Sneaker King Knight

Sports shoes, which belonged only to sports goods, have become the symbol of fashion nowadays. Many teenagers who pay attention to brand names are also interested in sports shoes.

In today's large and small department stores in China, a variety of famous brand sports shoes have been set up, and the number of "Nike" cards in the US is most popular.

Nike shoes began to enter our country more than ten years ago.

In 1979, a 41 year old American shoe dealer stayed in Hongkong to handle entry procedures for Guangzhou to attend the China Export Commodities Fair. But after a week, he did not get an entry visa.

The American businessman, who knew the value of waiting and patience, was not discouraged. He tried again in July 1980 and was finally allowed to enter the country.

When he arrived in Beijing, he signed a contract for the manufacture of sports shoes with the relevant parties in China.

Now, there are 4 factories in China, which jointly build sports shoes with the American businessman and put together a "Nike" trademark, which is shipped to the United States and sold domestically in China.

The American shoe maker is Phil Knight, the chairman and President of the famous Nike sporting goods company.

It is Phil Knight who made Nike the first American sports shoe manufacturer in less than 10 years.

In 1976, Nike's annual sales volume was only $28 million, reaching $500 million in 1980, and surpassed Adidas, which has been in the lead for many years in the United States.

By 1990, Nike's annual sales volume was as high as 3 billion US dollars, leaving its old rival Adidas far behind and sitting on the top of American sports shoes.

Phil Knight is also known as "the king of sports shoes".

How can Nike stand out and come from behind?

This has to start with the history of the development of sports shoes.

At the beginning of 20 century, there was a small town Herzog naglah in Frankfurt, Germany. It was famous for producing exquisite and durable sports equipment.

In 1920, the shoemaker Adolf darler of the city thought of the athlete's need for the right shoes in the thick sports atmosphere and made the first pair of sneakers in the world in his own workshop.

After the two World War, he started Adidas company there, specializing in the production of sports shoes and other sporting goods.

He knows that the desire of the athletes is to have a pair of sports shoes to help them get good marks, so they emphasize quality.

In the 1954 World Cup, West Germany football players wore the sneakers made by his company's Seiko and won the world championship.

Since then, Adidas has been famous all over the world.

In the arena, soccer players, gymnasts, handball players, or boxers all wear Adidas sports shoes marked with three bars.

Affected by this, the general sports enthusiasts, who are suffering from body fat and eager to lose weight, are also buying Adidas sports shoes.

The sales volume of Adidas's products has risen sharply, and profits have increased rapidly.

In 60s and 70s, Adidas has been the leader of world sports shoes, leading the new trend of sports shoes and sportswear.

It is proud of its strength, and it has never imagined that its future rival will be a small company with 1000 dollars in assets.

In the three year college of University of Oregon in Eugene, Bill has a sports instructor called "Bowerman".

He is a man of great ambition and is determined to make his sports team exceed other teams.

In training, the most common headache for athletes is that athletes often make their feet. After repeated studies, he thinks that if every athlete has a pair of suitable shoes, the bottom is light and the support is good, the friction force is small and the stability is strong, it can reduce the athlete's foot pain and help to achieve good results.

So, he designed several sports shoes carefully.

He found several shoemaking companies, but the answer was almost identical: "how can a layman guide an expert? We don't want to teach you how to be a coach, nor do you want to teach us how to make shoes."

Sarcasm and ridicule did not discourage Bowerman. Instead, he encouraged him to do it himself.

He consulted the cobbler and the shoemaker, and became a shoemaker.

He worked day and night, not afraid of failure, and finally mastered the technology of shoemaking.

At a sports meeting, his athletes put on shoes made by himself and looked ugly but light and comfortable, and they ran out of a better position than ever before.

Bowerman, who is full of love for athletes, perseverance in making shoes and his achievements, is greatly moved by one of his students. This student is Phil Knight.

He was an excellent runner and a student in the Department of business management of Stanford University.

Knight wrote his graduation thesis, and discussed with him, determined to work with him.

He believes that this is not only a pair of shoes, but a promising business. It is a great good for athletes. It should be contacted with manufacturers as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, a big shoe factory in the United States could not find a contract with them.

At a shoe trade fair, nite met with the Japanese shoe maker, the ghosts tigers. This astute Japanese has seen the design and rejoice.

This is a rare opportunity to make a fortune.

Besides, he may become the first Japanese shoe maker to enter the US market.

They signed the contract immediately, designed and sold by the US side and made in Japan.

In this way, Nike's predecessor, the blue ribbon company, was born.

The small company was formed by several people including Bowerman and knight, with assets of only $1000.

A year later, 200 pairs of sports shoes were sent from Japan.

Bowerman and NAT have a common desire to serve the athletes, regardless of their remuneration.

The company has no fixed office and shop. When they sell their products, they are shops and sales offices are offices.

In order to save the rent, they chose to open a shop near the garbage station. In order to deliver the goods in time, they often couldn't attend to the meal; the packaging fees were too high, they bought the old wrapping paper from the waste acquisition station for packaging.

Because there is no solid capital, the initial difficulties can be imagined.

Soon after that, the Japanese businessman ghost tigers realized that their products were selling well and demanded that they remit the goods first and then deliver them.

