York Times, March 24, 1983.

"Nike Sports Shoes: Winged Victory," Economist, December 2, 1989, pp. 83+.

"Nike Versus Reebok: A Foot Race," Newsweek, October 3, 1988, p. 52.

Richards, Bill, "Just Doing It: Nike Plans to Swoosh into Sports Equipment but It's a Tough Game," Wall Street Journal, January 6, 1998, pp. A1+.

------, "Tripped Up by Too Many Shoes, Nike Regroups," Wall Street Journal, March 3, 1998, p. B1.

Robson, Douglas, "Just Do ... Something," Business Week, July 2, 2001, pp. 70-71.

Roth, Daniel, "Can Nike Still Do It Without Phil Knight?," Fortune, April 4, 2005, pp. 59-62, 64, 66, 68.

Saporito, Bill, "Can Nike Get Unstuck?," Time, March 30, 1998, pp. 48-53.

Sellers, Patricia, "Four Reasons Nike's Not Cool," Fortune, March 30, 1998, pp. 26-27.

Steinhauer, Jennifer, "Nike Is in a League of Its Own: With No Big Rival, It Calls the Shots in Athletic Shoes," The New York Times, June 7, 1997, Sec. 1, p. 31.

Strasser, J.B., and Laurie Becklund, Swoosh: The Unauthorized Story of Nike, and the Men Who Played There, San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991, 682 p.

Stroud, Ruth, "Nike Ready to Run a More Traditional Race," Advertising Age, June 18, 1984, pp. 4+.

Tharp, Mike, "Easy-Going Nike Adopts Stricter Controls to Pump Up Its Athletic-Apparel Business," Wall Street Journal, November 6, 1984.

Thurow, Roger, "Shtick Ball: In Global Drive, Nike Finds Its Brash Ways Don't Always Pay Off," Wall Street Journal, May 5, 1997, pp. A1+.

Tkacik, Maureen, "Nike to Swoosh Up Old-Line Converse for $305 Million," Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2003, p. A3.

------, "Rubber Match: In a Clash of Sneaker Titans, Nike Gets Leg Up on Foot Locker," Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2003, p. A1.

"Where Nike and Reebok Have Plenty of Running Room," Business Week, March 11, 1991.

Williams, Christopher C., "The Now and Future King," Barron's, June 13, 2005, pp. 18, 20.

Wrighton, Jo, and Fred R. Bleakley, "Philip Knight of Nike--Just Do It!," Institutional Investor, January 2000, pp. 22-24.

Wyatt, John, "Is It Time to Jump on Nike?," Fortune, May 26, 1997, pp. 185-86.

Yang, Dori Jones, et al., "Can Nike Just Do It?," Business Week, April 18, 1994, pp. 86-90.

— Elizabeth Rourke; Maura Troester; Updated by David E. Salamie

Quotes:

"There is no finish line."

"Just do it."

Nike, Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: NKE)
Founded	1972[1]
Founder(s)	William J. "Bill" Bowerman Philip H. Knight
Headquarters	Beaverton, Oregon, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Philip H. Knight (Chairman) Mark Parker (CEO) & (President)
Industry	Designing and Manufacturing: Sportswear Sports equipment
Products	Athletic shoes Apparel Sports equipment Accessories
Revenue	▲ US$ 18.627 billion (2008)
Operating income	▲ US$ 2.199 billion (2007)
Net income	▲ US$ 1.883 billion (2008)
Total assets	▲ US$ 12.443 billion (2008)
Total equity	▲ US$ 7.825 billion (2008)
Employees	30,200 (2008)
Website	Nike.com

Nike, Inc. (pronounced /ˈnaɪki/) (NYSE: NKE) is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area. It is the world's leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel^[2] and a major manufacturer of sports equipment with revenue in excess of $18.6 billion USD in its fiscal year 2008 (ending May 31, 2008). As of 2008, it employed more than 30,000 people worldwide. Nike and Precision Castparts are the only Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state of Oregon, according to The Oregonian.

