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Nike Store - Complete Selection of Nike Products for every Sport
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Nike Store
Beyond shoes, Nike's apparel unifies innovative designs and high-performance fabrics, like FIT technologies
that manage temperature and moisture to help athletes train and compete in any conditions. In Nike's equipment,
watches, eyewear, carry gear, even socks and underwear, athletes find a passionate focus for design and functionality.
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Bowerman, the inimitable University of Oregon coach, brought jogging to America, built an unrivaled track and field program at that university, and taught his athletes to seek the competitive advantage everywhere - in their bodies, their gear and their passion. Phil Knight was a University of Oregon accounting student and a middle-distance runner under Bowerman. In 1962, Knight had this you're-crazy-it-will-never-work-or-someone-would-already-be-doing-it idea about bringing low-priced, high-tech athletic shoes from Japan to dislodge German domination of the US athletic footwear industry.
He met with representatives of Onitsuka Tiger in November of 1962, got his first footwear samples in December of 1963, and showed them to Bowerman in January of 1964. A week later, Bowerman and Knight formed a partnership, with each pledging to kick in $500; they shook hands and started importing. Pretty soon, shoes from Onitsuka Tiger started showing up on American feet, brought into the US by some nobody company named Blue Ribbon Sports.
This scenario was bound to pass by the wayside. Bowerman was always seeking ways to improve Tiger designs, and Knight never could stand the thought of shilling for somebody else when he could shill for himself. Soon enough, BRS gave way to a new approach to winning the throne in the US running market. This time, it would be with new designs and a new company, Nike. Two more key players helped propel the company's early growth: Jeff Johnson, a runner and anthropology major whom Knight met while earning his MBA at Stanford, and Steve Prefontaine, like Knight a University of Oregon runner and, unlike Knight, a middle-distance running prodigy. Johnson joined Knight and Bowerman's Blue Ribbon Sports company as its first full-time employee, selling shoes out of the back of his van at high school track meets in 1965.
In 1966, Johnson opened the company's first retail outlet in a narrow building at 3107 Pico Blvd., in Santa Monica, California. Johnson is credited with giving Nike its name. Prefontaine, the first major track athlete to wear Nike product, had significant influence on the design of Nike's running shoes. His indomitable spirit and legendary competitive passion left an indelible mark on the company. Decades later, Nike is the largest sports and fitness company in the world.