In 2016, Nike's Air Jordon shoe alone generated $2.6 billion. The famous business magazine Bloomberg Businessweek praised Air Jordan basketball shoes and reshaped the sneaker industry.
We have to admit that Nike has also greatly affected our lives when creating business legends. Countless Nike enthusiasts lined up all night to buy a limited edition shoe, and many wore Nike shoes to school, shopping, and jogging. These people who are fascinated by the production, production, dressing, and madness of shoes have a common name - "shoe dogs".
Make the shoe dogs crazy air jordan
Nike founder Phil Knight also named his autobiography "Shoe Dog", in this book, he recalled his entrepreneurial path in detail, from which we can understand the secrets of Nike's growth process.
In the 1960s, no scientific discovery could prove that long-distance running could bring benefits. As a result, when people meet people who love long-distance running, they will always ridicule them as "stupid donkeys", and Phil Knight also happens to be a "stupid donkey" who loves long-distance running.
Phil Knight received his master's degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In his graduation thesis, he said that since Japanese cameras can subvert the mainstream German cameras at that time, then Japanese running shoes may also subvert the mainstream Adidas at that time.
The professor thought Phil Knight's crazy ideas were encouraging, so he gave Phil Knight an A. Since then, the dream of making a pair of mainstream running shoes has been rooted in Phil Knight's heart.
Nike Founder - Phil Knight
At that time, just over a decade after the end of World War II, U.S.-Japan relations were still very tense. When Phil Knight proposed to go to Japan to learn shoe making, the whole family objected, feeling that it was not safe to go to Japan. Phil Knight repeatedly persuaded his father to agree, and eventually, his father agreed to let him go to Japan and provided a sum of money for the visit. In this way, Phil Knight came to Kobe to visit the "Onizuka Company".
During a visit to Onizuka, Phil Knight repeated the numbers and opinions in his paper, which the Japanese appreciated, and then asked: Do you want to represent our shoes in the United States?
Phil Knight was stunned, he originally just wanted to study the production of shoes, in this situation, he could not help but blurt out: Yes, I have a company called Le Cordon Bleu Sports, we can cooperate. In this way, le Cordon Bleu sports was created out of thin air.
Nike's Past Life - Le Cordon Bleu
Phil Knight returned to the United States, and a few months later, he received sample shoes mailed from Japan. At sporting events, Phil Knight would go to the sports scene to sell Onizuka Tiger shoes. Soon, the shoes sold out. Phil Knight quickly ordered another shipment with the money from the shoe sale, and shoe boxes filled the basement. At this point, he wanted to expand the market, so he found two hardcore partners Bill Ballman and Jeff Johnson.
Bill Ballman was an athletics coach at Knight College. Bauerman is an uncompromising shoe dog, he often "steals" athletes' shoes, manually modified them, and strives to study a pair of shoes that "support the instep in a new way, so that the sole material cushions more strongly and the front toe can have more space" shoes. Bill Ballman not only often studied a variety of shoes, but even boiled rubber at home, designed and made soles, and the pungent smell often caused Bauerman a headache.
Bauerman is not only more professional in the production and production of shoes, but also an outstanding coach, and he recommends many athletes to try and endorse Onizuka Tiger sneakers with his coaching status.
Another partner was Jeff Johnson, a college classmate of Knight's and an athlete. At the time, he was working in a job he didn't like, selling Adidas in his spare time. Phil Knight simply asked Johnson to give up his job and specialize in selling Onizuka Tiger sneakers.
Knight rented another small house and moved the warehouse from the basement of his home to his single apartment. In this way, during the day Knight went to work at PwC accounting firm, shipped in the evening, Jeff Johnson was in charge of sales, Bill Ballman was in charge of research and promotion, so Le Cordon Bleu was officially established.
Jeff Johnson is an exchange maniac who sends out countless letters every day, and his pen pals are all over the world. A pen pal wrote to say that his coach wanted to buy Onizuka Tiger from somewhere else. At this point, they found that there was something wrong with the agency.
