Our mission is what drives us to do everything possible to expand human potential. We do that by creating groundbreaking sport innovations, by making our products more sustainably, by building a creative and diverse global team and by making a positive impact in communities where we live and work.
Based in Beaverton, Oregon, NIKE, Inc. includes the Nike, Converse, and Jordan brands.
Founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman, a track-and-field coach at the University of Oregon, and his former student Phil Knight. They opened their first retail outlet in 1966 and launched the Nike brand shoe in 1972. The company was renamed Nike, Inc., in 1978 and went public two years later.
Nike Timeline
1964 - Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman found Blue Ribbon Sports.
1971 - Cutting ties with Onitsuka Tiger (now Asics), Blue Ribbon Sports becomes Nike Inc., using swoosh logo created by Portland State University student Carolyn Davis for $35
1971 - Bowerman comes up with iconic sole pattern for Waffle Trainers after putting rubber into a waffle iron
1972 - Romanian tennis player Ilie Nastase becomes the first athlete to sign an endorsement with Nike.
1979 - Nike introduces patented "Air" technology with new Tailwind shoe.
1980- Nike completes IPO with a price of 18 cents a share.
1984 - Nike signs Michael Jordan, launching Air Jordan series.
1987 - Nike drops ad for new Air Max shoes set to The Beatles' "Revolution," making it the first ad to use the band's music.
1988 - First "Just Do It" campaign launches with ad featuring 80-year-old running icon Walter Stack running across the Golden Gate Bridge.
1989 - "Bo Knows" ad campaign drops featuring baseball and football star Bo Jackson.
1990 - First Niketown store opens in Portland, Oregon.
1991 - Activist Jeff Ballinger publishes report exposing low wages and poor working conditions among Indonesian Nike factories. Nike responds by instating its first factory codes of conduct.
1996 - Nike signs Tiger Woods.
1998 - In the face of widespread protest, Nike raises the minimum age of its workers, increases monitoring, and adopts U.S. OSHA clean-air standards in overseas factories.
