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A former track athlete and businessman, Phil Knight co-founded Nike, originally called Blue Ribbon Sports, in 1964 to sell running shoes, and led the company as CEO and Chairman for decades as it became a global sporting giant. Under Knight, Nike revolutionized athletic shoes with innovative new technologies like Air cushioning and became a ...
- Business Insider India
- Phil Knight was born on February 24, 1938. He ran track at the University of Oregon and graduated in 1959 with a degree in journalism. After serving in the army for a year, he went back to school to earn his MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
- Knight first came up with the idea for Blue Ribbon Sports — the company that later became Nike — during his time at Stanford. He teamed up with his college track coach from Oregon, Bill Bowerman, and each put in $500 to get the company off the ground.
- BRS' strategy was to import Japanese sneakers called Onitsuka Tigers and sell them at higher price points in the US, making a profit on the markup. When Bowerman came up his own design for what became the brand’s signature rubber-waffled sole in 1971, BRS stayed in the Asian market and got the shoes produced there for much cheaper than competitors like Adidas, which operated out of Germany.
- When the company officially rebranded as Nike in 1971, several well-known athletes were prominently sporting the shoes, doubling profits annually. Knight and Bowerman’s connections to the running community and focus on producing a high-quality product made Nike the top choice for professional athletes.
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- He Founded The Company with His Track Coach Bill Bowerman in 1964
- He Married His Wife Penny in 1968
- His Son Died in 2004 in A Scuba Diving Accident
- He's Donated Billions to Various Charities
- He Was Part of Nike's Effort to Make A Deal with Michael Jordan
- He Was Amused by Ben Affleck's Portrayal of Him in Air
- He Wrote A Book About His Life and Professional Accomplishments
- He Is The Owner of A Stop-Motion Animation Studio
- He Stepped Down from Nike in 2016
Knight first crossed paths with his future partner Bowerman at the University of Oregon. Bowerman coached the school's track and field club, which Knight joined after enrolling at the university in 1957. After graduating from Oregon and enrolling at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Knight came up with the idea to import high-quality, comfortab...
Though Knight found some early success with Blue Ribbon Sports, it wasn't quite enough to quit his day job for the first few years. In addition to keeping up his accounting career, he became an accounting professor at Portland State University, where he first met his future wife, Penelope "Penny" Parks. The two wed in September 1968 and went on to ...
Knight's son Matthew died in 2004 during a diving trip with his friends at a lake east of San Salvador. Matthew was only 34, and Knight spoke about how painful the sudden loss was in both his book and interviews at the time. The Nike founder shared how he received thousands of letters and emails expressing their condolences, but one stood out to hi...
Knight has previously said that he plans to give away most of his fortune by the end of his life. "By the time, you know, the lives of my children and their kids run out, I will have given most of it to charity," the Nike co-founder told CBS Sunday Morning in 2016. He primarily donates to his two alma maters, the University of Oregon and Stanford U...
In the early 1980s, Knight's company was in a rut. The company posted a loss in 1984, and its stocks struggled after going public in 1980. Knight wanted the company to break into the basketball playing ground, and one of his salesmen, Vaccaro, had a vision to make a deal with Jordan, who was just a rookie at the time. Though Knight was hesitant to ...
In a March 2023 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Affleck shared that he flew to Oregon to show Knight the movie before it aired on the big screen. Though he was nervous to see Knight's reaction, the former Nike CEO enjoyed the movie and was "remarkably gracious." Affleck explained to Kimmel that the goal wasn't to make a documentary, but a comedic...
In 2016, Knight released a memoir, Shoe Dog, about his personal life and how he founded Nike. He defined a "shoe dog" as someone who devotes their life to buying, making and selling shoes. The book touches on the more sensitive aspects of his life, including the loss of his son in 2004. He also shared the background of some of Nike's iconic moments...
In addition to his career in the athletic industry, Knight found a second passion in Hollywood as the owner of an animation company, Laika Entertainment. After making an initial investment in the company, then known as Will Vinton Studios, Knight purchased it fully and rebranded as Laika in 2003, named after the dog of the same name that was sent b...
Knight announced he was stepping down as the chairman of Nike in June 2015, and officially retired exactly one year later, according toForbes. Knight named Mark Parker, the CEO of Nike, as his successor in the role, though he added he would continue to be involved with the company as chairman emeritus. "For me, Nike has always been more than just a...
- Rebecca Aizin
1 day ago · Knight & family still own 20% of the $51 billion (fiscal 2023 revenue) company now known as Nike. Knight and his wife Penny have given $3.6 billion to charity so far--mainly through their Knight ...
- Chairman
Jul 13, 2017 · Transcript. July 13, 2017. Phil Knight, former chair and CEO of Nike, tells the story of starting the sports apparel and equipment giant after taking an entrepreneurship class at Stanford and...
Nike is a cultural icon because Knight understood and captured the zeitgeist of American pop culture and married it to sports. He found a way to harness society's worship of heroes, obsession with status symbols and predilection for singular, often rebellious figures.
Philip Hampson Knight (born February 24, 1938) is an American billionaire business magnate who is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc., a global sports equipment and apparel company. He was previously its chairman and CEO. [1]
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