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Back to #418 Phil Knight: Founder of Nike, with David Senra.

What Happened When Onitsuka Found Out About Nike?

David Senra reads Phil Knight's account of the day Onitsuka found out about Nike and cut the company off earlier than he was ready. The supplier cutoff left them set adrift, with the new Nike line as all they had, quality problems, and no margin for error. The message in the room was that they had Onitsuka right where they wanted them.

People had slumped forward while a recession ran on, with gas lines, political gridlock, rising unemployment, and Vietnam, and they were already worried about rent and the light bill. The cutoff was the moment they had been waiting for: no more selling someone else's brand. Late deliveries, mixed-up orders, and a refusal to hear their design ideas had held them down for years. Nike had posted $2 million in sales the year before, and none of it had anything to do with Onitsuka. The cutoff was their liberation and their independence day, a war they could win, and they were still alive.

Grokipedia·David Senra·Phil Knight

Transcript

#418 Phil Knight: Founder of Nike ·

Founders

More from this episode

  1. Why Did Phil Knight Ignore His Father's Advice?David Senra says Phil Knight ignored his father's advice to stop selling shoes, and Senra calls that one of the most important decisions Knight ever made.
  2. How Did Phil Knight Start Nike?David Senra says Nike started when one Japanese company sent Phil Knight 12 pairs of running shoes to sell in Oregon. About a year later, the shoes arrived.
  3. How Long Did Phil Knight Keep His Day Job?David Senra says it takes like seven years for underfunded Blue Ribbon to afford Phil Knight quitting his day job, and he thinks Knight spent like 14 hours a…
  4. How Did Bill Bowerman's Jogging Book Grow Nike?David Senra says Bill Bowerman's book Jogging sold millions of copies and grew the market for Nike by celebrating running, at a time when people did not go…
  5. What Was the First Nike Store Like?David Senra says the first Nike store was a sanctuary for runners.
  6. Why Did Phil Knight Teach at Portland State?David Senra says Phil Knight taught at Portland State because Blue Ribbon could not pay its co-founder a salary.
  7. What Happened to the $8,000 Loan When Nike Went Public?David Senra says Phil Knight converted an $8,000 loan from an employee's parents into Nike stock worth $1.6 million.
  8. Why Did Phil Knight Feel Guilty as a Father?David Senra says Phil Knight felt the guilt was palpable, because every minute spent on Nike came at the cost of his family.
  9. Should I Settle for a Career in My Mid-20s?David Senra, reading the close of Phil Knight's Shoe Dog, says men and women in their mid-20s should not settle for a job, a profession, or even a career.

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