Battle of the brands Collector’s Edition WHEN A JEEP GETS STRANDED THEY CALL US. 5 Table of Contents This issue of array magazine highlights the comparisons of the two biggest sportswear companies ever bringing their history, top athlete, and top selling performance shoe. Nike, Inc.. OUR STORY The DNA of a Sportswear giant. The world The story of a German shoe maker and the of Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman. 6 road to immortality 17 Michael Jabbar Jordan Kareem The story of how an NBA superstar signed The start of a new era in the sportswear with a sportswear giant. industry 9 20 Pegasus Ultra 33 BOOST The next generation in the legendary Luxury comfort and with a durable design Pegasus 14 22 6 ARRAY / JULY + AUGUST 2017 7 Founders Milestones His suggestions fell on deaf years so he Nike kept launching new editions of their himself decided to import shoes from Japan landmark training shoes. They developed and sell them in his local area. He tried to Nike Shox in 2000 which was very well sell his initial stock of shoes to his previous received worldwide. Today Nike is a vast em- Nike, Inc. coach Bowerman but he was interested to pire which incorporates various sports like join him and so they decided to become tennis, baseball, soccer, cricket and athletics. equal partners. Though the business started Bill Bowerman’s desire for finding a better slow, by 1965 sales had reached an impres- solution and Phil Knight’s business innova- sive $20,000. tion have led to making Nike one of the most profitable and recognizable companies on The Waffle-Sole the planet. In 2012, its annual revenue was As their business was established by now more than $24 billion. they tried to launch their own line of shoes. Nike acquired companies on its way to After years of struggle, in 1971 they came up success, and they’ve also sold off most of with lighter weight training shoes that had them. One such company is Umbro. right an outsole with waffle-type nubs for traction. now, Nike has two subsidiaries, Converse They debuted their training shoes in the Inc. and Hurley International. 1972 U.S. Track & Field Trials. Nike sponsors several football, tennis and basketball players. They also have a special Steve Prefontaine line of shoes for athletes. Their first brand ambassador was Steve Nike employs more than 44,000 people Prefontaine, who during his college ca- and its brand alone is valued at nearly $10 reer from 1969 to 1972 set seven American billion. Nike’s success has been the result of records from the 2,000m to the 10,000m. the constant innovation and timely invest- Soon they launched the Nike Air technology ments that have resulted in Nike making in 1979. This was able to further strengthen profits worth hundreds of million dollars their status as a successful competitor to the every year. competition that existed. The growth that Nike experienced was tremendous during this stage which lead them to go for Initial Public Offering by the end of 1980. Soon their brand had grown very popular with the fitness aficionados. And by 1982 they had be- come the No.1 supplier for athletic/training shoes in America. The “Swoosh“ Nike’s brand logo ‘Swoosh’ and tagline ‘Just Do It’ had become a commonly recog- nizable symbol in the American households. Nike was previously known as Blue Ribbon Sports (RBS) In 1985, they went on to design signature founded in 1964 by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman. shoes for an NBA rookie named Michael Jordan and his increasing popularity took Nike’s sales to break new records. Soon Nike moved in to designing apparel and other cross-training accessories. They signed Wednesday, February 13, 2013 hil Knight was a middle suggesting the manufacturing of shoes in various international teams like the Brazil By Alicia Mathew distance runner hailing from Japan which would help retailers compete football team, U.S. men’s and women’s soccer Portland who trained under with the well-established German brands. team. In 1996, again they signed up a rookie P track and field coach Bill Bow- Founders Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman golfer Tiger Woods for a sum of $5 million erman. Bill Bowerman was looking for He tried many different combinations but per year. And the rest as they say, is history. ways to enhance his student’s perfor- they were not very successful. In the mean- mance and tried improving their shoes time his student Phil Knight went on to in his free time. complete his MBA in Finance from Stanford He tried many different combinations but University. There he wrote an assignment they were not very successful. In the mean- suggesting the manufacturing of shoes in time his student Phil Knight went on to Japan which would help retailers compete complete his MBA in Finance from Stanford with the well-established German brands. University. There he wrote an assignment 9 How Nike Michael landed Jordan Friday, February 15, 2013 All Michael Jordan By Darren Rovell wanted to wear was lthough he wore Converse at North Adidas in the NBA. Carolina, because his coach Dean Smith was getting paid about $10,000 a year to put the brand on his players, the German Amake was his dream. But Adidas wasn’t making an offer. It wasn’t that they thought Jordan wasn't worth anything; they were just caught at a bad time. After company founder Adi Dassler died in 1978, his wife, Kathe, took over the business. But she had her son, Horst, and her four daughters each run- ning separate divisions. The husbands of the daughters also were closely involved, which didn't make things easy. By the time of the Jordan ne- gotiations, tensions were high and thoughts of a succession plan were a top priority as Kathe was not in good health. She died later that year. “They were definitely in a state of flux,” said Frank Craighill, who represented Horst at the time. “It wasn't an easy thing to split." Jordan was extremely disappointed. Michael didn’t want to show up at Converse headquarters, but because of his relationship with Smith, he went. “We’re sitting in the conference room and they’re saying things like, ‘We are basketball,’” Jordan's agent David Falk recalled. “They’re telling us that they have Magic, Bird, Dr. J and Mark Aguirre.” 11 had started to turn on them toward the end Jordan’s liking. of the year. In February 1984, the company No one was doing that at the time. You reported its first quarterly loss ever. The were given what the company gave you. Olympics in Los Angeles that summer pro- "They really made a great effort of trying vided a nice morale boost -- most notably, to have my input on the shoe," Jordan told Carl Lewis won four gold medals in Nikes me five years ago, adding that he had never -- but there wasn't an immediate translation put on a Nike shoe to this point in his life. in sales. Then they moved into another room, where Converse and Adidas weren't ready for Jor- Jordan was shown more potential plans. dan, but all of a sudden, Nike needed him. If During the talk, Nike president and co-found- the company could only get him on the plane. er Phil Knight walked into the room. Strasser He had just come back from the Olympics, knew that Jordan was a car nut, so he said to and after a full college basketball season, he Jordan, "If you come with Nike..." told Falk he was It was at that exhausted. point that Falk's head “I have no interest “I have no inter- swiveled to the back est in going there,” If it came down to of the room and saw in going there,” Falk Falk said Jordan Knight clutching his told him. “Just do which company chest, as if Strasser had said Jordan told him. what you need to the keys to a car in his do to get me with offered top dollar, pocket. Strasser reached “Just do what you Adidas.” in and took out two die- Falk wouldn’t Spot-Bilt would cast Mercedes cars. need to do to get me have it. Although he "I think Phil al- was the least senior have landed Jordan most had a heart attack," with Adidas.” partner at his firm Falk said. and had met with Later that night, Jordan in person after the group went out only a couple of to dinner, Falk asked times, he had to have Jordan at Nike with Jordan -- who was emotionless the whole trip him. -- what he thought. Nike was Falk’s go-to company, and he "I don't want to go to another meeting," had a tremendous relationship with Rob Jordan told Falk. Strasser, the guy who did all the deals. “I’d tell Rob how much I needed to have a Knight Vision player sign with Nike, and he made it work,” On the advice of Vaccaro, Nike offered Falk recalled. Most of Falk's clients wore Jordan $500,000 a year in cash for five years, Nike, including Bernard King, Phil Ford and which was a ridiculous number at the time. Moses Malone. The previous highest contract was James Falk didn’t want to push his luck, and Worthy's deal with New Balance, an eight- he wasn’t getting through to Jordan, so he year deal worth $150,000 a year.