The company was founded on January 25, 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight, and officially became Nike, Inc. in 1978. The company takes its name from Nike (Greek Νίκη pronounced [níːkɛː]), the Greek goddess of victory; it is also based on Egyptian usage of "strength", "victory", nakht^{[citation needed]}. Nike markets its products under its own brand as well as Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Nike+, Air Jordan, Nike Skateboarding and subsidiaries including Cole Haan, Hurley International, Umbro and Converse. Nike also owned Bauer Hockey (later renamed Nike Bauer) between 1995 and 2008.^[3] In addition to manufacturing sportswear and equipment, the company operates retail stores under the Niketown name. Nike sponsors many high profile athletes and sports teams around the world, with the highly recognized trademarks of "Just do it" and the Swoosh logo.

Contents 1 Origins and history 1.1 Acquisitions 2 Products 3 Headquarters 4 Manufacturing 4.1 Human rights concerns 5 Environmental record 6 Marketing strategy 6.1 Advertising 6.1.1 Kasky v. Nike 6.1.2 Beatles song 6.1.3 Minor Threat ad 6.1.4 Horror ad 6.1.5 Chinese-themed ad 6.1.6 Pretty 6.2 Place 6.3 Sponsorship 7 References 8 External links

Origins and history

Nike, originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports, was founded by University of Oregon track athlete Philip Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman in January 1964. The company initially operated as a distributor for Japanese shoe maker Onitsuka Tiger, making most sales at track meets out of Knight's automobile.^[4]

The company's profits grew quickly, and in 1966, BRS opened its first retail store, located on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California. By 1971, the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka Tiger was nearing an end. BRS prepared to launch its own line of footwear, which would bear the newly designed Swoosh.^[5]

The first shoe to carry this design that was sold to the public was a soccer shoe named "Nike", which was released in the summer of 1971. In February 1972, BRS introduced its first line of Nike shoes, with the name Nike derived from the Greek goddess of victory. In 1978, BRS, Inc. officially renamed itself to Nike, Inc. Beginning with Ilie Nastase, the first professional athlete to sign with BRS/Nike, the sponsorship of athletes became a key marketing tool for the rapidly growing company.

The company's first self-designed product was based on Bowerman's "waffle" design. After the University of Oregon resurfaced the track at Hayward Field, Bowerman began experimenting with different potential outsoles that would grip the new urethane track more effectively. His efforts were rewarded one Sunday morning when he poured liquid urethane into his wife's waffle iron. Bowerman developed and refined the so-called 'waffle' sole which would evolve into the now-iconic Waffle Trainer in 1974.

By 1980, Nike had reached a 50% market share in the United States athletic shoe market, and the company went public in December of that year.^[6] Its growth was due largely to 'word-of-foot' advertising (to quote a Nike print ad from the late 1970s), rather than television ads. Nike's first national television commercials ran in October 1982 during the broadcast of the New York Marathon. The ads were created by Portland-based advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, which had formed several months earlier in April 1982.

Together, Nike and Wieden+Kennedy have created many indelible print and television ads and the agency continues to be Nike's primary today. It was agency co-founder Dan Wieden who coined the now-famous slogan "Just Do It" for a 1988 Nike ad campaign, which was chosen by Advertising Age as one of the top five ad slogans of the 20th century, and the campaign has been enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution.^[6] San Franciscan Walt Stack was featured in Nike's first "Just Do It" advertisement that debuted on July 1, 1988.^[7]

Throughout the 1980s, Nike expanded its product line to include many other sports and regions throughout the world.^[8]

