Nike, the most famous sportswear brand in the world, turns 56. The candles are blowing out today: the company whose symbol is lo swoosh, a comma placed upside down and horizontally, was in fact founded the 25 January of the 1964 by athletics coach Bill Bowerman and middle-distance enthusiast Phil Knight, who create the brand "Blue Ribbon Sports” (BRS) to import Tiger sports shoes from Japan. It was already there, in the early days, that the brand that would later become Nike intertwined with another major global competitor: the imported shoes were in fact from the Japanese Onitsuka, which has become the current Asics.
In 1965 the shoes (actually Japanese) sold by the two partners in the States already reached 20.000 and the following year BRS opened its first retail store in Santa Monica, California. The brand expands rapidly and in 1971 it assumed its current name of Nike, with its headquarters located in Beaverton, in the Portland, Oregon metro area. The current name is inspired by the Greek goddess of victory Nike, whose most famous representation is the Nike of Samothrace, a sculpture exhibited in the Louvre Museum. It was also in 1971 that the brand assumed the logo that is more than familiar to us today: it was created by Carolyn Davidson.
Today, Nike is a real multinational: since 1988 it has launched the highly successful advertising slogan "Just do it", still used today and chosen by the Advertising Age as one of the top five advertising slogans of the 20th century. The expansion also proceeds through acquisitions: in 2003 Nike acquires Converse, the creator of the legendary line of All-Stars sneakers, for 309 million dollars. In 2004 he took over Starter and in 2008 Umbro, both known as manufacturers of the England national football team kit. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Nike became a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2013, replacing Alcoa.
Nike today is an empire from over $30 billion in revenue and over 70.000 employees worldwide (some of which, in the past, were exploited children, as witnessed by the film The Big One by Michael Moore): it is the official supplier of balls to the major European football leagues, as well as the official sponsor of the most prestigious clubs, including Barcelona, Psg, Juventus, Inter, Rome, as well as national teams such as Brazil, France and England. From next year, the European champions Liverpool will also be branded Nike, while the comma brand secured the exclusive technical sponsorship of all NBA franchises two years ago (except Charlotte). In 2016 he signed a record-breaking lifetime contract with ace LeBron James: $1 billion.
