NIKE Inc.

By: Anthony Darpino

Phil Lenz

History

• 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

History of the Swoosh

• The Swoosh was first used by Nike in June 1971

• The swoosh was designed by Carolyn Davidson

• 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

Location

• Washington County, Oregon, United States

Type of Business at First

• As stated above Nike started as a really small partnership between a University of Oregon track star and his coach.

• They sold shoes out of the back of the coaches car before they made it big.

• The advantages were that there were really no business expenses because they sold the shoes out of a car.

Product List

• A lot of variations of sports equipment for all sports.

• Sports apparel and shoes

• Sports they have equipment for are: track and field, baseball, ice hockey, tennis, football, lacrosse, basketball and cricket

Benefits

• There are not really any benefits because of their use of sweatshops in third world countries

Employment

• Nike employs more than 30,000 people across the globe.

Growth

• Nike started as a business that sold its shoe out of the back of a car.

• It succeeded

• Its had its ups and down but overall grew into a worldwide corporation.

Challenges

• Nike has been criticized for contracting with factories in countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico. Vietnam Labor Watch, an activist group, has documented that factories contracted by Nike have violated minimum wage and overtime laws in Vietnam as late as 1996 .

• 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

Nike is a Corporation

• They changed to a corporation because they became a worldwide company and needed to expand.

• Nike is a public corporation because you can buy and sell shares of Nike on the stock market.