Knight In The 1970's Blue Ribbon Sports

Philip Hampson Knight was born and raised in Oregon and was able to attend the University of Oregon and graduate in 1959 with a degree in journalism. Knight also earned his MBA from Stanford in 1962. During Knight’s time at the University of Oregon he was a member of the track team. After he graduated and entered the workforce he realized that he had a passion for something he had never thought about as a career. Knight wanted to be an entrepreneur and he dove into his dream by flying to Japan to meet with a shoe manufacturer. When he met with the manufacturers he introduced himself as the head of Blue Ribbon Sports, which was a company that he made up on the spot, this started Knight’s career as an entrepreneur. Knight partnered with his track

In 1972 Knight created Nike and paid a college student $35 to design a logo for his new company. In the early days of Nike they earned the reputation of having a party atmosphere at corporate events where screaming, fighting, and consuming alcohol and drugs were common and even encouraged. Nike became increasingly popular and was at the top of the sneaker game in 1990 when many forms of controversy and some questions of Knights character arose. Nike was able to get through the controversy and remain at the top of athletic footwear and Phil Knight was named the “most powerful” person in sports in 1993. The controversy continued to attract itself to Nike and as the founder and CEO many scrutinized the way Knight handled himself and the company in those situations. Phil Knight is one of the most successful self made billionaires in history but many dispute whether or not he is one of the best business leaders of a

They were continuing to grow and maintain their spot as one of the leader’s in sports. They continued to expand into different markets by creating hockey equipment and signing stars like Jeremy Roenick and Wayne Gretzky to endorsements. Nike also was successful in signing Tiger Woods to an endorsement deal, which was a game changer in golf equipment. During this time of extreme success many thought Nike would never be stopped and would take over as the only brand for sneakers and sporting equipment. Until 1990 when Reverend Jesse Jackson spoke out against Nike and started a boycott because of their lack of support for African Americans who are very large number of their consumers. At that point Nike had still never had and African American Vice Presidents or board members, Reverend Jackson’s argument was that they were exploiting African Americans by targeting them with advertisements and endorsements but they had no African American influence in their upper level management. Another issue that Phil Knight was accused of was being insensitive toward the inner city because with sports being a major parts of the inner city of course any athlete would like to have the best accessories to help them play the best. But Nike was something special, with their superstar and celebrity endorsements they were not only the best footwear for sports but also a fashion statement and a symbol of status at times. Nike