Acquisitions

• As of November 2008, Nike, Inc. owns four key subsidiaries: Cole Haan, Hurley International, Converse Inc. and Umbro.
• Nike's first acquisition was the upscale footwear company Cole Haan in 1988.
• In February 2002, Nike bought surf apparel company Hurley International from founder Bob Hurley.^[9]
• In July 2003, Nike paid US$305 million to acquire Converse Inc., makers of the iconic Chuck Taylor All Stars.^[10]
• On March 3, 2008, Nike acquired sports apparel supplier Umbro, known as the manufacturers of the England national football team's kits, in a deal said to be worth £285 million (about US$600 million).^[11]
• Other subsidiaries previously owned and subsequently sold by Nike include Bauer Hockey and Starter.^[12]

Products

A Nike brand athletic shoe

A pair of Nike Air Jordan I shoes

Nike produces a wide range of sports equipment. Their first products were track running shoes. They currently also make shoes, jerseys, shorts, baselayers etc. for a wide range of sports including track & field, baseball, ice hockey, tennis, Association football, lacrosse, basketball and cricket. Nike Air Max is a line of shoes first released by Nike, Inc. in 1987. The most recent additions to their line are the Nike 6.0, Nike NYX, and Nike SB shoes, designed for skateboarding. Nike has recently introduced cricket shoes, called Air Zoom Yorker, designed to be 30% lighter than their competitors'.^[13] In 2008, Nike introduced the Air Jordan XX3, a high performance basketball shoe designed with the environment in mind.

Nike sells an assortment of products, including shoes and apparel for sports activities like association football^[14], basketball, running, combat sports, tennis, American football, athletics, golf and cross training for men, women, and children. Nike also sells shoes for outdoor activities such as tennis, golf, skateboarding, association football, baseball, American football, cycling, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading, aquatic activities, auto racing and other athletic and recreational uses. Nike is well known and popular in youth culture, chav culture and hip hop culture as they supply urban fashion clothing. Nike recently teamed up with Apple Inc. to produce the Nike+ product which monitors a runner's performance via a radio device in the shoe which links to the iPod nano. While the product generates useful statistics, it has been criticized by researchers who were able to identify users' RFID devices from 60 feet (18 m) away using small, concealable intelligence motes in a wireless sensor network.^[15][16]

In 2004, they launched the SPARQ Training Program/Division.

Some of Nike's newest shoes contain Flywire and Lunarlite Foam. These are materials used to reduce the weight of many types of shoes.^[17]

In the video game Gran Turismo 4 there is a car by Nike called the NikeOne 2022, designed by Phil Frank.

Headquarters

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Nike's world headquarters are surrounded by the city of Beaverton, Oregon but are technically within unincorporated Washington County.

This distinction, according to The Oregonian, has been a source of contention between the city of Beaverton and Nike since the company purchased 74 acres (0.3 km²) of nearby Beaverton land that soon fronted the Jared Co-operation. When Nike proposed expanding their headquarters in that direction, Beaverton at first wanted them to build housing near the MAX light rail station and criss-cross the property with two public roads, expectations defined by the zoning already in place when Nike bought the land. Beaverton's request was mostly consistent with Metro's transit-oriented development plans for the region. After a year, which included a threat by Nike to move 5,000 jobs out of the state, Beaverton backed down from the requirement for housing, but the lack of accommodation was something that Nike did not forget.

The annexation standoff soon led Beaverton to attempt a forcible annexation. That led to a lawsuit by Nike, and lobbying by the company that ultimately ended in Oregon Senate Bill 887 of 2005. Under that bill's terms, Beaverton is specifically barred from forcibly annexing the land that Nike and Columbia Sportswear occupy in unincorporated Washington County for 35 years, while Electro Scientific Industries and Tektronix get that same protection for 30 years.^[18]

The world headquarters is situated on approximately 200 acres (0.81 km²) of land. The first phase of construction was completed in 1990, followed by expansions in 1992, 1999, 2001 and 2008. There are 17 buildings, together providing approximately 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m²) of office space. Each building is named for a legendary coach or athlete who has had a long affiliation with Nike, including Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Mia Hamm, Michael Jordan, Pete Sampras, Joan Benoit Samuelson, John McEnroe and several others.

