Lets bust out some history and fact about the most famous sportswear brand on the planet -
Nike!
The apparel side of Nike is obviously an important side of their business, but this is for the sneakerheads of this world, so we're just going to concentrate on
Nike Trainers
Nike's seed was planted in Oregon by Phil Knight and his college athletics coach Bill Bowerman.
In 1962 they travelled over to Japan to speak to
Onitsuka Tiger. They wanted to strike a deal where by they could import the mens trainers to the U.S.A.
Onitsuka Tiger were surprised by what these to guy's wanted to do and immediately put them on the spot and bombarded them with question's.
Bill & Phil had to think in the spot and said they represented a Blue Ribbon Sports and somehow managed to bluff their way through the rest of the meeting.
- the first 200 pairs of
mens trainers soon arrived on U.S. shores.
In the early days Onitsuka Tiger were making technical running shoes, but these models are still being worn today and we just know them as trainers or sneakers. Technology has moved on massively.
In 1963 Bill & Phil and their company Blue Ribbon Sports were developing a great reputation with college athletes and they were selling stacks of these trainers. Before too long Bill was dreaming about how to improve the Onitsuka Tiger shoes and Phil was dreaming about greater profitability and this lead them to probably the biggest decision in sportswear history - to produce & sell their own running shoes. Nike Trainers were now a deep in their thoughts, but not yet a reality.
In 1971 the Nike brand was born.
Jeff Johnson a company employee thought up the name - Nike. Nike was the greek goddess of victory.
Caroline Davidson designed the Swoosh and the brand had been created.
In 1974 the Bill created the waffle outsole, the concept was quite random, but it's all in the name.
Bill poured a rubber compound into his kitchen waffle maker and thats how it was done.
Within 10 years the world was wearing
Nike trainers and sports stars were endorsing the brand.
John McEnroe, Henry Reno and Michael Jordan were all signed to the brand and were winning on the courts wearing
Nike Trainers .
In 1987 the first
Nike Airmax was in the shops and it was the first of the mens trainers to feature the visible 'AIR' unit.
The main designer on the project was Tinker Hatfield and he was inspired by the construction of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.