Nike is the world's leading athletic footwear & apparel brand, but long before there was Nike there were two men driven to develop and sell running shoes that would redefine the industry.
Bill Bowerman, a nationally respected track and field coach at the University of Oregon, and Phil Knight, a talented middle-distance runner from Portland formed Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964 and with an initial investment of $500 each they placed their first order with Japanese brand Onitsuka Co. and imported 300 pairs of Tiger running shoes into the USA.
Knight sold the first order out of the trunk of his green Plymouth Valiant, while Bowerman began ripping them apart to see how he could make them lighter and better.
Bowerman enlisted his University of Oregon runners to wear-test his creations and in essence, this is the foundation of Nike's commitment to design and produce technically superior sports footwear that enhances athletic performance.
In 1971 the relationship between Blue Ribbon Sports and Onitsuka was falling apart, Knight and Bowerman were ready to make the jump from being a footwear distributor to designing and manufacturing their own brand of athletic shoes and Nike was set up.
The first Nike line of footwear debuted in 1972 and one particular shoe, the Nike Waffle Racer was a hit. The Waffle Racer was much lighter than a traditional running shoe and featured a new innovation that Bowerman had developed, inspired from his wife’s waffle iron, an outsole that had waffle-type nubs for traction.
As the years have run on Nike have continued to develop new technology to improve existing footwear components, Nike Air cushioning was introduced with the Tailwind running shoe in 1979, the Air Max which was the first Nike shoe to feature visible Nike Air bags was released in 1987, Nike Shox in 2000, Nike Free in 2004, and Lunarlon in 2008.