In this way, the cost of Bao man increased greatly and they had to redouble their efforts to sell.

The mound tiger often fails to deliver goods on time, and even secretly sells first-class products in Japan, sending the defective products to the United States.

Once, they received a batch of shoes, and the customer's shoes and shoes were separated after two weeks.

They had to swallow their words, in order to maintain credibility, and promptly returned to customers.

The sales volume of Bowerman company is increasing month by month.

In 1971, Bowerman's sales volume was nearly US $7 million.

The representative of the mound Tiger Group came to Eugene city and offered to buy 51% of the company's shares, and two of the 5 directors.

Bowerman and nite, who had been hard pressed by Japanese businessmen, were intolerable and refused categorically.

With their own design patents, they soon found partners and officially renamed Nike company at the end of this year.

The big shoe makers in the United States, especially the largest Adidas company, have never seen Nike as a small company with millions of sales.

They still produce old style sports shoes.

Until the mid 70s, the situation gradually changed, many athletes like to wear Nike's new sports shoes. At this time, Adidas and other large companies were in a hurry, trying every possible way to crush the emerging Nike company.

In 1976, Nike's annual revenue is about $7 million 900 thousand, which is certainly nothing compared to Adidas, which is billions of dollars, but Adidas has already felt its potential threat.

This year's Olympic Games, as usual, is a must for businesses, especially for sporting goods companies.

Nike sent 9 salesmen to participate, but Adidas sent 300 people to form a strong sales team.

Nike spent 75 thousand dollars on advertising and Adidas spent 6 million to 9 million dollars.

Adidas, who is rich in money, has won quite a number of gold medals to try on their sports shoes and sportswear.

And Nike managed to win a marathon runner who could win the championship to sign Nike shoes.

Who knows, just a minute before the athlete entered the stadium, a large company made a move to remove Nike shoes and replace other brand shoes.

Phil Knight witnessed this scene on television, roared with rage, snapped off the TV, put out the lights, sat on the sofa in the darkness and spent the whole night.

The fierce competition between the jungle and the jungle did not change Bowerman's original intention.

He gave the right of management to nite, and he continued to concentrate on improving the quality of sports shoes and improving their quality.

Bowerman didn't forget his money when he made a fortune. After two years, he simply left the company and went on with his old business as a coach.

Since then, Nike has been left alone by Phil Knight.

In the late 70 and early 80s, sports became fashionable, though not everyone was in sports.

Advertisements on the TV screen are advertised, introducing the beautifully packaged, non ironing sports clothes and fashionable sneakers, as well as almost every day's live sports broadcast, so that no one can resist the temptation of sports, even those who never participate in sports activities.

The charm, vitality, willpower and triumph of sports encourage everyone to wear sports shoes and sportswear.

As a result, people began to introduce African American pop art to sportswear and sports shoes, making them fashionable.

He noted keenly that this major change in the sporting goods market.

On the one hand, he persisted in his belief in starting up, insisted on running sporting goods companies instead of fashion companies, and on the other hand, he adopted a product diversification strategy. Besides the production of sports shoes, he also introduced children's shoes, non sports leisure shoes, travel shoes, working shoes and sportswear.

Thanks to this initiative, Nike's sales surged 50% in that year, and its net profit almost doubled.

This is especially true in advertising.

Advertising emphasizes not only sports but also strong sedition. It plays a guiding role in fashion.

Nike has strengthened its cooperation with sportsmen who are very influential athletes, but the selected characters are all "aggressive" players who are highly praised by teenagers.

For example, tennis star Mcenroe, people always see him lose his temper on the tennis court and argue with the authority.

Agassi, a tennis player, wears a beard and has a long and untidy hair. He shorts jeans as tennis pants, and this cowboy tennis pants has become a characteristic product of Nike.

Jordan, a black basketball star, is an example and hero of American youth. He participated in the design and production of air Jordan sports shoes, becoming the best selling product of Nike company.

With these big sports stars, Nike sports shoes are no longer just sports shoes, but become idols and symbols of social status.

The expensive and expensive sports shoes have become the fashionable necessities for American teenagers.

Nike's products, like other popular art, are popular all over the United States.

Nike shoe stores sprang up everywhere.

In order to catch up with fashion, many people even hesitate to drive 50 miles to buy Nike shoes.

At the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980, Nike shoes came to the forefront. Many sports stars won gold medals with it, which is in sharp contrast with 4 years ago.

The Adidas company, which is dominated by Adidas, seems to be indifferent to the fashionable trend in the sporting goods market until it was caught up by Nike in 1980.

In the shop, Adidas's old sports shoes and sports pants with three bars marked up.

But the tennis stars Ed, Berg and Graff, who are highly respected by Adidas, are too slow and disciplined. They can not reflect the rebellious will of teenage sports fans, and can not produce advertising results. How can they play a promotional role?

In 80s, Adidas company lost its dominant position in the sporting goods and currency market for decades.

As the top leader of Nike company, he is not satisfied with the victory in the United States. He decided to launch a global sales promotion campaign to increase the overseas sales ratio of the company.

The United States, Western Europe and Japan are