Two of the buildings are child development centers, named for Joe Paterno and C. Vivian Stringer, that together provide daily child care for approximately 500 children of Nike employees. A man-made lake, fed by a natural spring, covers 6 acres (24,000 m²) and is adjacent to a protected wetland area that runs through the center of the campus. The dirt from the lake was deposited around the perimeter of the grounds to create a 14-foot (4.3 m) tall, sloping berm that helps create a campus-like feel. Approximately 5,000 employees are based at the world headquarters, with another 2,000-2,500 in additional buildings in office complexes nearby.^[19]

Manufacturing

Nike has contracted with more than 700 shops around the world and has offices located in 45 countries outside the United States.^[20] Most of the factories are located in Asia, including Indonesia, China, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Philippines,and Malaysia.^[21] Nike is hesitant to disclose information about the contract companies it works with. However, due to harsh criticism from some organizations like CorpWatch, Nike has disclosed information about its contract factories in its Corporate Governance Report.

Human rights concerns

Nike has been criticized for contracting with factories in countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico. Vietnam Labour Watch, an activist group, has documented that factories contracted by Nike have violated minimum wage and overtime laws in Vietnam as late as 1996, although Nike claims that this practice has been halted.^[22] The company has been subject to much critical coverage of the often poor working conditions and exploitation of cheap overseas labor employed in the free trade zones where their goods are typically manufactured. Sources of this criticism include Naomi Klein's book No Logo and Michael Moore's documentaries.

Nike has been criticized about ads which referred to empowering women in the U.S. while engaging in practices in East Asian factories which some felt disempowered women.^[23]

During the 1990s, Nike faced criticism for use of child labor in Cambodia and Pakistan in factories it contracted to manufacture soccer balls. Although Nike took action to curb or at least reduce the practice of child labor, they continue to contract their production to companies that operate in areas where inadequate regulation and monitoring make it hard to ensure that child labor is not being used.^[24]

In 2001 a BBC documentary uncovered occurrences of child labor and poor working conditions in a Cambodian factory used by Nike.^[25] In the documentary, six girls were focused on, all of whom worked seven days a week, often 16 hours a day.

Campaigns have been taken up by many colleges and universities, especially anti-globalisation groups as well as several anti-sweatshop groups such as the United Students Against Sweatshops.^[26] Despite these campaigns, however, Nike's annual revenues have increased from $6.4 billion in 1996 to nearly $17 billion in 2007, according to the company's annual reports.

A July 2008 investigation by Australian Channel 7 News found a large number of cases involving forced labour in one of the biggest Nike apparel factories. The factory located in Malaysia was filmed by an undercover crew who found instances of squalid living conditions and forced labour. Nike have since stated that they will take corrective action to ensure the continued abuse does not occur.^[27]

Following Liu Xiang's withdrawal from the 2008 Olympics, Nike admitted seeking help from "relevant government departments" in the Chinese government to track down and identify an anonymous Internet poster.^[28]

Environmental record

The consistently growing textile industry often negatively impacts the environment. Because Nike is a large participant in this manufacturing, many of their processes negatively contribute to the environment. One way the expanding textile industry affects the environment is by increasing its water deficit, climate change, pollution, and fossil fuel and raw material consumption. In addition to this, today's electronic textile plants spend significant amounts of energy, while also producing a throw-away mindset due to trends founded upon fast fashion and cheap clothing.^[29] Although these combined effects can negatively alter the environment, Nike tries to counteract their influence with different projects. According to a New England-based environmental organisation Clean Air-Cool Planet, Nike ranks among the top 3 companies (out of 56) on a survey conducted about climate-friendly companies.^[30] Nike has also been praised for its Nike Grind programme (which closes the product lifecycle) by groups like Climate Counts.^[31] In addition to this, one campaign that Nike began for Earth Day 2008 was a commercial that featured Steve Nash wearing Nike's Trash Talk Shoe, a shoe that had been constructed in February 2008 from pieces of leather and synthetic leather waste that derived from the factory floor. The Trash Talk Shoe also featured a sole composed of ground-up rubber from a shoe recycling program. Nike claims this is the first performance basketball shoe that has been created from manufacturing waste, but it only produced 5,000 pairs for sale.^[32] Another project Nike has begun is called Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program. This program, started in 1993, is Nike's longest-running program that benefits both the environment and the community by collecting old athletic shoes of any type in order to process and recycle them. The material that is created from the recycled shoes is then used to help create sports surfaces, such as basketball courts, running tracks, and playgrounds.^[33]

