Unless you’ve put a non-transparent cloak over your eyes or been living under a rock buried deep within a bed of stones, whenever you hear the phrase “Just Do It”, you’re more than likely to correlate it with a particular athletic corporation.
Without delaying the inevitable, we’re talking about Nike. Rock dwellers, you may now thank me.
Originally founded as Blue Ribbon Sports Inc. in 1964 by University of Oregon track athlete Phil Knight and his coach, Bill Bowerman, Nike is an athletic footwear and apparel corporation. The name, synonymous with the Greek goddess of victory, soon became a reflection of Nike’s skyward trajectory to success.
History Starts With a Waffle Iron 🧇
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. The first ever prototype pair of Nike shoes was designed by Bowerman using his wife’s waffle iron.
Bowerman reportedly gave his first pair of shoes to Otis Davis, a student-athlete coached by Bowerman and an eventual track and field gold medalist in the 1960 Olympics. According to Davis, he wasn’t the biggest fan of the prototype, saying that they “felt too tight” and lacked support.
As Bowerman went back to the drawing board, he and Knight began operations as a distributor for the Japanese shoe brand Onitsuka Tiger. The duo operated under the moniker Blue Ribbon Sports, and made most of their sales at track meets out of the back of Knight’s car.
The two began distributing in 1964. Within a year, they sold 1,300 pairs of shoes, grossing $8,000. The following year, sales totaled $20,000, enabling them to open their first retail store in Santa Monica, California. The following year, as their business continued to accumulate, they expanded to the East Coast, opening a store in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
All the while, Bowerman continued to tinker with waffle irons. His goal was to create a new rubber sole that would simultaneously grip while maintaining a lightweight to maximize speed.
In 1972, as tensions began to mount between Blue Ribbon Sports and Onitsuka Tiger, Bowerman and Knight decided to part ways, launching their own business and line of footwear.
Blue Ribbon Sports officially became known as Nike, Inc., and to commemorate the occasion, Bowerman unveiled his first design. He called it the “Moon Shoe”, with the name spawning from the waffle tread design’s stark comparison to the footprints left by astronauts on the Moon.
Bowerman continued to refine his Moon Shoe. Trial and error led him to 1974, when he unveiled the “Waffle Trainer.” This would become Nike’s best shoe to date, and eventually led to Nike becoming public in 1980.
To date, many Nike shoes feature a bottom design reminiscent of a waffle iron, paying a subtle nod to the company’s humble beginnings.
The Origin of the “Swoosh” 💨
Let’s jump back to 1971. Around this time, the first Nike shoes were being sold with a particularly iconic logo on the side. Was it a bird? A plane? A waffle maker?
Its existence raised confusion – it didn’t look like a shape anyone had seen before.
The design was the incomparable Nike “Swoosh”, created by Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student at Portland State University. She had presented Knight with a handful of sketches, and Knight reluctantly picked the Swoosh–he reportedly didn’t like it all that much.
Best part? Davidson created the Swoosh for only $35… its market value today is $26 billion. Worst part? She designed the iconic swoosh with no royalties or ongoing compensation tied to it.
Before you raise your pitchforks, Davidson said in a 2016 interview that Knight gave her a gold ring in the shape of a swoosh and some shares of Nike stock. Not all good deeds are compensated–it’s good to see this wasn’t the case.
Regardless, the Swoosh became the face of Nike, a symbol of athleticism now seen around the globe. But perhaps as famous as the Swoosh was the iconic slogan that would arrive over a decade later — a slogan that would define the company as a whole.
“Just Do It” 💯
In 1976, with help from an advertising agency from Seattle, Nike created their first brand advertisement, titled ”There is no finish line”. The ad was depicted in a magazine, showing a picture of a person running along the side of a long road. The photo shows the road’s length, highlighting the hard work the runner is sacrificing to achieve their goals. Case in point, there is no structured finish line – you choose when to stop.
Although the ad did not depict Nike’s product, it set the foundations for what Nike wanted their advertisements to look like, both in print and on television. Their advertisements shift the focus away from the product and onto the person, fostering a relationship with each consumer. Whether you’re in shape or working towards fitness, whether you’re an athlete or a couch potato, when you’re striving to achieve your fitness goals, there is no finish line.
Utilizing their inspiring messaging and creative marketing approach, Nike continued to rise in the ranks. They attained 50% of the U.S. athletic shoe market share by 1980, when they became public. It was around this time that Nike began selling athletic clothing alongside shoes, further expanding its market.
One might say that “There is no finish line” set the framework for what came next – perhaps the most impressive, defining, and memorable marketing campaign in history.
The “Just Do It” campaign was inspired by Dan Wieden, the founder of the Wieden+Kennedy marketing agency that worked closely with Nike on their first advertisement. Wieden says the slogan “Just Do It” was reportedly inspired by Gary Gilmore’s last words. A convicted murderer, Gilmore reportedly muttered “let’s do it” moments before his execution by firing squad.
