Nike — latest news, discussion & facts

Nike — latest news, discussion & facts — IJR

Nike, Inc. is an American athletic footwear and apparel corporation headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon. It is the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, with revenue in excess of US$46 billion in its fiscal year 2022.

Country: United States
Headquarters: Beaverton
Inception: January 25, 1964
Website: https://www.nike.com/, https://www.nike.com.cn/, https://www.nike.co.kr

Nike+ FuelBandknown for Phil Knightfounder of Bill Bowermanfounder of Mark Parkerchief executive John Donahoechief executive Elliott Hillchief executive Copyright Alliancemember of United Statescountry

Article

The company was founded on January 25, 1964, as "Blue Ribbon Sports", by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, and officially became Nike, Inc. on May 30, 1971. The company takes its name from Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Nike markets its products under its own brand, as well as Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Nike+, Nike Blazers, Air Force 1, Nike Dunk, Air Max, Foamposite, Nike Skateboarding and Nike CR7. The company also sells products under its Air Jordan brand and its Converse subsidiary. Nike also owned Bauer Hockey from 1995 to 2008, and previously owned Cole Haan, Umbro, and Hurley International. In addition to manufacturing sportswear and equipment, the company operates retail stores under the Niketown name. Nike sponsors many high-profile athletes and sports teams around the world, with the highly recognized trademarks of "Just Do It" and the Swoosh logo.

As of 2024, it employed 83,700 people worldwide. In 2020, the brand alone was valued in excess of $32 billion, making it the most valuable brand among sports businesses. Previously, in 2017, the Nike brand was valued at $29.6 billion. Nike ranked 89th in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue. The company ranked 239th in the Forbes Global 2000 companies in 2024.

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Also known as Nike Inc., 耐克, Nike, Inc.

Corporate ratings

High risk

Nike was rated high risk because it scored poorly across all measured categories, including cancellations, discriminatory philanthropy, employment practices, and politically driven governance actions. The company's leadership also shows a strong lean toward partisan political giving, reflecting a broader pattern of prioritizing activist causes over neutral business practices.

CancellationsHigh risk
Discriminatory PhilanthropyHigh risk
Employment ProtectionHigh risk
Advocacy BiasHigh risk
FundingHigh risk
Political ActionsHigh risk

Board BiasNike's leadership shows significantly greater political contributions to Democratic causes ($2,811,560) compared to Republican causes ($145,750).

Assessment by 1792 Exchange. Summary generated by IJR from their published rating.

History

Nike, originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), was founded by University of Oregon track athlete Phil Knight and his coach, Bill Bowerman, on January 25, 1964. The company initially operated in Eugene, Oregon, as a distributor for Japanese shoemaker Onitsuka Tiger, making most sales at track meets out of Knight's automobile.

According to Otis Davis, a University of Oregon student-athlete coached by Bowerman and Olympic gold medalist at the 1960 Summer Olympics, his coach made the first pair of Nike shoes for him, contradicting a claim that they were made for Phil Knight. According to Davis, "I told Tom Brokaw that I was the first. I don't care what all the billionaires say. Bill Bowerman made the first pair of shoes for me. People don't believe me. In fact, I didn't like the way they felt on my feet. There was no support and they were too tight. But I saw Bowerman made them from the waffle iron, and they were mine".

In its first year in business, BRS sold 1,300 pairs of Japanese running shoes, grossing $8,000. By 1965, sales had reached $20,000. In 1966, BRS opened its first retail store at 3107 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California. In 1967, due to increasing sales, BRS expanded retail and distribution operations on the East Coast, in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

In 1971, Bowerman used his wife's waffle iron to experiment on rubber to create a new sole for track shoes that would grip but be lightweight and increase the runner's speed. Oregon's Hayward Field was transitioning to an artificial surface, and Bowerman wanted a sole which could grip to grass or bark dust without the use of spikes. Bowerman was talking to his wife about this puzzle over breakfast, when the waffle iron idea came into play.

