Nike was founded in 1964 by Phil Knight but was not called Nike until 1971, before that the company was called Blue Ribbon Sports. Knight initially imported shoes from Asia and sold to American runners. One of the brands he imported was Asics, then called Onitsuka Tiger.
Nike's logo, the swoosh , was created in 1971 by a design student at Portland State University. The name Nike comes from the Greek goddess Nike. It was Bowerman, Knight's colleague, who was behind the epoch-making Nike shoes with "waffled" undersides.
It wasn't until 20 years after its inception that Nike continued its success and became the market leader, specifically with the great success of the Air Jordan shoe with Michael Jordan as the leading figure.