Marketing strategy

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Nike's marketing strategy is an important component of the company's success. Nike is positioned as a premium-brand, selling well-designed and expensive products. Nike lures customers with a marketing strategy centering around a brand image which is attained by distinctive logo and the advertising slogan: "Just do it".^[34] Nike promotes its products by sponsorship agreements with celebrity athletes, professional teams and college athletic teams. However, Nike's marketing mix contains many elements besides promotion. These are summarised below.

Advertising

From 1972 to 1982, Nike relied almost exclusively on print advertising in highly vertical publications including Track and Field News. Most of the early advertising was focused on a new shoe release, essentially outlining the benefits of the running, basketball or tennis shoe. In 1976, the company hired its first outside ad agency, John Brown and Partners, who created what many consider Nike's first 'brand advertising' in 1977. A print ad with the tagline "There is no finish line" featured a lone runner on a rural road and became an instant classic. The success of this simple ad inspired Nike to create a poster version that launched the company's poster business.

In 1982, Nike aired its first national television ads, created by newly formed ad agency Wieden+Kennedy, during the New York Marathon. This would mark the beginning of a remarkably successful partnership between Nike and W+K that remains intact today. The Cannes Advertising Festival has named Nike its 'advertiser of the year' on two separate occasions, the first and only company to receive that honor twice (1994, 2003).^[35]

Nike also has earned the Emmy Award for best commercial twice since the award was first created in the 1990s. The first was for "The Morning After," a satirical look at what a runner might face on the morning of January 1, 2000 if every dire prediction about Y2K came to fruition.^[36] The second Emmy for advertising earned by Nike was for a 2002 spot called "Move," which featured a series of famous and everyday athletes in a stream of athletic pursuits.^[37]

In addition to garnering awards, Nike advertising has generated its fair share of controversy:

Kasky v. Nike

Consumer activist Marc Kasky filed a lawsuit in California in 2002 regarding newspaper advertisements and several letters Nike distributed in response to criticisms of labor conditions in its factories. Kasky claimed that the company made representations that constituted false advertising. Nike responded that the false advertising laws did not cover the company's expression of its views on a public issue, and that these were entitled to First Amendment protection. The local court agreed with Nike's lawyers, but the California Supreme Court overturned this ruling, claiming that the corporation's communications were commercial speech and therefore subject to false advertising laws.

The United States Supreme Court agreed to review the case (Nike v. Kasky) but sent the case back to trial court without issuing a substantive ruling on the constitutional issues. The parties subsequently settled out of court before any finding on the accuracy of Nike's statements, leaving the California Supreme Court's denial of Nike's immunity claim as precedent. The case drew a great deal of attention from groups concerned with civil liberties, as well as anti-sweatshop activists.

Beatles song

Nike was the focus of criticism for its use of the Beatles song "Revolution" in a 1987 commercial, against the wishes of Apple Records, the Beatles' recording company. Nike paid $250,000 to Capitol Records Inc., which held the North American licensing rights to the Beatles' recordings, for the right to use the Beatles' rendition for a year.

Apple sued Nike Inc., Capitol Records Inc., EMI Records Inc. and Wieden+Kennedy advertising agency for $15 million.^[38] Capitol-EMI countered by saying the lawsuit was 'groundless' because Capitol had licensed the use of "Revolution" with the "active support and encouragement of Yoko Ono Lennon, a shareholder and director of Apple."

