Friday, May 7, 2010 NIKE. From humble beginnings.
With worldwide sales approaching 20 billion dollars, Nike is the world’s leading supplier of athletic shoes and clothing, but it wasn’t always that way.
The company was founded in a garage in 1964 by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman. Back then the company was called Blue Ribbon Sports and they made most of their sales at track meets out of the back of Phil Knight’s car. The company didn’t become known as Nike until 1978.
The new company name was chosen by the employees. Each came up with a name and threw it into a hat. That’s when the iconic Nike “swoosh” logo was first used as the official company logo. I think the Nike logo rivals the Coca-Cola mark as one of the most recognizable in the world, but where did it come from? It must have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop and one can only imagine the gauntlet of focus group testing the logo went through, right? Well, not really.
The Nike “swoosh” was originally created in 1971 for one of Knight’s new shoe lines. Nike means “Greek goddess of victory” and the symbol represents the wing of the Greek goddess. To create the logotype Phil Knight hired a student from the design program at nearby Portland State University for two dollars an hour. Yes, that’s right, two dollars an hour. A week later the student presented several versions of the design, and the logo was quickly decided upon by Knight and his cohorts. Total cost for the mark: A whopping 35 dollars. This is where the phrase “bang-for-your-buck” must have come from.
Equally interesting is the seat-of-the-pants way that Nike’s agency Wieden+Kennedy came up with the company slogan “Just Do It”. The newly formed agency was hired in 1982 to create television commercials for the fast growing sports apparel company. We’re all familiar with the mountains of award winning commercials that W+K has created for Nike over the years. Can you imagine the reams of paper Wieden must have gone through to create a slogan for this company on the cusp of greatness? Well, not really.
The night before Dan Wieden, the founder of W+K and creative director behind the advertising, was to present the first wave of commercials to Phil Knight and company at Nike, he felt the spots were somewhat disjointed and needed something to tie them all together. He believed a tagline or slogan would help to accomplish that. He spent about 20 minutes writing four or five different lines but nothing clicked. Then, oddly enough, he received his inspiration for the now famous slogan when he remembered the execution of Gary Gilmore. Gilmore was a convicted murderer from Utah who chose death by firing squad as his method of execution. Seconds before he died Gilmore said to his executioners “Let’s do it”. Wieden didn’t want to quote him exactly so he changed the first word.
I think this example gives new meaning to the familiar phrase “creative inspiration can come from anywhere”. The Nike line has been and continues to be a motivational mantra for millions of athletes around the world. The famous line was later voted by Advertising Age magazine as one of the top five ad slogans of the 20th century.
Is there a lesson in all of this? This certainly isn’t the way the industry does things today. We’re much more strategic and thorough in our processes when creating work for our clients. We believe it leads to a more effective outcome. If there’s one thing the Nike example reminds me of it’s this: At some point during the process, after all the meetings are over, and the data has been sliced and diced 87 different ways, good work is still a judgment call. The process can only get you so far. You have to rely on your instincts to determine what works and what doesn’t and then, just do it.
advertising, brand, creative in Advertising, Brand, Creative 
Reader Comments (3)
Great post Mike. For a brand that is so well known I'm surpised more people don't know the back story - I had no idea. Thanks for sharing!
The logo designer was later "awarded" by Phil Knight with Nike shares and a Swoosh diamond ring.
It's great to hear from you and see what you've been up to. This blog makes me realize the energy of words and pictures. Thank you for sharing!