Word: knighting
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From Bowerman, a legendary coach, Knight got two things: an innovative track shoe and a relentless appetite for competition. "Every time I tour people around, I show them a picture of Phil Knight running behind Jim Grelle," says Hollister, who ran track with Knight and became one of Nike's first employees. It was Knight's customary position. Grelle was a champion, and Knight never caught him, says Hollister, but he never stopped pursuing. Another Oregon track god, Steve Prefontaine, became patriarch of the culture. "Pre," a rebellious soul and ferocious competitor, prodded Knight endlessly to improve the quality...
Then came Michael Jordan. Knight signed the great Zeus of hoops in 1984, or a couple of hundred million Airs ago. Although Jordan too has been scorched by some criticism about the high price of sneakers, he remains an all-world marketer. He recently turned a nationally televised game into a two-hour Nike commercial by donning a 14-year-old pair of Air Jordans for his "last" appearance at Madison Square Garden. Then he tortured the New York Knicks for 42 points...
...Nike campus teems with adherents to this athletistocracy. It attracts a weirdly diverse collection of go-getters who are young (average age: 31) and confident, if not cocksure. Nike remains one of the most sought-after companies for employment by new M.B.A.s. Says Nelson Farris, another of Knight's former teammates: "We like employees who aren't afraid...
Nike had to use cash because it had little else to offer. Its first soccer shoes were terrible, forcing Knight to buy a shoemaking operation in Italy. The company poured money into R. and D. and designed a new soccer shoe around Ronaldo, a Brazilian, voted best player in the world last year. The new model, called the Mercurial, uses a synthetic material instead of kangaroo leather, and is 50% lighter than current models. "It's going to rock the shoe world," says Mike Moyle, CEO of Eurosport, a leading mail-order catalog. Despite its investment of hundreds of millions...
Nike is also undergoing a holistic reorganization as it struggles with the very size of the company and what it stands for. Says Knight: "What we are doing today might be O.K. for a $3 billion company. It's not O.K. at 9." In reviewing its corporate image, executives reached an interesting conclusion: too many swooshes. "There has been a little bit of an internal backlash about just the number of swooshes that are out there," says Parker, who is the keeper of the brand image. When Tiger Woods made his debut in Nike gear, there were so many logos...