Nike. Inc was ranked 204 in the 2002 Fortune 500 with over 9 billion in annual revenues. The founders went from selling shoes from the back of a van to 10,000 Nike stores all over the world. That is a success story. Each and every athlete has a different way of performing and Nike provides a variety of products (make, model and body style) allowing athletes to perform to their fullest and best performance. I strongly agree that the success of Nike is based on a business model that leverages factors and trends in the operating environment.
Nike was started when Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman met at the University of Oregon and had the vision to start a shoe company. They first called it Blue Ribbon Sports. At first, they designed the shoe and a Japanese company called Tiger manufactured them. In 1972 Blue Ribbon and Tiger have a dispute, so Blue Ribbon decides to go on their own, despite the huge risk.
Blue Ribbon launches the "Nike" campaign at the Olympics that year. Track athlete Steve Prefontaine was the first major athlete to wear Nike shoes. In 1978, tennis player John McEnroe signs with Nike. This was a huge boost for Nike because in 1979, Nike is finally the number one shoe in America. In 1985, basketball star, Micheal Jordan signed with Nike. This proved to be the biggest and most successful shoe signing probably ever. The Air Jordan is launched and sky rockets to number one. A campaign that started out as just shoes has now grown to all basketball apparel. Why the Air Jordan was so successful was because it was something new. It looked flashy, it felt comfortable and if Michael Jordan could dunk in N.B.A, well you could too. That is why Nike...
Critique of essay/previous comment
this is a business studies essay an analysis of the sucess of a multinational and it\'s a good essay i think we need to be aware of the context this was written in and of the fact that addressing the question is important to a student who needs to pass. however wasn\'t it nike that pulled a publicity stunt similar to the whole cool runnings plot african guys in the winter olympics and the way i heard it was that these atheletes all got pnemonia and had to be sent homne. which brings me to my final point the essay is a touch over the top in bestowing the virtues of nike and comes across as an advert rather than a business critique which is why it probably only recieved 58%
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