Nike was formed by $1000 and the handshake of 2 men. Those 2 men were Bill Bowerman, the University of Oregon track coach and Phil Knight, a University of Oregon accounting student and a middle-distance runner under Coach Bowerman. Bill brought jogging to America, and then built an unrivaled track and field program at that university. Bowerman taught his athletes to seek the competitive advantage everywhere - in their bodies, their gear and their passion. In 1962 Knight had this you're-crazy-it-will-never-work- or-someone-would-already-be-doing-it idea about bringing low-priced, high-tech athletic shoes from Japan to dislodge German domination of the U.S. athletic footwear industry.
             That same year Bowerman and Knight formed a partnership. The story has been told that they each kicked in $500, shook hands and started importing. Truth is, it was probably closer to $550 each. Pretty soon, shoes from Onitsuka Tiger started showing up on American feet, brought into the U.S. by some nobody company named Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS). This scenario was bound to pass by the wayside. Bowerman was always seeking ways to improve Tiger designs, and Knight never could stand the thought of shilling for somebody else when he could shill for himself. Soon enough, BRS gave way to a new approach to winning the throne in the U.S. running market. This time, it would be with new designs and a new company, Nike. Two more key players helped propel the company's early growth: Jeff Johnson, a former track rival of Knight's at the University of Oregon, and Steve Prefontaine, also a University of Oregon runner and middle-distance running prodigy.
             Johnson joined Knight and Bowerman's Blue Ribbon Sports company as its first full-time employee, selling shoes out of the back of his van at high school track meets in 1965. In 1966 Johnson opened the company's first re
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