Bowerman's design led to the introduction of the "Moon Shoe" in 1972, so named because the waffle tread was said to resemble the footprints left by astronauts on the Moon. Further refinement resulted in the "Waffle Trainer" in 1974, which helped fuel the explosive growth of Blue Ribbon Sports/Nike.

Tension between BRS and Onitsuka Tiger increased in 1971 as the latter attempted a takeover of BRS by extending an ultimatum proposal that would give the Japanese company 51 percent of BRS. In 1972, the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka Tiger came to an end. BRS prepared to launch its own line of footwear. The previous year, it was already able to place from two Japanese shoe manufacturers the company's first independent order for 20,000, which included 6,000 that had the Nike logo. Runner Jeff Johnson was brought in to help market the new brand and was credited for coining the name “Nike”. It would bear the Swoosh newly designed by Carolyn Davidson. The Swoosh was first used by Nike on June 18, 1971, and was registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office on January 22, 1974.

In 1976, the company hired John Brown and Partners, based in Seattle, as its first advertising agency. The following year, the agency created the first "brand ad" for Nike, called "There is no finish line", in which no Nike product was shown. By 1980, Nike had attained a 50% market share in the US athletic shoe market, and the company went public in December of that year.

Wieden+Kennedy, Nike's primary ad agency, has worked with Nike to create many print and television advertisements, and Wieden+Kennedy remains Nike's primary ad agency. It was agency co-founder Dan Wieden who coined the now-famous slogan "Just Do It" for a 1988 Nike ad campaign, which was chosen by Advertising Age as one of the top five ad slogans of the 20th century and enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution. Walt Stack was featured in Nike's first "Just Do It" advertisement, which debuted on July 1, 1988. Wieden credits the inspiration for the slogan to "Let's do it", the last words spoken by Gary Gilmore before he was executed.

Nike manufactured its first uniforms for a professional sports team in 1979, when its jersey for the Portland Timbers of the North American Soccer League debuted. Throughout the 1980s, Nike expanded its product line to encompass many sports and regions throughout the world. In 1990, Nike moved into its eight-building World Headquarters campus in Beaverton, Oregon. The first Nike retail store, dubbed Niketown, opened in downtown Portland in November of that year.

Phil Knight announced in mid-2015 that he would step down as chairman of Nike in 2016. He officially stepped down from all duties with the company on June 30, 2016.

In a company public announcement on March 15, 2018, Nike CEO Mark Parker said Trevor Edwards, a top Nike executive who was seen as a potential successor to the chief executive, was relinquishing his position as Nike's brand president and would retire in August.

In October 2019, John Donahoe was announced as the next CEO, and succeeded Parker on January 13, 2020. In November 2019, the company stopped selling directly through Amazon, focusing more on direct relationships with customers.

In October 2025, Nike renamed its world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, the Philip H. Knight Campus in honor of co-founder Phil Knight.

in December 2025, Nike reorganized its senior leadership team, creating a COO and appointing Venkatesh Alagirisamy to the role. The company also eliminated its CTO and CCO positions as part of the restructuring.

In April 2026, Nike announced it would cut approximately 1,400 workers, or about 2% of its workforce. Most of the affected employees work in the technology department. The layoffs were part of a turnaround plan led by CEO Elliott Hill and followed approximately 800 job cuts in January 2026.

In June 2026, Nike announced that David Denton would become its CFO, succeeding Matthew Friend effective August 17. Friend remained with the company through September 4 to assist with the transition.

Finance

Nike was made a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2013, when it replaced Alcoa.

On December 19, 2013, Nike's quarterly profit rose due to a 13 percent increase in global orders for merchandise since April of that year. Future orders of shoes or clothes for delivery between December and April, rose to $10.4 billion. Nike shares (NKE) rose 0.6 percent to $78.75 in extended trading.

In November 2015, Nike announced it would initiate a $12 billion share buyback, as well as a two-for-one stock split, with shares to begin trading at the decreased price on December 24. The split will be the seventh in company history.