According to a November 9, 1989 article in the Los Angeles Daily News, "a tangle of lawsuits between the Beatles and their American and British record companies has been settled." One condition of the out-of-court settlement was that terms of the agreement would be kept secret. The settlement was reached among the three parties involved: George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr; Yoko Ono; and Apple, EMI and Capitol Records. A spokesman for Yoko Ono noted, "It's such a confusing myriad of issues that even people who have been close to the principals have a difficult time grasping it. Attorneys on both sides of the Atlantic have probably put their children through college on this."

Nike discontinued airing ads featuring "Revolution" in March 1988. Yoko Ono later gave permission to Nike to use John Lennon's "Instant Karma" in another ad.

Minor Threat ad

In late June 2005, Nike received criticism from Ian MacKaye, owner of Dischord Records, guitarist/vocalist for Fugazi & The Evens, and front-man of defunct punk band Minor Threat, for appropriating imagery and text from Minor Threat's 1981 self-titled album's cover art in a flyer promoting Nike Skateboarding's 2005 East Coast demo tour.
On June 27, Nike Skateboarding's website issued an apology to Dischord, Minor Threat, and fans of both and announced that they tried to remove and dispose of all flyers. They state that the people who designed it were skateboarders and Minor Threat fans themselves who created the ad out of respect and appreciation for the band.^[39] The dispute was eventually settled out of court between Nike & Minor Threat. The exact details of the settlement have never been disclosed.

Horror ad

In this ad, a parody of horror films, Olympic runner Suzy Favor-Hamilton is running a bath in a remote wilderness cabin when a chainsaw-wielding masked killer appears. Hamilton is obviously in much better shape than the would-be killer and, thanks to her Nike gear, sprints away. The final shot shows the killer out of breath, limping away and ends with the tagline, "Why Sport?" which is quickly answered with "You'll live longer."

First aired during the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics (Friday), the ad titled "Horror" generated roughly 200 complaints (according to NBC) that caused the network to pull the ad by Sunday. ESPN followed suit, but the ad continued to air with little or no controversy on several other networks, including FOX, WB, UPN and Comedy Central.

Protesters argued that the ad made light of violence against women, while others claimed it was just too scary to watch, especially for children who enjoy watching the Olympics. Nike spokespeople retorted it was meant to be humorous, and to satirize the typical horror flick where a helpless woman was destined to be slashed. Hamilton herself stated the ad was inspirational, since it is the woman who defeats the man.

Chinese-themed ad

In 2004, an ad about LeBron James beating cartoon martial arts masters and slaying a Chinese dragon in martial arts offended Chinese authorities, who called the ad blasphemous and insulting to national dignity and the dragon. The ad was later banned in China. In early 2007 the ad was reinstated in China for unknown reasons.^[40]

Pretty

In the run up to the 2006 U.S. Open, Nike began running Pretty, a television advertisement featuring Maria Sharapova. The ad was a popular and critical success, and went on to win several of the industry's top awards, including two Cannes Gold Lions.

Place

Niketown at Oxford Street, London

Nike sells its product to more than 25,000 retailers in the U.S. (including Nike's own outlets and "Niketown" stores) and in approximately 160 countries in the world. The company also has a program called NIKEiD at nikeid.com, which allows customers to customize designs of some styles of Nike shoes and deliver them directly from manufacturer to the consumer. Nike sells its products in international markets through independent distributors, licensees, and subsidiaries.

Sponsorship

Main article: Nike sponsorships

Nike pays top athletes in many different sports to use their products and promote/advertise their technology and design.

Nike's first professional athlete endorser was Romanian tennis player Ilie Năstase, and the company's first track endorser was distance running legend Steve Prefontaine. Prefontaine was the prized pupil of the company's co-founder Bill Bowerman while he coached at the University of Oregon. Today, the Steve Prefontaine Building is named in his honor at Nike's corporate headquarters.

