I finally got round to finishing Shoe Dog, the memoir by Nike founder, Phil Knight.
Since watching Air earlier this year—a great film about how Nike created the Air Jordan brand—I knew I wanted to read Shoe Dog.
Knight recounts the journey chronologically from an idea he pitched in his Stanford Business School class in 1962, to selling imported Onitsuka runners out the back of his car, to building the first line of Nike’s, and finally to the company’s IPO in 1980.
It’s a wild ride and a story of remarkable grit, creativity, and consistency on the part of the founding team.
I was shocked to learn that Knight spent the first 8 years also working a “normal job” because the company always had cash flow issues and could’ve failed at any moment.
I chucked at how Knight’s original name for their first pair of in-house shoes was Dimension Six; thankfully one of his employees suggested Nike.
And I marvelled at how a student was paid $35 to produce the Nike swoosh logo that is now on every other pair of shoes we see in the street.
It’s a realistic and humble insight into the real journey behind building a business. It’s also a tonne of fun.