Shoe Dog is the story of how the world famous shoe company Nike was created by Phil Knight. The story contains the obstacles and lessons learned while building the company.
Watch the video for complete review and lessons learned from the book.
The story starts with Phil Knight having a crazy idea of getting Japanese running shoes into the US market. Japanese cameras were selling well in US market at that time. So, he predicted Japanese shoes will do the same. Then, he decided to go on a trip around the world, while planning to visit Japan to pursue his crazy idea.
He goes to Japan and chooses a company called Onitsuka. He gets a chance to meet the management of that company. In his presentation, he somehow convinces management that he has a company called Blue Ribbon Sports (which he didn’t have) and gets Tiger shoe distribution rights in United Status. Then, he orders first samples from the company worth $50, from the money he borrowed from his father.
Once he get the first set of shoes, he gives few pairs to his famous track coach Bill Bowerman. His coach likes the shoes and his idea of getting them to US. So, the coach invests money and becomes a partner in Blue Ribbon. Then, Phil orders another shoe stock from the company.
Since sporting goods stores rejects selling his shoes, he decides to sell manually by going into track events in various places in the country. In those events, he talked to coaches, runners, fans and introduced his shoes to them. People likes his shoes and his attitude and gives him orders beyond his expectations.
Then, he hires a person called Jeff Johnson to handle sales. Johnson is also a runner super passionate about shoes. He helps Phil grow the Blue Ribbon company by maintaining close connections with customers and managing customer database. After a substantial growth, they open the first retail store.
However, new export manager of Onitsuka company decides to find a bigger distributor than Blue Ribbon, when Phil Knight wanted the exclusive selling rights for the US. Then, Onitsuka realizes Blue Ribbon is not a big company as they thought, after visiting the Blue Ribbon head office. They decide to find superior distributors.
Phil, knowing the risk of potential contract termination, uses a different factory in Mexico and developers a new shoe called Nike. As soon as Onitsuka get to know about the new shoe, they terminate the contract with Blue Ribbon. So, Phil loans money from a company called Nissho Iwai. Blue Ribbon almost gets into a state of bankrupt, and the Nissho company saves them by paying their loans. Since then, Nike grows steadily and becomes one of the worlds largest footwear manufacturing companies. This is a fascinating story on how Nike was born.
