Shoe dog is someone who loves shoes. Last week, I completed reading this phenomenal book. Philip has beautifully narrated his journey of how he got started and the battles he faced while building the company. Business is war without bullets.
Initially the name of company wasn’t Nike, it was Blue Ribbon. The company used to sold Tiger shoes, manufactured by Onitsuka, a company based out of Japan. During his time at Standford, he was preparing a presentation for one of his classes, where he had this crazy idea of importing shoes from Japan and selling in America. He even had data on his side to proof the same. Eventually he kicked off to work on his idea and rest is history.
He knew his dad didn’t like his crazy idea. Therefore, he requested his dad for a world trip. Starting from Japan to Himalayas to Bombay to Paris and many other places. He started from Japan as he wanted to test out his crazy idea. There he came to know about Onitsuka and visited them. The Onitsuka wanted to expand in the West and Philip lied to them that he has a shoe company based out of Oregon, named Blue Ribbon. The Japanese simply trusted the guy and gave him the rights to sell in West.
After touring the world , he finally reached home and told his dad about his meeting with Onitsuka. After a couple of telegrams back and forth, he finally had his first shipment. The tiger shoes were of good quality and he was able to easily sell them out. He even partnered with his coach Bowerman, who held 49% stake in Blue Ribbon and rest with Philip.
During the journey of Nike, he had to fight lawsuits and face lots of bank hurdles as he was always running out of cash. The cash flow of the company was negative. Philip had only one moto i.e. just do it and win it. Even we associate the brand Nike with winning. The book clearly shows the challenges faced by a businessmen.
Do add it to your reading list!
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