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Nike history
Nike company history timeline
They could continue to see excellent sales of shoes, and by 1965 they had enough revenue to hire their first full-time employee.
Nike's (BRS's) first retail store was opened on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California in 1966.
In 1967 with fast-growing sales, BRS expanded operations to the East Coast, opening a distribution office in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
A shoe with the upper portion made of nylon went into de velopment in 1967, and the following year Bowerman and another employ ee came up with the Boston shoe, which incorporated the first cushion ed midsole throughout the entire length of an athletic shoe.
By 1971, the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka Tiger was nearing an end.
Either way, the two formally split in 1971 with a lawsuit from Tiger following.
In 1974 BRS opened its first United States plant, in Exeter, New Hampshire.
In additi on, operations were expanded to Canada, the company's first foreign m arket, which would be followed by Australia, in 1974.
Th e company's payroll swelled to 250, and worldwide sales neared $5 million by the end of 1974.
In 1976, the company hired John Brown and Partners, based in Seattle, as its first advertising agency.
At the 1976 Olympic Trials these efforts began to pay off as Nike shoes were worn by ris ing athletic stars.
International sales were expanded when m arkets in Asia were opened in 1977 and in South America the following year.
In 1978 the company changed its name to Nike, Inc.
The company was renamed Nike, Inc., in 1978 and went public two years later.
Soon they launched the Nike Air technology in 1979.
1979 - Nike introduces patented "Air" technology with new Tailwind shoe.
In December 1980, Nike went public, offering two million shares o f stock.
Ni ke's United States shoe market had, in large part, matured, slowing to 5 perce nt annual growth, down from 15 percent annual growth from 1980 and 19 88.
The company o pened a factory in Ireland to enable it to distribute its shoes witho ut paying high import tariffs, and in 1981 bought out its distributor s in England and Austria, to strengthen its control over marketing an d distribution of its products.
Given slowing growth in the United States market, however, the company turned its attention to foreign markets, inaugurating Nike International, Lt d. in 1981 to spearhead the company's push into Europe and Japan, as well as into Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
1981: Nike International, Ltd. is created to spearhead oversea s push.
With the revenues generated by the stock sale, the company p lanned continued expansion, particularly in the European market. It established factories in mainlan d China in 1981.
In 1982 the company outfitted Aston V illa, the winning team in the English and European Cup soccer champio nships, giving a boost to promotion of its new soccer shoe.
By 1983, when the company posted its first ever quarterly drop in ear nings as the running boom peaked and went into a decline, Nike's lead ers were looking to the apparel division, as well as overseas markets , for further expansion.
In add ition, leadership at the top of the company was streamlined, as found er Knight resumed the post of president, which he had relinquished in 1983, in addition to his duties as chairman and chief executive offi cer.
In 1983 Phil Knight, apparently having come around to the logo, held a party for Davidson and awarded her 500 shares of stock, speculated to be worth roughly $1 million today.
Despite the strong showing of athletes wearing Nike shoes in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games, Nike profits were down almost 30 percent for the fiscal year ending in May 1984, although internat ional sales were robust and overall sales rose slightly.
Spotting potential, Nike tried to swoop in for an endorsement from Jordan before the start of his first season with the pros in 1984.
1984 - Nike signs Michael Jordan, launching Air Jordan series.
Faced with shifting consumer interests (i.e., the United States market move fr om jogging to aerobics), the company created a new products division in 1985 to help keep pace.
Following these moves, Nike announced a drop in revenues and earnings in 1987, and another round of restructuring and budget cuts ensued, as the company attempted to come to grips with the continuing evoluti on of the United States fitness market.
1987 - Nike drops ad for new Air Max shoes set to The Beatles' "Revolution," making it the first ad to use the band's music.
P rofits rebounded to reach $100 million in 1988, as sales rose 37 percent to $1.2 billion.
1988: Cole Haan, maker of casual and dress shoes, is acquired; "Just Do It" slogan debuts.
Since then, the company has only continued to grow, helped on in part by a series of clever ad campaigns, most famously the 1988 "Just Do It" ad campaign (apparently inspired by the last words of American murderer Gary Gilmore before the firing squad, "Let's do it.")
1988 - First "Just Do It" campaign launches with ad featuring 80-year-old running icon Walter Stack running across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Later that year, Nike launched a $10 million television campaign around the theme "Just Do It" and announ ced that its 1989 advertising budget would reach $45 million.
At the end of 1989 , the company began relocation to its newly constructed headquarters campus in Beaverton, Oregon.
In November of 1990, Portland became the first home to a new retail-as-theatre experience called Niketown, which would earn numerous architectural design and retail awards and spawn more than a dozen other Niketown locations around the USA and internationally.
In 1990 the company's revenues hit $2 billion.
In 1990 the company sued two competitors for copying the patented des igns of its shoes and found itself engaged in a dispute with the United States Customs Service over import duties on its Air Jordan basketball shoe s.
In the fiscal year ending May 31, 1991, Ni ke sales surpassed the $3 billion mark, fueled by record sales of 41 million pairs of Nike Air shoes and a booming international marke t.
In July 1992 Nike opened its second NikeTown retail store in Chicago.
Nike celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1992, virtually debt free and with company revenues of $3.4 billion.
Outrage fermented among the public, with protests against the shoe ware giant at the 1992 Olympics and an increased media scrutiny on the plight of sweatshop workers.
Another project Nike began long before the Green craze in 1993- is labeled: Reuse-A-Shoe program.
