Post by Nike

January 25, 1964. A rainy Saturday in Portland. Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman met for lunch at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. One hour later, they stood, reached across the table and shook hands. Blue Ribbon Sports was born. But the idea had been forming years earlier in a Stanford classroom. As an MBA student, Knight wrote a paper built around one bold question: “Can Japanese sports shoes do to German sports shoes what Japanese cameras did to German cameras?” It was a disruption thesis. A belief that something different was possible. Years before that paper, another moment had set his path in motion. After being cut from his high school baseball team, Knight remembered: “I was heartbroken but my mom said, ‘You are not going to mope around the house. You’re either going to get a paper route or go out for track.’ Well, that was easy. I went out for track.” Track led him to Bowerman. Bowerman led to experimentation. A classroom idea became a business pursuit. And eventually, it all came back to Portland — and the handshake that started it all. Our latest Department of Nike Archives feature traces those early decisions, risks and relationships that shaped the company’s first chapter. Read more from the early days at the link in the comments below. #JustDoIt #DepartmentOfNikeArchives #SwooshLife