Nike Inc.

Nike Inc.

• Founders: Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight.
• Distinction: Made the sports shoe a                   cultural  icon.
• Primary products: Athletic footwear,               apparel, equipment, and accessories.
• Annual sales: $8.777 billion.
• Number of employees: 20,700.
• Major competitors: Adidas-Salomon, Fila,       Reebok.
• Chairman and CEO: Philip Knight.
• Headquarters: Beaverton, Ore.
• Year founded: 1962
• Web site: www.nike.com.

Nike Inc.

When Michael Jordan ruled the basketball court, athletic footwear ruled the world—and Nike was the undisputed king of shoe business. This Oregon-based company had totally transfor med the once-humble sneaker into sporting gear-as-fashion statement. It unveiled a cool new slew of highly technical models designed expressly for highly specific activities, each year with more fanfare, features, and snappy names. Older fitness-conscious consumers went for it wholeheartedly, snapping up shoes for jogging, aerobics, walking, golf, and anything else that they could do on two feet. And when Nike hit upon the idea of signing popular athletes to endorse appropriate models, seemingly every kid on the planet suddenly wanted to be like Mike, Mia, or Tiger.

But just as surely as it had defined the parameters of this sporty but stylish revolution, Nike was singled out for both manipulating it and running it into the ground. The firm drew passionate criticism—sometimes deserved, sometimes not— for exploiting foreign workers, raising brand consciousness to an art form, driving prices to outrageous levels, inundating the airwaves (not to mention the sidelines) with its “swoosh” logo, even taking advantage of the millionaire athletes who participated in its omnipresent promotions.

To compound matters, Nike couldn’t sustain its performance on the field. For years, it was the hot ticket: between 1994 and 1997, when it was already a mature company, sales jumped nearly 150 percent to $9.2 billion. New brand extensions, like outerwear for bicyclists, constantly appeared on the market. Swooshes turned up everywhere. For a time, Nikes became the incontestable accessory for an entire generation. But then, almost without warning, the other shoe dropped. Hiking boots and casual leathers became the kids’ footwear of choice. Boomers slowed down a bit. Competitors homed in on particular niches. Nike disappeared from the “in” lists. Jordan retired.

Today, despite it all, Nike remains the driving force in its industry. It still offers some 500 generally well-regarded shoe models, and even more types of apparel. It operates giant Niketown superstores and is opening a few Jordan-themed specialty outlets. And it continues selling billions of dollars in product each year in more than 100 countries. But it doesn’t rule the world right now, and for Nike—accustomed as it is to coming in first—that’s an unacceptable position.