Nike continued expansion of its high-profile NikeTown chain, opening outlets in Atlanta, Georgia, in the spring of 1993 and Costa Mesa, Ca lifornia, later that year.
Nike's influ ence in the world of sports grew to such a degree that in 1993 Spo rting News dubbed Knight the most powerful man in sports.
In 1994, Nike signed several individual players from what would be the World Cup-winning Brazilian National Team.
In 1994 the company acquired Canstar Sports Inc., the leading maker of skates and hockey equipment in the world, for $400 million.
In 1995, Nike signed the entire team, and began designing the team’s distinctive uniform.
Overseas revenues continued their steady rise, reaching nearly $2 billion by 1995, about 40 percent of the overall total.
1996: The Nike equipment division is created.
In 1996, again they signed up a rookie golfer Tiger Woods for a sum of $5 million per year.
Competitors laughed and critics howled at Nike’s "folly," until Tiger won the 1997 Masters by a record 12 strokes.
The picture at Nike soon turned sour, however, as the Asian financial crisis that erupted in the summer of 1997 sent sneaker sale s in that region plunging.
Nike finally announced in mid-1998 a series of changes affecting its contract workforce in Asia, including an increase in the minimum age, a tightening of air quality standards, and a pledge to allow independent inspections of factories.
Profits were falling as well, including a net loss of $67.7 million for the fourth quarter of 1998, the company 's first reported loss in more than 13 years.
1998 - In the face of widespread protest, Nike raises the minimum age of its workers, increases monitoring, and adopts United States OSHA clean-air standards in overseas factories.
Compounding the company's troubles was a concurrent s tagnation of sales in its domestic market, where the fickle tastes of teenagers began turning away from athletic shoes to hiking boots and other casual "brown shoes." As a result, overall sales for 1999 fell to $8.78 billion.
The company finally earned some good pu blicity in 1999 when it sponsored the United States national women's soccer te am that won the Women's World Cup.
Donald W. Blair was brought onboard from PepsiCo, Inc. to become chief financial off icer in 1999 after Nike inexplicably had been without a CFO for two y ears.
1999: Company begins selling its products directly to consumer s via its web site.
1999 - Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman dies at 88.
In order to refocus on its core business lines, Nike began selling some of its subsidiaries in the 2000’s.
They developed Nike Shox in 2000 which was very well recieved worldwide.
The 2002 “Secret Tournament” campaign was Nike’s first truly integrated, global marketing effort.
In 2002, Nike bought surf apparel company Hurley International from founder Bob Hurley.
Starting in 2002 the com pany also concentrated on building an extensive program to address th e perennial charges of labor exploitation.
2002 - Nike acquires surf-apparel company Hurley.
Nike next bought Converse Inc. for $305 million in September 2003.
2004 - Nike acquires Converse for $309 million.
2004 - Phil Knight steps down as CEO and president of Nike, but retains chairman role as William D. Perez becomes the company's new CEO.
The deal, announced in August 2005, promised to combine tw o of Nike's biggest rivals, giving the newly enlarged company about 3 0 percent of the worldwide athletic footwear market, compared to Nike 's 37 percent.
As an example, Nike launched a campaign to coincide with Earth Day 2008.
In 2012, its annual revenue was more than $24 billion.
October 08, 2013 – On the 10th anniversary of the Nike Women's Marathon, Inside Access speaks to the woman who inspired it all - Joan Benoit Samuelson.
On December 19, 2013, Nike Inc’s quarterly profit rose as a result of global orders for merchandise for delivery by April increased 13 percent.
As of 2013, Nike owns two key subsidiaries: Converse Inc. and Hurley International.
Nike Inc. will buy back $8 billion of Nike’s class B stock in 4 years after the current $5 billion buyback program is completed in second quarter of fiscal 2013.
March 13, 2014 – Nike Free hit the ground 10 years ago but its natural motion ethos goes all the way back to Bill Bowerman and the Nike Cortez.
March 03, 2015 – From short shorts to graphic patterns to tailored fit, Nike's basketball uniform style and innovation has come a long way.
Despite some recent declines in sales, the brand still nets the company a staggering $2.8 billion in sales for 2018.
On Labor Day of 2018, Nike made a huge splash, tweeting a photo of NFL player Colin Kaepernick as the new face of its brand.
While these claims have been met with dubiousness over the past couple years, in 2018, Nike showed some serious signs of growth, expanding its PFC-free portfolio to 93% of products.
Rate how well Nike lives up to its initial vision.
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Nike competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gap Inc. | 1969 | $15.1B | 117,000 | 47 |
| Converse | 1908 | $1.9B | 4,407 | 3 |
| Levi Strauss & Co. | 1853 | $6.4B | 15,100 | 686 |
| Gillette | 1901 | $84.0B | 101,000 | 2 |
| McDonald's | 1940 | $25.9B | 210,000 | 38,067 |
| Timberland | 1952 | $1.4B | 50,000 | 64 |
| Foot Locker | 1974 | $8.0B | 32,175 | 926 |
| Columbia Sportswear | 1938 | $3.4B | 8,900 | 191 |
| Reebok | 1979 | $2.3B | 9,102 | 47 |
| DICK'S Sporting Goods | 1948 | $12.4B | 50,100 | 859 |
Nike history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Nike, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Nike. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Nike. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Nike. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Nike and its employees or that of Zippia.
Nike may also be known as or be related to Blue Ribbon Sports, Inc. (1964–1971), NIKE Inc, NIKE New Zealand Co., NIKE, Inc., Nike, Nike Inc. and Nike, Inc.