Nike

10 Pages 2433 Words

s own shoe line and by 1972 it was selling Nike Brand shoes. Over the next decade Nike expanded almost double its size each year from the previous year. Nike is officially called Nike in 1978 and has signed on tennis great John McEnroe, New York City marathon champion Alberto Salazar, women’s marathon gold medallist Joan Beniot, and Olympic track star and gold medallist Carl Lewis. (story/chrono, 1-2) Also during this time Nike is opening manufacturing plants all over the U.S. Nike was a household name for most athletes by early 1980’s.

Nike’s focus was still on track and field and for the most part track athletes were their target market. One of the first individuals to endorse a Nike product was a man who exemplified their style and way of conducting business, Steve Prefontaine. Prefontaine was a household name in the late seventies and has gone down in history as one of the best American track and field athletes ever. Prefontaine was a friend of Knight and had been coached by Bowerman at the University of Oregon. Prefontaine embodied what Nike wanted as its differential advantage of other companies due to his brash attitude, high talent level, and cavalier mentality. Nike marketed itself as a new and innovative shoe company that constantly had the athlete’s performance in mind unlike existing companies who focused on their products appearance and durability. Nike infested their market with bright colors, new styles, and technology information pertaining to their products. This is why Steve Prefontaine and Nike were a tremendous tandem in the early years of Nike’s existence.

By 1984 Nike had supplanted Adidas as the number one selling running shoe company in America. But this was not enough for Nike. At this time Nike was known for its attention to the wants and needs of their market, the individual runner. The Nike Brand itself, and while Knight and the employees of the company promoted Nike across the country, the ...