In June 2018, Nike announced it would initiate a $15 billion share buyback over four years, to begin in 2019 upon completion of the previous buyback program.

For the fiscal year 2018, Nike reported earnings of US$1.933 billion, with annual revenue of US$36.397 billion, an increase of 6.0% over the previous fiscal cycle. Nike's shares traded at over $72 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$114.5 billion in October 2018.

In February 2020, the company said that roughly 75% of Nike stores in Greater China had closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In March 2020, Nike reported a 5% drop in Chinese sales associated with stores' closure. It was the first decrease in six years. At the same time, the company's online sales grew by 36% during Q1 of 2020. Also, the sales of personal training apps grew by 80% in China.

In June 2025, Nike warned that President Trump's new tariffs on key trading partners could add around $1 billion to its costs this year, causing the company to shift some production out of China to reduce its exposure. Despite weaker quarterly revenue, Nike's shares rose over 10% after a better-than-expected earnings forecast, while the US and China also reached a deal to ease trade tensions.

In April 2026, the chief operating officer, Venkatesh Alagirisamy announced a cut of about 1,400 global operations jobs, especially from the technology department as part of Nike's business reorganization. In September of that year, Nike exited the S&P 100 after its shares fell by 40 percent.

The key trends of Nike are (as at the financial year ending May 31):

Sports apparel

Nike's first apparel products were track running shoes. Nike Air Max is a line of shoes first released by Nike, Inc. in 1987. Additional product lines were introduced later, such as Air Huarache, which debuted in 1992. The most recent additions to its line are the Nike 6.0, Nike NYX, and Nike SB shoes, designed for skateboarding. Nike has recently introduced cricket shoes called Air Zoom Yorker, designed to be 30% lighter than its competitors'. In 2008, Nike introduced the Air Jordan XX3, a high-performance basketball shoe designed with the environment in mind.

Nike's range of products include shoes, jerseys, shorts, cleats, baselayers, etc. for sports activities such as soccer, basketball, track and field, combat sports, tennis, American football, athletics, golf, ice hockey, and cross training for men, women, and children. Nike also sells shoes for activities such as skateboarding, baseball, cycling, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading, lacrosse, cricket, aquatic activities, auto racing, and other athletic and recreational uses. Nike partnered with Apple Inc. to produce the Nike+ product that monitors a runner's performance via a radio device in the shoe that links to the iPod nano. While the product generates useful statistics, it has been criticized by researchers who were able to identify users' RFID devices from 60 feet (18 m) away using small, concealable intelligence motes in a wireless sensor network.

In 2004, Nike launched the SPARQ Training Program/Division. Some of Nike's newest shoes contain Flywire and Lunarlite Foam to reduce weight. The Air Zoom Vomero running shoe, introduced in 2006 and currently in its 11th generation, featured a combination of groundbreaking innovations including a full-length air cushioned sole, an external heel counter, a crashpad in the heel for shock absorption, and Fit Frame technology for a stable fit.

In 2023, Nike told ESPN that it would cease using kangaroo skins in its products by the end of that year and debut "a new Nike-only, proprietary synthetic upper, [with] a new material that is a better performance solution and replaces the use of kangaroo leather."

The Nike Vaporfly first came out in 2017 and their popularity, along with its performance, prompted a new series of running shoes. The Vaporfly series has a new technological composition that has revolutionized long-distance running since studies have shown that these shoes can improve marathon race time up to 4.2%. The composition of the sole contains a foamy material, Pebax, that Nike has altered and now calls it ZoomX (which can be found in other Nike products as well). Pebax foam can also be found in airplane insulation and is "squishier, bouncier, and lighter" than foams in typical running shoes. In the middle of the ZoomX foam there is a full-length carbon fiber plate "designed to generate extra spring in every step". At the time of this writing Nike had just released its newest product from the Vaporfly line, the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT%, which was marketed as "the fastest shoe we’ve ever made" using Nike's "two most innovative technologies, Nike ZoomX foam and VaporWeave material".