Nike launched the campaign in 1988, with the company’s aim to become “universal and intensely personal” to the consumer. At this point, Nike was a marketable competitor, but still lacked a distinctive edge–they needed something that set them apart from the rest.
Now, it’s important to note that sometime in the early 1980s, fitness became a mainstream activity. Dubbed a “fitness craze,” the 80s saw the majority of Americans sharing a collective enthusiasm for staying in shape.
The one activity people seemed to latch onto more than any other was aerobics – something that Nike’s competitors, Reebok, appeared poised to capitalize on.
Reebok veered its marketing strategy towards aerobics, releasing the Reebok Freestyle fitness shoe in 1982. The shoe reached its peak in popularity when actress Jane Fonda, who had started creating aerobic fitness videos a few years prior, began wearing them in her exercise videos.
“Just Do It” was Nike’s response. Instead of focusing on one demographic, the campaign targeted everyone, regardless of age, sex, race, or physical fitness level. Nike’s objective with this campaign was to represent sneakers as a fashion statement to consumers, showcasing that their apparel can be worn outside of exercise.
Nike marketed the campaign using merchandise, outdoor billboards, print, and graffiti art. However, perhaps the most iconic of all was the commercial.
The 30-second advertisement featured Walt Stack, an 80-year-old man, running across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
“I run 17 miles every morning,” Stack, who isn’t wearing a shirt, then says, “People ask me how I keep my teeth from chattering in the wintertime… I leave them in my locker.” The ad then cuts to the “Just Do It” slogan, followed by the logo.
Nike accomplished the entire purpose of their campaign in a 30-second advertisement. It doesn’t matter how old you are or what you’re wearing; if you can get up and exercise, if you have a body, then you’re an athlete. Just get up and do it.
It’s safe to say their strategy worked: the years following the initial arrival of the “Just Do It” campaign were Nike’s most successful. From 1988 to 1998, the company increased its share of the North American domestic sport-shoe business from 18% to 43%. In monetary terms, it represented an increase of $877 million in worldwide sales, from $8.3 billion to $9.2 billion. That’s over $7 billion in sales in a decade, just in their sport-shoe business.
Nike continued to lean into the momentum created by the advertisement well into the 2000s. They enlisted a diverse range of people from various ethnicities, races, and backgrounds to advertise their product. This helped market their apparel to everyday customers and athletes. The likes of Bo Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Ronaldinho all played a part in their campaign.
The campaign did its job – above all else, it set Nike apart from its competition.
Small Business Marketing Tips, Courtesy of Nike 🪧
We discussed Nike’s beginnings, the creation of their iconic “Swoosh” logo, and their renowned marketing campaigns. While we could go on about the innovative products that helped Nike stay on top, let’s wrap this up by talking about how marketing makes Nike:
- Brand Identity- Nike is recognizable, and it’s not hard to distinguish their product from others when you see that Swoosh. A good slogan, along with a memorable logo, can go an incredibly long way in helping consumers recognize a product.
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – Nike tends to utilize athletes of diverse races, genders, cultures, and ages to promote their products. Their “Dream Crazier” campaign aimed to inspire female athletes of all ages to continue breaking down barriers. Nike’s inclusion of everyone allows for them to market their product to a variety of demographics, not just a few, but everyone.
- Straying From Exercise – Nike will forever be associated with athletic apparel, but they’ve taken the initiative to expand further. T-shirts, jackets, sweatshirts, bags, sneakers, flipflops, leggings… You get the idea. Nike sells them all, and they attempt to market to all, even those looking for casual wear.
- Promoting an Active Lifestyle – Walt Stack’s advertisement is a shining example of Nike’s marketing efforts targeting those who currently lead a healthy lifestyle or aspire to do so. It’s their primary target audience, and they’re probably the easiest to market. The key takeaway from this is to focus on what you know.
- Sustainability Initiatives – Nike’s “Move to Zero” campaign highlights its goals to support a greener earth, in the hopes of “protecting the future of sport.” They’ve outlined their 2025 goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, recycle waste back into product manufacturing, and decrease their water usage. Marketing towards a green thumb is something that appeals to all consumers, whether environment preservation is near the top of their list or not.
- Focus on Emotional Advertising- Nike’s advertisements have a hint of pathos in every bite. The “Am I A Bad Person?” Advertising video is a prime example. The video features various quick cuts of athletes, including Lebron James, Kylian Mbappe, Kobe Bryant, and Serena Williams. In the background, the narrator repeatedly asks the question, “Am I A Bad Person?” All the while, he discusses how he has no empathy and doesn’t respect his competitors. Throughout all these years, Nike has adopted a tough-as-nails advertising strategy that almost begs the viewer to get up and get to work. It aims to ignite a spark within the viewer and unleash the animal within.
