1. Nike, Inc.
2. Nike world headquarters location
One Bowerman Drive
Beaverton, Oregon 97005-6453
3. In 1950, before there was the Swoosh, before there was Nike, there were two visionary men
who pioneered a revolution in athletic footwear that redefined the industry.
Bill Bowerman who was constantly seeking ways to give his athletes a competitive advantage.
and Phil Knight was a talented middle-distance runner from Portland, who enrolled at Oregon in
the fall of 1955 and competed for Bowerman’s track program. But Bowerman and Knight each
had full-time jobs - Bowerman at Oregon and Knight at a Portland accounting firm - so they
needed someone to manage the growing requirements of Blue Ribbon Sports. Enter Jeff
Johnson, whom Knight had met at Stanford. A runner himself, Johnson became the first full-time
employee of Blue Ribbon Sports in 1965, and quickly became an invaluable utility man for the
start-up company.
Nike entered the 1980s on a roll, thanks to the successful launch of Nike Air technology in the
Tailwind running shoe in 1979. By the end of 1980, Nike completed its IPO and became a
publicly traded company. This began a period of transition, where several of Nike’s early
pioneers decided to move on to other pursuits. Even Phil Knight stepped down as president for
more than a year in 1983-1984, although he remained the chairman of the board and CEO.
By the mid-1980s, Nike had slipped from its position as the industry leader, in part because the
company had badly miscalculated on the aerobics boom, giving upstart competitors an almost
completely open field to develop the business. Fortunately, the debut of a new signature shoe for
an NBA rookie by the name of Michael Jordan in 1985 helped bolster Nike’s bottom line.
In 1996, Nike Golf landed a vastly talented but as-yet-unproven young golfer named Eldrick
“Tiger” Woods for a