Nike company

Nike  originally known as blue ribbon sports was founded by  university of Oregon  track athlete  Phil knight and his coach bill bower man in January 1964 . the company initially operated as a distributor for Japanese shoe maker Onitsuka Tiger (now ASICS), making most sales at track meets out of Knight’s automobile.According to Otis Davis, a student athlete whom Bower man coached at the University of Oregon, who later went on to win two gold medals at the 1960 Summer Olympics, Bower man made the first pair of Nike shoes for him, contradicting a claim that they were made for Phil Knight. Says Davis, “I told Tom Brokaw that I was the first. I don’t care what all the billionaires say. Bill Bower man made the first pair of shoes for me. People don’t believe me. In fact, I didn’t like the way they felt on my feet. There was no support and they were too tight. But I saw Bower man make them from the waffle iron, and they were mine

n 1964, in its first year in business, BRA sold 1,300 pairs of Japanese running shoes grossing $8,000. By 1965 the fledgling company had acquired a full-time employee, and sales had reached $20,000. In 1966, BRA opened its first retail store, located at 3107 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California next to a beauty salon, so its employees no longer needed to sell inventory from the back of their cars. In 1967, due to rapidly increasing sales, BRAS expanded retail and distribution operations on the East Coast, in Wellesley, Massachusetts.