Besides Prefontaine, Nike has sponsored many other successful track & field athletes over the years such as Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Sebastian Coe. However, it was the signing of basketball player Michael Jordan in 1984, with his subsequent promotion of Nike over the course of his storied career with Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon, that proved to be one of the biggest boosts to Nike's publicity and sales.

During the past 20 years especially, Nike has been one of the major clothing/footwear sponsors for leading tennis players. Some of the more successful tennis players currently or formerly sponsored by Nike include: James Blake, Jim Courier, Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Martín del Potro, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras, Marion Bartoli, Lindsay Davenport, Daniela Hantuchová, Mary Pierce, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams.

Nike is also the official kit sponsor for the Indian cricket team for 5 years, from 2006 till end of 2010. Nike beat Adidas and Puma by bidding highest (US$43 Million total).

Nike also sponsors some of the leading clubs in world football, such as Manchester United, Arsenal, FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Shakhtar, Porto, Steaua, Red Star, Aston Villa, Celtic and PSV Eindhoven. Nike will also sponsor Dundee United from summer 2009.

Nike sponsors several of the world's top golf players, including Tiger Woods, Trevor Immelman and Paul Casey.

Nike also sponsors various minor events including Hoop It Up (high school basketball) and The Golden West Invitational (high school track and field). Nike uses web sites as a promotional tool to cover these events. Nike also has several websites for individual sports, including nikebasketball.com, nikefootball.com, and nikerunning.com.

References

1. ^ 2007 Annual Report, p. 2 (PDF), Nike, Inc., Retrieved on January 7, 2007.
2. ^ Sage, Alexandria (June 26, 2008). "Nike profit up but shares tumble on U.S. concerns". Reuters. http://uk.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUKWNAS924120080626. Retrieved 2008-07-10. 
3. ^ "Nike sells Bauer Hockey for $200 Million". The Sports Network. February 21, 2008. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=230199&hubname=nhl. Retrieved 2008-06-02. 
4. ^ http://www.nikebiz.com/company_overview/history/1950s.html
5. ^ 'Swoosh' by J.B. Strasser and 'Just Do It' by Donald Katz
6. ^ ^{a b} http://www.nikebiz.com/company_overview/history/1980s.html
7. ^ http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2008/07/nikes_just_do_it_slogan_celebr.html
8. ^ Nike Origins
9. ^ http://www.surfline.com/mag/daily_grind/02_22_hurley.cfm
10. ^ Partlow, Joshua (July, 2003). "Nike Drafts An All Star". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A9001-2003Jul17?language=printer. Retrieved 2008-06-02. 
11. ^ http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2007/10/22/daily13.html
12. ^ http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2007/11/12/daily22.html
13. ^ "Nike launches cricket shoe Air Zoom Yorker". The Hindu Business Line. September 2, 2006. http://www.blonnet.com/2006/09/02/stories/2006090203260500.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-02. 
14. ^ http://www.soccerpro.com/Nike-Air-Zoom-Control-II-FS-Indoor-Soccer-Shoes-c439/
15. ^ T. Scott Saponas, Jonathan Lester, Carl Hartung, Tadayoshi Kohno. "Devices That Tell On You: The Nike+iPod Sport Kit". http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/systems/nikeipod/tracker-paper.pdf. 
16. ^ Tom Espiner (2006-12-13). "Nike+iPod raises RFID privacy concerns". CNet. http://www.news.com/NikeiPod-raises-RFID-privacy-concerns/2100-1029_3-6143606.html?part=dl&tag=feed_2574&subj=6143606&tag=news. 
17. ^ "Latest materials improve sportswear performance". ICIS Chemical Business. http://www.icis.com/Articles/2008/08/04/9144388/latest-materials-improve-sportswear-performance.html. Retrieved 2008-10-14. 
18. ^ http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianextra/2006/06/appellate_court_rejects_beaver.html
19. ^ www.nikebiz.com
20. ^ NikeBiz | Investors | Corporate
21. ^ http://www.nike.com/nikebiz/gc/mp/pdf/disclosure_list_2005-06.pdf
22. ^ Nike Labor Practices in Vietnam
23. ^ NMSU:Nike
24. ^ MIT:
25. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/970385.stm
26. ^ Sweatfree Campus Campaign Launch
27. ^ YouTube - Nike Contractor in Malaysia using forced labour
28. ^ [1]
29. ^ Emerging Textiles February 2008. Retrieved: May 4, 2008
30. ^ Reuters report
31. ^ ClimateCounts: Nike
32. ^ BRANDWEEK April 23, 2008. Retrieved: May 4, 2008
33. ^ Wicked Local April 29, 2008. Retrieved: May 4, 2008
34. ^ "Kasky v. Nike: Just the Facts". Reclaim Democracy.org. http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/nike/kasky_nike_justfacts.html. Retrieved 2008-06-02. 
35. ^ http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/4121690-1.html
36. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CEFDA1430F932A0575BC0A9669C8B63
37. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D02E6D61130F933A1575AC0A9649C8B63&n=Top%2FNews%2FBusiness%2FCompanies%2FNike%20Inc.
38. ^ According to a July 28, 1987 article written by the Associated Press.
39. ^ Nike: Skateboarding
40. ^ Sandoval, Greg (December 7, 2004). "China Bans LeBron James Nike Ad". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41825-2004Dec6.html. Retrieved 2008-06-02. 

