How a kid with 0$ created Nike?

Hey friend,

Picture this: A 24-year-old guy living with his parents, completely lost about what to do with his life. He’d tried the army, failed at becoming an athlete, and was so shy he couldn’t even sell encyclopedias door-to-door.

Fast forward 50 years, and that same guy built Nike - a company worth over $200 billion today.

His name was Phil Knight, and his story proves that sometimes the most unlikely people create the most incredible empires. Today I’m telling you exactly how he did it, the crazy obstacles he faced, and the dark secrets that almost destroyed everything.

 The Kid Who Had No Clue

Phil Knight graduated from the University of Oregon in 1959 with a journalism degree and absolutely zero direction in life. He’d wanted to be a professional runner, but at 24, he had to face reality - he just wasn’t good enough.

So he did what confused young people do: he joined the army for a year, hoping it would give him purpose. It didn’t. He was still angry, frustrated, and completely lost.

That’s when Phil decided to go to Stanford business school, probably just to buy more time before figuring out his life. But it was there that he stumbled onto the idea that would change everything.

For a class assignment, Phil had to invent a new business. He wrote a simple question on paper: “Can Japanese Sports Shoes Do to German Sports Shoes What Japanese Cameras Did to German Cameras?”

He’d noticed how Japanese camera companies like Canon and Nikon had replaced German brands that used to dominate the market. Could the same thing happen with running shoes?

At the time, German companies Adidas and Puma ruled the American market. But Phil had heard Japanese companies were making quality shoes for much cheaper.

His classmates thought the idea was stupid. His friends ignored it. But Phil couldn’t let it go.

 The Crazy Japan Adventure

After graduating in 1962, Phil was back home with his parents, feeling like a failure. One day, he decided he couldn’t just keep waiting for opportunities - he had to create one.

So Phil and a friend took off on a round-the-world trip. But Phil had a secret mission: he was going to Japan to make his crazy shoe idea a reality.

In Kobe, Japan, Phil found a running shoe brand called Tiger, made by a company called Onitsuka. The shoes were high quality but much cheaper than American brands.

Here’s where it gets wild: Phil cold-called the company and got a meeting, even though he had zero business experience. He bought a book called “How to Do Business with the Japanese” and memorised it the night before.

At the meeting, the Japanese executives were interested in selling to America. Then they asked the obvious question: “What’s the name of your company?”

Phil’s heart started racing. He didn’t have a company. He just had this crazy idea.

Suddenly, he remembered the blue ribbons on his childhood bedroom wall and blurted out: “Blue Ribbon Sports of Portland, Oregon.”

He literally invented his company name on the spot.

 The Shoes That Almost Never Came

The Japanese executives loved Phil’s presentation and agreed to send samples to America. Phil was ecstatic. His crazy idea was actually working.

Then he waited. One month. Two months. Three months. Four months. Nothing.

His dad looked at the letter explaining the delay and chuckled: “Son, that fifty bucks is long gone.” Phil thought he’d been scammed.

But then, twelve sample pairs suddenly arrived at his doorstep. They were perfect - exactly what he’d hoped for.

Phil immediately took them to his old college track coach, Bill Bowerman. Bowerman was a legend who was obsessed with improving athletes’ shoes. He’d literally cut open students’ shoes and rebuild them with better materials.

When Bowerman saw the Japanese samples, he was so impressed he offered to become Phil’s business partner on the spot.

 Selling Shoes from a Car Trunk

Phil and Bowerman each invested $500 to start Blue Ribbon Sports. They ordered 300 pairs of Tiger shoes from Japan for about $3.33 each.

When the shoes arrived in April 1964, Phil had a problem: no sporting goods stores would carry them. They all said they didn’t need another track shoe.

So Phil did something desperate but brilliant - he started selling shoes directly from the trunk of his car.

He’d drive to track meets and running clubs, open his trunk, and show the shoes to runners, coaches, and fans. His personal belief in the product was so strong that people could feel it, and they wanted to buy.

Within three months, they’d sold all 300 pairs. By the end of their first year, Blue Ribbon Sports had made $8,000 in sales with a $240 profit.

Phil used every penny to order 900 more pairs from Japan.

 The Partnership That Changed Everything

While Phil handled the business side, Bowerman worked his magic on the creative side. He’d tear apart shoes from Japan, study how they were built, then send detailed improvement notes back to the manufacturer.

Bowerman was basically designing Onitsuka’s shoes for them, for free.

But Bowerman did something even more important - he almost single-handedly made jogging popular in America. In the 1960s, jogging wasn’t mainstream at all. Bowerman wrote a book about jogging that sold over a million copies and started a fitness revolution.

Suddenly, millions of Americans needed jogging shoes. And who better to buy from than the company of the man who’d made jogging popular?

One of Bowerman’s designs, The Cortez, became the best-selling shoe in America in 1969. Blue Ribbon Sports hit $300,000 in revenue.

Everything seemed perfect. But Onitsuka was planning to stab them in the back.

 The Betrayal That Created Nike

Phil discovered that Onitsuka was secretly meeting with other American distributors, planning to replace Blue Ribbon Sports. After building the Tiger brand in America, Onitsuka wanted “more experienced” partners.

Phil was devastated. But instead of giving up, he decided to fight.

If Onitsuka wanted war, they’d get war. Phil and Bowerman would stop being distributors and start making their own shoes.

The team gathered to create their own brand. They needed a name fast. Phil wanted “Dimension Six,” but everyone hated it.

Then their first employee, Jeff Johnson, said he’d had a dream about a name: Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory.

Phil didn’t love it, but they were out of time. Nike it was.

They hired a graphic design student to create a logo. She designed the now-iconic swoosh and got paid $35 for it.

 The $25 Million Bill That Almost Killed Nike

By the 1970s, Nike was growing fast. But then Phil got a letter that nearly ended everything: a bill from US Customs for $25 million.

Nike’s American competitors - Converse, Keds, and others - were scared of Nike’s growth. So they lobbied the government to enforce an old rule called “American Selling Price.”

This rule said that if an American company made a similar shoe, importers had to pay 20% tax on the competitor’s selling price. Nike’s competitors made copies of Nike shoes and priced them extremely high, forcing Nike to pay massive import taxes.

The $25 million bill was backdated three years. If Nike had to pay it, they’d be bankrupt immediately.

Phil hired the best lawyers he could find and fought the government in court for three brutal years. Nike even made TV commercials explaining what was happening to get customers on their side.

Eventually, they settled for $9 million instead of $25 million. It was still outrageous, but Nike had grown so much during the legal battle that they could afford it.

 Going Public and Getting Rich

In 1980, Nike went public, solving their cash flow problems forever. Phil owned 46% of the company and became incredibly wealthy overnight.

But here’s my favorite part of the story: Remember earlier when one employee’s parents invested their life savings ($8,000) to keep Nike alive? They hadn’t done it to make money - they just wanted to help the company survive.

After Nike went public, Phil got to tell them their $8,000 investment was now worth $1.6 million. Life-changing money for people who’d just wanted to help.

Nike kept growing. They signed deals with rookie athletes like Tiger Woods, LeBron James, and most famously, Michael Jordan. The Air Jordan line alone made hundreds of millions of dollars.

By 1986, Nike had become the biggest sports brand in America.

The Dark Side Nobody Talks About