Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
by Knight, Phil
Published: April 24, 2016
Read: November 2, 2019
Review
Phil Knight is now one of the wealthiest men in the world and this is his recollection of the struggles, vision, and people it took to get there. Despite being an MBA Stanford graduate, he still starts his life with that wistful insecurity most young people have stumbling through life. Driven by a love of running and sports, he took shit for decades to build something valuable and lasting and meaningful. His love and vigor are intoxicating at times. You can't help be struck by the author's candid, humble tone and fond memory of his first employees that dedicated their lives to creating Nike. An inspiring personal journey of a group of friends to become the biggest name in shoes and sports.
Notes
#Book Run and don't stop.
MBA from Stanford and one of his papers was getting Japanese running shoes in US markets.
Bowers strat for running a mile is set a fast pace for the first two, run the third as hard as you can then triple your speed for the last lap. Zen like cuz impossible.
Doubling revenue every year but bank wants cash in the bank. Sometimes you feel like a fool.
Logistics is hard. Estimating demand. Problem was late shipments made late payments which made lowered credit which delayed purchases. He pushed for 7% discounts for large orders 6 months in advance from clothing shoes. People said you don't know how the shoe industry works, but as they got more popular shoes. They got a few contracts and soon everyone wanted in.
Got sued by Japanese company. Won because they told the truth . Olntishokay actually just lied and had a translator even though he spoke perfect English. Would sometimes correct his translator.
They always barely made their credit. One day a check came late and everything bounced. The bank kicked them out and froze the assets meaning they couldn’t pay anyone. Creditors came angry. They were being audited. And all they could do was go to Nisho their Japanese creditor and say not only can we not pay you, but we need another million dollars. They were honest with him, they were using his money to fund a secret factory.
“There are worse things than ambition”
Then he loaned them and threatened the bank to back down. Good wins. Pre dug down and won a track meet in l moments.
“Someone else can win but god damn are they gonna have to bleed to do it.”
Pre died in a crash. So tragic. Every running shoe company needs its gold medal.
1976
“Normally if one manager can think tactically and strategically that company has a good future“ - Harvard business professor studying Nike
They abused each other and called CEO the bookkeeper. But face was name of conference, because Johnson decided at what company could you tell buttface and the entire executive team turns around. only thing not tolerated was sobriety and thin skin. He would give people his highest praise, not bad. I let people make their own mistakes. Don’t tell them how to do things but what to do and let them surprise you.
Idk what we were going for. But, winning meant not losing, besides that I think we were getting closer.
One son never misunderstood and one always did. One child decide he would never wear Nike because of all the absences
They released a flared shoe to lower stress, but it caused injuries if you landed wrong. They recalled. Surprisingly no backlash, they were trying things and others weren’t. They had a knockoff that was an amazing replica. They sent a cease and desist letter with a key saying how about you work for us.
They like 90% debt, and so needed to IPO to solve cash flow.
They competitors used some archaic law to lobby and loopholes to retroactively impose tariffs of 25 million onto Nike. He sent lawyers and such to DC. Tiny customs office wouldn’t budge. Eventually settled for 9 million afer running ads and releasing dirt cheap shoe.
1977 He realized his casual office freaked out people he was trying to impress with triple takes. So he instituted a suit dress code.
Went with two classes of stock to hold company control and Kinght owned 46%.
First company in 25 years to do business in China.
"We wanted as all great businesses do to create to contribute and we dated say so aloud. "