Nike Case - How Nike Was Established

In today's world, inner city urban youth are more style conscience than ever. Millions of teens are addicted to high price basketball sneakers. For many youth , these sneakers are seen as a status symbol. From the latest music videos to the trendy hip hop magazines, high end basketball sneakers are the must have item to own. However, if they knew the process involved in manufacturing these high end basketball sneakers, they might think twice about purchasing this product. One of The most popular sneakers being produced by the Nike Corporation is Air Jordans

This paper will discuss how Nike was established, who started Nike and how long the company has existed. The reader will also discuss where Air Jordan's are being manufactured; if they are being industrial in the U.S or overseas. Also this paper will discuss how much does it cost to make Air Jordans and how much they are selling when they hit the shelf. Last but not least this paper will also discuss if they had any problems with abusive work conditions in the U.S and the overseas factories and the specific problems with the Nike Company and if the consumers where aware of these problems.

The Nike Company started 47 years ago. The company was founded by Stanford Graduate School of Business student Phil Knight and future business partner Bill Bowerman in the year 1964. Mr. Knight was looking for a business opportunity that tied into his favorite sport that involved running, He then begin to travel the world looking for ideas that would tie into sports and running and came upon the company located in Kobe, Japan by the name of Onitsuka CO. that produced running shoes in the United States. When he received he first shipment of inventory, he sent several pairs of sneakers to the future Bill Bowerman in hopes of scoring some sales. Bowerman then realizing the potential of the product made some suggestions for a little improvement and partnered with Phil Knight to from the Blue Ribbon Sports Company which was the precursor to the Nike Corporation.

Bill Bowerman and Phil knight began selling the running shoes from his now famous "green Plymouth Valiant" at a few of their track meets. The running shoes were sold out of his trunk because he had no place to sale the sneakers. Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight couldn't pay to much attention to the comp any because they both had full time jobs. They needed someone to manage the company Blue Ribbon Sports full time so they thought about Jeff Johnson who Phil had meet at Stanford. Jeff Johnson was a runner and he became the first full time employee.

After Jeff Johnson was hired he began taking matters into his own hands. He decided to create brochures, print ads and marketing materials, and even shot the photographs for the company's catalogues. He also established a mail-order system, opened the first BRS retail store located in Santa Monica, Calif. and managed shipping and receiving. He then later