You probably have a couple of pairs of Nike shoes lying about the house, but you might not know that once upon a time the brand famous for its Swoosh wasn’t actually called Nike. The label was founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman, who was actually coach of the famous Phil Knight (you know, the Shoe Dog author and Nike co-founder) at the University Of Oregon. The pair entered a 50-50 business deal for ownership of the new company, after Knight agreed with a group of Japanese businessmen to export the country’s popular Onitsuka Tiger shoes to the US.To buy more NIKE FREE 4.0 MENS with cheap price, you can visit shoes2021.com official website.

The first dual-designed trainer, the Tiger Cortez, dropped in 1967, but relations soured between Tiger and Blue Ribbon Sports and the pair parted ways come 1971. Following the split with Tiger, Blue Ribbon Sports fully rebranded itself as Nike (after employee Jeff Johnson had a dream about the Greek goddess), although Knight initially wanted to call the company Dimension Six.

Next up, Nike needed a logo and Knight asked Portland State University student and illustrator Carolyn Davidson to design one. The Swoosh as you know it now cost $35 at the time, although Knight gave her 500 shares of stock in 1983, which is worth roughly $1 million today.

Nike, Inc came into fruition in 1971, first with the Nike Cortez and then the Waffle design. Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength, with notable moments being the introduction of the 1988 “Just Do It” ad campaign, the signing of big sports stars such as Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, LeBron James and the late Kobe Bryant and the introduction of the patented “Air” technology with the Tailwind shoe in 1979. In 1987, Nike was the first brand to use The Beatles’ music in an ad campaign, dropping an ad for Air Max set to “Revolution”, and in 2018 it unveiled an ad campaign featuring athlete and political activist Colin Kaepernick.

Since the first Niketown opened in Portland, Oregon in 1990, Nike’s trainers have become accessible to the wider masses and today there are close to 1,200 stores worldwide, as well as the Nike Sneakrs App and a web store. It is easily the biggest sports brand in the world.