Knight had to make another trip to Japan, and Onizuka promised to see the young and persistent Knight, as if he had seen himself so obsessed with producing sneakers when he was young. So Mr. Onizuka promised to give Knight another 1 year of sales rights to the 13 states in western Japan.
However, this is not enough.
Onizuka always delayed shipments, incomplete sizes, and Knight did not have enough cash to restock. Onizuka delayed deliveries and shortened the sales time, so That Knight was unable to recover funds in time, repay bank loans, and apply for new loans. In this way, a vicious circle, the company is in danger.
At this time, a manager of the Japanese Onizuka Company, Mr. Kitami, came to the United States. I thought the manager was here to help, but I didn't expect the gentleman to yell and accuse in front of Knight's loan bank. The bank, which had been worried about Knight's cash flow, quickly cut off the loan. Mr. Kitami finally revealed his true purpose - Onizuka wanted to acquire Le Cordon Bleu sports and become the largest distributor in Japan in the United States.
Le Cordon Bleu is in dire need of new running shoe producers and lending banks. At this time, The Japanese importer, Iwai Iwai, expressed his willingness to cooperate with Le Cordon Bleu sports to be a loan provider for Le Cordon Bleu and introduce high-quality sneaker manufacturers in Japan.
When Onizuka had not yet acquired Le Cordon Bleu Sports, he issued a statement in a Japanese newspaper claiming that Onizuka had "merged" Le Cordon Bleu Sports and that Onizuka Tiger Running Shoes was about to enter the U.S. market for life. Japanese businessman Iwai severely reprimanded Le Cordon Bleu, doubting Le Cordon Bleu's intention to cooperate, and the establishment of a new company was imminent.
Jeff Johnson came up with the NIKE logo and name, so he asked the manufacturer to speed up the production of new shoes so that they could participate in sports fairs.
At the 1972 Chicago Sports Fair, NIKE shoes were officially unveiled. The shoe box is fluorescent orange, very eye-catching, and the side of the shoe box has white lowercase letters. Surprisingly, the quality of the shoes that were rushed out was very poor. Everyone was frustrated.
The earliest Nike trademark
When the sales representative came to the NIKE booth, Knight made a spirit introduction, and when introducing the Swoosh type of shoes, Knight said that the Swoosh means the whizzing sound that a person makes when running past you. It was this explanation that impressed the sellers and gave NIKE its first market.
At the Chicago Sports Fair, NIKE's sales response was good, and sports stars began to be willing to try NIKE shoes, and the situation seemed to be very good. However, with high sports celebrity endorsement fees and lawsuits with Onizuka, the company's cash flow is stretched thin and it is unable to make ends meet. Fortunately, Nissho Iwai was willing to urgently need to make a guarantee and provide loans.
Unfortunately, Nissho Iwai soon changed to a dealer, this dealer is not easy to deal with, Nike, in the end, can not pay nissho Iwai loans, workers' wages, dealer arrears, and tariffs.
Faced with this situation, the elderly Bauerman did not want to take any more risks, so he sold his equity to Knight. In this way, Knight went from place to place alone, borrowing money to pay off debts.
In order to reduce costs and increase profits, Knight changed the purchase model, shifting suppliers from Japan to Taiwan, where labor is cheaper.
Celebrities have endorsed Nike
Immediately after, two nobles appeared. In 1977, the aerospace engineer, Frank Crueddy, designed a new product. It is the use of air cushions in shoes, Adidas rejected this technology, and although Knight could not understand the design, he said that he could try it. Thus, the epoch-making product of air cushion running shoes was born.
Another nobleman is Chuck, who is the second-largest person under Secretary of State Kissinger, who single-handedly guided Nike's listing work and helped Nike get rid of the lack of funds.
In this way, NIKE completed the listing and stabilized its cash flow; designed new products, far ahead in the running shoe market; Hollywood stars, sports stars have endorsed Nike shoes, sales soared; not to worry about the lack of cheap manufacturers and processors, Nike company step by step to stand firm, open up a market. Nike's success seems to require a lot of luck, and many noble people have appeared one after another, but more importantly, in the tense war situation, Knight resolutely went to Japan.
Cowards never sail, the weak die in the road, leaving us alone, unable to stop.