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How Nike sold its first shoes

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Re: How Nike sold its first shoes

#31

Post by westiseast »

wiradikusuma wrote: post #21

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?

Sports is probably very specific. Amateurs will mostly buy what professionals recommend, or what their coach wears. These days you see sports stars and brands through social media and on TV, but in those days less so. Going to clubs, track meets, talking to the professionals/enthusiasts/hardcore fans, he would’ve been talking to the equivalent of Instagram influencers today.

Re: How Nike sold its first shoes

#32

Post by westiseast »

FAKEDETECTOR wrote: post #22
harrydry wrote: post #18

Earlier 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.

Personally, it’s a great example of amazing sales and how to build a brand.

There’s no reason why brands today couldn’t learn from Nike’s sales/branding story without having to emulate their manufacturing sins.

Re: How Nike sold its first shoes

#33

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

randomlogin wrote: post #24

I 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.

Well, you could probably ask the same question of any good salesperson today. The answer is likely that people stick to what they want to do and what they're good at. If you want to build a company, you build a company. If you want to sell, you find a product you can sell and you excel at that.

I'd hazard a guess that Johnson was really great at doing what he did to create Blue Ribbon when he had the backing of an established company behind him, but starting from absolute zero might not have been his cup of tea.

Re: How Nike sold its first shoes

#34

Post by mikestew »

johnohara wrote: post #3
zarriak wrote: post #2

Shoe 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…

A good story and a great reminder that choice of founder partner is crucial to your success. Let's not forget Bill Bowerman. His wife Barbara's waffle iron is in the same league of corporate lore as Hewlett-Packard's one-car garage. And the reason Nike's address is One Bowerman Way, Beaverton, Oregon.

His wife Barbara's waffle iron...

That legend has always bugged me. If one used a waffle iron to make running shoe soles, the result would not look like a Nike Waffle Trainer. It would look like, well, a waffle. The soles of Nike Waffle Trainers looked like one took a waffle iron and made it out of rubber. IOW, the legendary mold and result would have to be reversed from reality.

I mean, have I been thinking about this wrong for forty years? You can't make a Nike Waffle Trainer from a waffle iron, right?

Re: How Nike sold its first shoes

#35

Post by mikestew »

westiseast wrote: post #30
mtw wrote: post #29

I 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?

I did wonder, what other brands existed at the time?

The Japanese brand Tiger, for one (later becoming Asics). IIRC, though cannot quickly find a reference, it's the brand Phil Knight was selling out of the trunk of his car before starting Nike with Bowerman.

Re: How Nike sold its first shoes

#36

Post by johnohara »

mikestew wrote: post #34
johnohara wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good story and a great reminder that choice of founder partner is crucial to your success. Let's not forget Bill Bowerman. His wife Barbara's waffle iron is in the same league of corporate lore as Hewlett-Packard's one-car garage. And the reason Nike's address is One Bowerman Way, Beaverton, Oregon.

His wife Barbara's waffle iron... That legend has always bugged me. If one used a waffle iron to make running shoe soles, the result would not look like a Nike Waffle Trainer. It would look like, well, a waffle. The soles of Nike Waffle Trainers looked like one took a waffle iron and made it out of rubber. IOW, the legendary mold and result would have to be reversed from reality. I mean, have I been thinking about th…

It was exactly like him to pour a bunch of latex rubber into a waffle iron to see if his idea was feasible. It is how his mind worked.

My understanding is he ruined three waffle irons before he had a workable piece, including the first one which never opened. I'm not sure if that's accurate but it would definitely be consistent with how he "bird-dogged" a problem.

He had been experimenting with rubberized materials before the waffle iron, using it at first to resurface the track at Marist High School in Eugene after making numerous test pads and coated them with different formulations to see which ones worked best over concrete. At the time, running tracks were usually packed clay, cinders, or other "fines". Great for training by the way (fewer impact injuries) but terrible for breaking 4 minute miles or going under 10.00s in the 100m.

He shifted his attention to shoes after spending time in New Zealand with Lydiard. Lydiard was a cobbler of women's shoes and showed Bill how they were made. Bill's philosophy of making shoes lighter and lighter was no joke. He was "Bill Bowerman serious" and firmly believed athletes needed every form of optimization in order to perform their best, including going so far as to measure the weight difference between wet and dry socks over the distance of a marathon, multiplied by the number of times the leg had to lift the foot, in an attempt to understand how athlete energy is allocated during a race.

Re: How Nike sold its first shoes

#37

Post by mikestew »

johnohara wrote: post #36
mikestew wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His wife Barbara's waffle iron... That legend has always bugged me. If one used a waffle iron to make running shoe soles, the result would not look like a Nike Waffle Trainer. It would look like, well, a waffle. The soles of Nike Waffle Trainers looked like one took a waffle iron and made it out of rubber. IOW, the legendary mold and result would have to be reversed from reality. I mean, have I been thinking about th…

It was exactly like him to pour a bunch of latex rubber into a waffle iron to see if his idea was feasible. It is how his mind worked. My understanding is he ruined three waffle irons before he had a workable piece, including the first one which never opened. I'm not sure if that's accurate but it would definitely be consistent with how he "bird-dogged" a problem. He had been experimenting with rubberized materials b…

I don't think you understand, or just chose to ignore, my question.

Re: How Nike sold its first shoes

#38

Post by johnohara »

mikestew wrote: post #37
johnohara wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was exactly like him to pour a bunch of latex rubber into a waffle iron to see if his idea was feasible. It is how his mind worked. My understanding is he ruined three waffle irons before he had a workable piece, including the first one which never opened. I'm not sure if that's accurate but it would definitely be consistent with how he "bird-dogged" a problem. He had been experimenting with rubberized materials b…

I don't think you understand, or just chose to ignore, my question.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a21841/n...

Many years had passed since the Bowermans moved out of the house where the waffle story happened. Located in the western Oregon town of Coburg (population: 1,000), the house was remote, up on a hill and only accessible by a thin one-lane road. There was no way a garbage truck could reach the property, so they often just buried trash in a pit out back. The long-married couple eventually moved away to Fossil, where Bill died in 1999 and Barbara in 2010. But their son, Tom, lived on the family property in Coburg and decided to expand the carport. Digging alongside the house, he came across a treasure trove of Nike history buried alongside the house. There were crudely cobbled-together shoes, old prototype metal plates, cracking rubber soles, peeling molds, and a rusty old waffle iron. Thanks to the distinctive 1930s design, Reames knew this was the appliance that created the Nike we know today.

Re: How Nike sold its first shoes

#39

Post by techntoke »

westiseast wrote: post #32
FAKEDETECTOR wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Personally, it’s a great example of amazing sales and how to build a brand. There’s no reason why brands today couldn’t learn from Nike’s sales/branding story without having to emulate their manufacturing sins.

Learn what? Create a cult of people that buy subpar quality for expensive prices.

Re: How Nike sold its first shoes

#40

Post by [deleted] »

vmurthy wrote: post #17

Can'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…

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