The Knight Of Footwear: Summary Of Shoe Dog

The Knight of Footwear: Summary of Shoe Dog
Shoe Dog is a memoir by the creator of Nike Phil Knight. The books follow this college track athlete, who travels the world and is on a mission to revolutionize the track shoe industry, to a kid trying to run a business with no experience or real guidance to one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. Ultimately the book culminates with an inside look at one of the largest brands on the planet. One of the last college classes that Knight takes at Stanford is a seminar to entrepreneurship. In this class be gave a presentation on how the running shoes form Japan could undercut brands like Adidas, which manufacture in European factories. The Japanese factories could produces shoes at a fraction
Knight visited and learned the subtle business etiquette of Japan. He meet with the executives at Onitsuka the company that produces the Tiger shoes. Knight and the executives struck a deal which gave Knight the rights to sell Tiger shoes all across the west coast. Knight was gleeful and started with an order of one hundred shoes. Upon this return knight was anxious to begin selling he went door to door to sell this shoe. His friends and Family thought he was crazy. Within a few weeks he had sold out and he realized that his idea could become a real business. So he considered having his old coach Bowerman invest in his company Blue Ribbon. Bowerman liked to tinker with tracks to shoe to make them lighter so his athletes would run faster. To Knight surprise Bowerman wanted to be a partner. So Knight gave Bowerman 49% stake in his company. They order a thousand dollars’ worth of shoe and began selling. Knight travelled across the state of Oregon selling his cheap but innovative shoes at track meets. The shoe were selling quicker than he could buy them, so Knight had to seek loans from local
Thus the company would began to bounce around with different manufacturers some from Japan and others from North and South America. During this time the company was growing exponentially, the company would make its first million. It would reach its mile stone of hiring more than six employees. But all of the luck and skill came crashing down when they out grew their bank. The company could no longer get loans to import its shoes. This was due to the nature of a fast growing start-up. All of the money that is being made is being pumped back into the business to keep up with demands. Therefore the business lacked equity that banks would use as collateral if Nike failed to pay back one of its million dollar