Nike: The Label

To most athletes, Nike is more than a label. The swoosh represents an attitude and belief athletes strive for. Every athlete is competing for something, and it always looking for a way to be better than competition. When an athlete has done all they can training wise, the extra edge they require can be found in a sports brand. This is where Nike can become more powerful than your average sports company. Everyday Nike evolves athletic gear to provide the athlete with every possible benefit they can invent. The edge Nike provides is in the swoosh. The swoosh represents so much more than a sporting trademark. Athletes that are sponsored by Nike are usually the top athletes in the world. Nike chose these people for a reason. The attitude these athletes possess, they want to impose on the consumer. Therefore, when the consumer buys Nike products, they feel they already have an advantage.

“Based near Beaverton, Oregon Nike is the world’s leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. Wholly owned Nike subsidiaries include Converse Inc., which designs, markets and distributes athletic footwear, apparel and accessories; Bauer NIKE Hockey Inc., a leading designer and distributor of hockey equipment; Cole Haan, which designs, markets, and distributes fine dress and casual shoes and accessories; Hurley International LLC, which designs, markets and distributes action sports and youth lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories and Exeter Brands Group LLC, which designs and markets athletic footwear and apparel for the value retail channel.”

Nike Foundation

“The Nike foundation is a non-profit organization supported by Nike, Inc. dedicated to giving the world’s neediest girls the opportunity to lead full and active lives. The Foundation is committed to extending Nike’s passion, voice and resources to inspire support for girls in some of the world’s least developed countries. The Foundation gives money to programs and partnerships that help address two of the world’s most pressing challenges – eliminating poverty and improving the lives of girls. To achieve its vision, the Nike Foundation supports the experience of local, national and global partners working together to create innovative, compelling solutions that can achieve boarder impact than those delivered by individual efforts. The Foundation is infused with funds on an annual basis out of Nike, Inc.’s three percent commitment of the preceding year’s pre-tax profits to community investments around the world.”

Recently the Nike Foundation has selected a group of countries to further develop the lives of young woman in the developing world. The Nike Foundation is working closely with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals in order to emphasize poverty altruism and gender equality.

I am an avid Nike fan and keep myself updated on the majority of events surrounding the Nike world. This includes the newest products and the athletes Nike choose to sponsor. However, I was not aware of the Nike Foundation and its involvement with young girls in under developed nations.

The Foundation has really developed over the past two years. This seems ironic considering Nike has had a strong marketing campaign targeting woman empowerment. It seems Nike is using two avenues in order to reach their market. They are reaching out to the underprivileged woman to help her fight for a better life. They are also reaching out to the privileged woman who wants to find her fight and become a woman who is proud of exactly who she is.

I think the way Nike conduct there business is admirable. It shows they really have a passion for what they believe in. They are using one market to feed the other. By selling products to woman, Nike is using part of the profits to help others.

Once upon a time…

In 1964 Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight made a $500 investment; in 2006 that small investment is now one of the world’s most recognized brands.

Bill Bowerman was a top Olympic Athlete and track coach. Phil Knight was a prodigy of Bill Bowerman’s coaching. Bowerman and Knight both had an uncontrollable passion for athletics. Everyday they would constantly search for ways to improve the controllable’s of athletics. Bowerman became the innovator for the shoes; Knight attacked the financial areas. In 1971 for a small fee of $35, the Swoosh was created by a graphic design student named Carolyn Davidson. However, back then Nike was known as Blue Ribbon Sports. One night, Nike’s first employee Jeff Johnson had a dream about the Greek goddess of victory, ‘Nike.’ The name ‘Nike’ was chosen over ‘Dimension 6′ as the new brand to take athletes to the next level.

American investors were reluctant to invest in the company. Knight then looked overseas. A Tokyo company named Nissho Iwai decided to invest and create a foundation for a future billion-dollar industry. While Knight was busy with the financial aspect, Bowerman was creating a new rubber sole. Using his wife’s waffle iron and some melted rubber; the Nike sole was invented. In 1972 at the National Sporting Goods show in Chicago Nike debuted its new line of footwear. Retailers were very interested and immediately took to buying the new product.

It’s incredible to think what massive brand Nike is after a mere 35 years of being in the business. From the rubber shoe, to the Air Jordan’s, the Lance Armstrong yellow bracelets, Nike I.D and the ipod nano with a memory chip stored in the shoe. The advancements made by Nike have been in giant steps. The future of Nike products has no boundaries, which is comprehendible knowing the famous Nike saying ‘Just do it.’

Nike: The employee lifestyle

The Nike employee is by far not your everyday employee. Not only is an employee allowed a 50% discount on all Nike gear but also the facilities available for employee use involve a swimming pool, state of the art gym, climbing wall and running trails. Every year 299, 925 people apply for jobs with Nike and only a mere 452 jobs open up. Why do people want to work for Nike? This is a very open-ended question with a variety of answers the better question is, why do Nike employees never want to leave Nike?

“It is not a single product model, nor a single manager, nor one ad, nor a single celebrity, not even a single innovation that is the key to Nike. It is the people of Nike, and their unique and creative way of working together.”
Philip H. Knight
Chairman of the Board of Directors

This statement implies that working Nike is like being a part of a sports team. For everything to come together, everyone must know what direction they are heading and have the want and ability to achieve it. Everyone loves being apart of something. By being part of a strong group, an individual feels more powerful and has the knowledge that if they sometimes fail, there is a group of people behind them there to back them up. Nike provides an atmosphere that enables the employee to feel they are part of something bigger than themselves. Nike employees feel they make a difference in people’s lives, and this feeling is one they never want to give up. By creating such a powerful brand, Nike influences its employees and provides them with the passion to be a part of something great. Which definitely beats any other 9 till 5 job.

Are Nike sponsored athletes worth their money?

Nike is a company that chooses to use big time athletes in order to promote their products. Promoting the athletes they sponsor is normally evident in advertisements and by the athlete wearing Nike gear. Nike sponsor a specific type of athlete that is at the top of their sport. With this in mind when the Nike sponsored athlete wins a major championship, Nike use this to promote their products. However, sometimes an incident occurs that gives Nike the promotion and status that confirms they are on top of the sporting world. Tiger Woods won the 2005 masters with a chip shot;15 million viewers watched the Nike ball take 17 seconds to roll into the hole. This is the ideal product placement that Nike could never have staged without its ability to constantly sponsor the top athletes in the business. The large sums of money Nike pay out to their athletes seems mind blowing to the everyday person. But it is moments like that of the 2005 Masters that give Nike the edge over other rivals. The $4-billion-a-year golf market is constantly increasing and it seems almost minimal to pay Tiger $25million dollars a year considering the impact he has on the sport. I think Nike athletes deserve they amount of money they are offered in their contracts because the small sporting miracles they create will exist for a life time of promotion.