I love reading anecdotes like this, they inspire me to do similar "non-scalable, good old personal approach".
But sometimes I wonder if they no longer work because we live in different (modern) times?
How Nike sold its first shoes
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Re: How Nike sold its first shoes
#22I didn't see anything about how Nike willingly enabled child labor and human rights violations?
thats cause they didn't "enable child labor" or "violate human rights" to sell their first 50,000 shoes
But it is part of the Nike history and should have been mentioned. It is disgusting to read that kind of fanboy publication, deeply bowing before a company that helped to construct the modern international slavery system.
Re: How Nike sold its first shoes
#23Can't resist a little gem from "Shoe Dog". Nike wanted to introduce a shoe during the 1968 Olympics being held at Mexico City. In honour of the location, they initially called it the "Aztec". But Adidas already had a shoe called "Azteca Gold" and naturally threatened to sue. Bowerman asked "Who was the guy who kicked the shit out of the Aztecs?" . Phil replied Cortez and the iconic Nike Cortez was born :-) Edit: It s…
sorry for the nitpicking, but it is actually Cortés, Cortez seems to be an anglicisation
Re: How Nike sold its first shoes
#24I can't help by wonder what his commission was?
And was it some company honor system that prevented him from starting his own shoe business instead of being the employee? (since he could obviously sell from scratch)
I don't have any idea if a non-compete would be a standard part of the contract in that time.
Re: How Nike sold its first shoes
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your comment was a great read! Thank you. So, what would it take for that future not to happen? Or what should the people that are going to be the most affected do?
Apparently HN has a text limit. All this time and I've never run into it (that I recall). So I posted the reply to this service: https://justpaste.it/43z7i
For posterity's sake, please consider posting this excellent reply as a comment here, broken into pieces (replies to yourself). People do do that for this reason, and this is an appropriate comment for it.
Re: How Nike sold its first shoes
#26Shoe dog is a great book. It was really interesting to read him talk about his issues with liquidity and him lamenting the lack of VC funding at the time. Of course he doesn't really address the downsides of VC funding but the local bank he works with is a quaint reminder of how far things have come. A good story and a great reminder that choice of founder partner is crucial to your success. It contributes to my beli…
I just finished reading the book yesterday. It's amazing what Nike had gone through to become the company today. I learned to have great respect for Phil Knight, but I don't understand why he mistreated Jeff Johnson. In the book, Jeff Johnson clearly believes in the company and Phil Knight. He goes out of his way several times, sacrificing himself to make the company afloat. And yet, Phil Knight doesn't treat Johnson…
> . And yet, Phil Knight doesn't treat Johnson with the respect he deserves...
One of the things that surprises me whenever I read other people's reviews of Shoe Dog is how most don't seem to get the point, revealed by a careful reading between the lines, that Phil Knight is as ruthless, cold blooded, and cunning as any other billionaire entrepreneur out there. Not that I hold this against him; but time and time again in the recounting of how he grew the business, he would reveal these traits. He was however smart enough to conceal this under layers of PR fluff.
Re: How Nike sold its first shoes
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
thats cause they didn't "enable child labor" or "violate human rights" to sell their first 50,000 shoes
But it is part of the Nike history and should have been mentioned. It is disgusting to read that kind of fanboy publication, deeply bowing before a company that helped to construct the modern international slavery system.
There’s nothing wrong with looking at something and appreciating a particular trait, or a particular victory that was achieved without having to apologize for every bad thing that the same person or company has ever done.
I think that this is true as long as the thing that you are appreciating itself was being done for good and noble purposes, or not in furtherance of a greater evil.
So you can look at something about China, or something about George Washington, or something about Apple/Nike/Google, and recount that history in full appreciation of the magic that went into succeeding in that moment.
I think if every time you say something good about someone/something you’re supposed to disclaim everything terrible, you’ll have a hell of a lot of disclaiming to do.
Re: How Nike sold its first shoes
#28I've been having a hard time getting people to sign up for my service, I found that it's easiest to get to know a person then shill them your product. I guess that's the equivalent of what Jeff Johnson was doing. It's a lot of work for little return, especially for a social media site. A shoe has a lot bigger profit margin compared to a website (per user). I'm still learning though, the site has a lot of other useful examples
Re: How Nike sold its first shoes
#29I like the story. What about product development though? If you come up to athletes, head coches and parents in track events with an average shoe, I don't think this would have worked. I'd love to hear the story how he developed a superior product.
Or is it that in 1964, there was no real track shoe at all.
Re: How Nike sold its first shoes
#30I like the story. What about product development though? If you come up to athletes, head coches and parents in track events with an average shoe, I don't think this would have worked. I'd love to hear the story how he developed a superior product. Or is it that in 1964, there was no real track shoe at all.
I did wonder, what other brands existed at the time? I have no idea.
Was coming to a track meet with branded, fashionable shoes in 1964 the equivalent of turning up in 1998 with an awesome animated Flash website?