Phil Knight's Running Shoes

In the mid 1900’s, there were not very many shoe stores that sold excellent running shoes. Phil Knight and his running coach, Bill Bowerman, changed the way people ran by selling shoes out the back of Knight’s car. Knight wanted people to be able to have a comfortable running shoe for a good price. Knight and Bowerman joined together to create a shoe company called Nike. Phil Knight was born February 24, 1938 and is the son of a prestigious lawyer and newspaper publisher William Knight and his wife Lota. Knight’s father was a someone pushed Phil Knight and wanted him to be the best he can be. His father wanted his son to grow up and be able to thrive in the growing world. At a young age, Knight loved to run when he was young and was always a key athlete on the track team. He attended Cleveland High School in Portland, Oregon and was at the top of his class. Knight always did what his dad wanted him too, so
In high school and college, Knight wanted better shoes and knows how it feels to not have good running shoes. So he wanted to give back to the athletes that did not have good running shoes. Bowerman decided to use a waffle maker to make Nike’s first running shoes because it allowed the runner to have flexibility and traction on the track. After getting into the high rankings of running shoes, Knight and Bowerman debuted the Cortez, a running shoe, at the 1972 Olympics. Doing this made, the profit of the shoe rose quickly and they started to sell thousands. Knight would have athletes wear his shoes so they could influence other athletes to wear them also. In the next couple of year's, Nike grew and were selling one-half of the athletic shoe market. Knight made an endorsement deal with John McEnroe, a pro tennis player. After McEnroe rolled his ankle in a tennis match, he started to wear a Nike tennis shoe model and once he did that, everyone wanted to purchase a