Just do it: The making of Nike and the People behind it
Mexico City was the host of the 1968 summer Olympics. Nike, then known as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), was the US distributor of Onitsuka Tiger. Onitsuka and BRS together developed a new type of long-distance running shoe for the summer Olympics. It had a special sole that fused two previously used ones and was said to be the “ultimate” running shoe.
BRS suggested to call the shoe “Aztec” as a homage to the host city. Onitsuka agreed and the Aztec was born. Unfortunately, adidas (biggest retailer by far at the time) threatened to sue them since they had a track-spike shoe called “Azteca Gold”.
The Cortez
BRS co-founder Bill Bowerman, Knights track coach at the University of Oregon, then asked Knight: “Who was that guy who kicked the shit out of the Aztecs?”. Knight responded, “Cortes”. It was settled then. They were going to call it the Cortez.
One of the first battles between Nike and adidas was all the way back in 1968 and about the name of a shoe. I love this story!
I am sure you know the Cortez even if the name doesn’t ring a bell. It’s the shoes that Jennie gifts Forrest Gump. “The best gift anyone could ever get me!”, is what Forrest said. Surely, he would have “kicked the shit” out of the Aztecs too (or maybe run the shit out of them).
Shoe Dog
The story of the Cortez is one of many in Phil Knights “Shoe Dog”. In it Knight describes the early challenges and struggles of Nike up until the day of taking the company public in 1980. How they attracted their first sponsored athletes, how they came up with the name Nike and Knights reaction to being told that filling shoe soles with air surely is a good idea. If you are even somewhat of a fan of Nike, you will enjoy these stories tremendously. Knight does an amazing job of telling them in a funny, relatable way that makes reading the book so enjoyable.
The book is not so much about portraying a glorified picture of Knight and his great entrepreneurial skills. He is very transparent about the pain he went through and the burden it put on his family and friends. We get insights on how close Nike (or BRS) was to failing, how close Knight was to financial bankruptcy and how high the stakes were. The pressure must have been immense.
Believe in Running
Knight attributes most of the success of Nike to its dedicated employees, especially in the very early days. They shared a common goal, a common passion and they all believed in running. You can feel the level of companionship in the company when reading the book. There was a special bond that connected early employees.
Reading “Shoe Dog” for The First Time
I first read “Shoe Dog” on my summer vacation with my family in 2020. We were staying in a shallow house close to the river “Saar” in south-west Germany. It was one of a few books I read during that vacation (“Freakonomics” was one of them). I am writing this post from this year’s summer vacation on Skiathos in Greece.
Opening “Shoe Dog” again to find inspiration for this post immediately took me back to that summer vacation in 2020. It gave me goosebumps simply reading a couple of pages again. The book just is that good! It sparked the joy in me again and I am definitely going to re-read it. It is worth it!
A Small Note on Re-Reading Books
What books should we read? I think there is an easy measurement for this: the ones that we would read again and again. Those are the books that have the biggest impact on us. And let’s be honest, how good can a book really be when we think we got everything out of it after reading it once? It can’t be that good then.
But “Shoe Dog” is such a book! I am sure I will find tons of stuff that I missed or forgot after reading it the first time.
Just do it!
There is a good reason why this is the second book post of mine. “Shoe Dog” is one of the best books that I have read: funny, honest and heart-warming. I highly recommend it to you. It helped me solve my reading dilemma and hope it will help solve yours.
Joe
David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, has an amazing interview series with founders and CEOs. His interview with Phil Knight is awesome. Go check it out!
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