• Egan, Timothy. "The swoon of the swoosh". New York Times Magazine; September 13, 1998. 

External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nike, Inc.

Companies portal

• Nikebiz.com - Business Site
• Interview With a Major Retailer of Fake Nike Shoes
• Oregon Senate Bill 887, as signed by Governor Ted Kulongoski
• Company profile from Yahoo!
• Company summary, from the New York Stock Exchange website
• The NikeWatch Campaign
• FairLabor.org annual report
• Information on Kasky v. Nike
• Making Nike Sweat - on the Sweatshop issue (circa 2001)
• Boycott Nike Homepage - Most information from circa 2001 - Last updated in 2004

Coordinates: 45°30′33″N 122°49′48″W / 45.5093°N 122.8299°W / 45.5093; -122.8299

v • d • e Nike, Inc. Corporate directors John G. Connors · Jill Ker Conway · Timothy D. Cook · Ralph F. DeNunzio · Alan B. Graf · Douglas G. fouser · Jeanne P. Jackson · Phil Knight · Mark Parker · Orin C. Smith · John Thompson Assets and products Air Jordan · Air Melo Line · Cole Haan · Converse · Exeter Brands Group · Hurley · Nike Air Max · Nike Considered · Nike Free · Nike Golf · Nike Mercurial Vapor · Nike Shox · Nike SB · Swoosh · Team Starter · Nike Total 90 · Umbro Annual revenue: $16 billion USD (▲9.5% FY 2005) · Employees: 26,900 · Stock symbol: NYSE: NKE · Website: www.nike.com

v • d • e Oregon-based companies NYSE listed Greenbrier Companies · Lithia Motors · Monaco Coach Corporation · Nike · NW Natural · Portland General Electric · Precision Castparts · StanCorp Financial NASDAQ listed Columbia Sportswear · FEI · FLIR · InFocus · Lattice · Mentor Graphics · Merix · McCormick & Schmick's · Planar Systems · RadiSys · Rentrak · Schnitzer Steel · West Coast Bank Private companies Banfield · Franz Bakery · Harry & David · JELD-WEN · Kettle Foods · Les Schwab · Parr Lumber · Reser's Fine Foods · Shari's Other Bi-Mart · Evergreen International Aviation · Tillamook Creamery

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