Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year.

In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand-and a culture-that changed everything.In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers-as well as his many thrilling triumphs. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. In this age of start-ups, Knight's Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world.īut Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. Today, Nike's annual sales top $30 billion. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.'įresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. It's a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight 'offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh' ( Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company's early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world's most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.īill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of the year and called it 'an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like.

Nike founder book