Street fashions

The Nike brand, with its distinctive "Swoosh" logo, quickly became regarded as a status symbol in modern urban fashion and hip-hop fashion due to its association with success in sport. Beginning in the 1980s, various items of Nike clothing became staples of mainstream American youth fashion, especially tracksuits, shell suits, baseball caps, Air Jordans, Air Force 1's, and Air Max running shoes with thick, air cushioned rubber soles and contrasting blue, yellow, green, white, or red trim. Limited edition sneakers and prototypes with a regional early release were known as Quickstrikes, and became highly desirable items for teenage members of the sneakerhead subculture.

By the 1990s and 2000s, American and European teenagers associated with the preppy or popular clique began combining these sneakers, leggings, sweatpants, crop tops, and tracksuits with regular casual chic street clothes such as jeans, skirts, leg warmers, slouch socks, and bomber jackets. Particularly popular were the unisex spandex Nike Tempo compression shorts worn for cycling and running, which had a mesh lining, waterproofing, and, later in the 2000s, a zip pocket for a Walkman or MP3 player.

From the late 2000s into the 2010s, Nike Elite basketball socks began to be worn as everyday clothes by hip-hop fans and young children.

Originally plain white or black, these socks had special shock absorbing cushioning in the sole plus a moisture wicking upper weave. Later, Nike Elite socks became available in bright colors inspired by throwback basketball uniforms, often with contrasting bold abstract designs, images of celebrities, and freehand digital print to capitalize upon the emerging nostalgia for 1990s fashion.

In 2015, a new self-lacing shoe was introduced. Called the Nike Mag, which are replicas of the shoes featured in Back to the Future Part II, it had a preliminary limited release, only available by auction with all proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. This was done again in 2016.

Nike have introduced a premium line, focused more on streetwear than sports wear called NikeLab.

In March 2017, Nike announced its launch of a plus-size clothing line, which will feature new sizes 1X through 3X on more than 200 products. Another significant development at this time was the Chuck Taylor All-Star Modern, an update of the classic basketball sneaker that incorporated the circular knit upper and cushioned foam sole of Nike's Air Jordans.

Advertising

In 1982, Nike aired its first three national television ads, created by newly formed ad agency Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), during the broadcast of the New York Marathon. The Cannes Advertising Festival has named Nike its Advertiser of the Year in 1994 and 2003, making it the first company to receive that honor twice.

Nike also has earned the Emmy Award for best commercial in 2000 and 2002. The first was for "The Morning After," a satirical look at what a runner might face on the morning of January 1, 2000, if every dire prediction about the Y2K problem came to fruition. The second was for a 2002 spot called "Move," which featured a series of famous and everyday athletes in a variety of athletic pursuits.

Nike was criticized for its use of the Beatles song "Revolution" in a 1987 commercial against the wishes of Apple Records, the Beatles' recording company. Nike paid US$250,000 to Capitol Records Inc., which held the North American licensing rights to the recordings, for the right to use the Beatles' rendition for a year.

That same year, Apple Records sued Nike Inc., Capitol Records Inc., EMI Records Inc. and Wieden+Kennedy for $15 million. Capitol-EMI countered by saying the lawsuit was "groundless" because Capitol had licensed the use of "Revolution" with the "active support and encouragement of Yoko Ono, a shareholder and director of Apple Records."

Nike discontinued airing ads featuring "Revolution" in March 1988. Yoko Ono later gave permission to Nike to use John Lennon's "Instant Karma" in another advertisement.

Nike was an early adopter of internet marketing, email management technologies, and using broadcast and narrowcast communication technologies to create multimedia marketing campaigns.

In late June 2005, Nike received criticism from Ian MacKaye, owner of Dischord Records, guitarist/vocalist for Fugazi and The Evens, and front man of the defunct punk band Minor Threat, for appropriating imagery and text from Minor Threat's 1981 self-titled album's cover art in a flyer promoting Nike Skateboarding's 2005 East Coast demo tour.

On June 27, Nike Skateboarding's website issued an apology to Dischord, Minor Threat, and fans of both and announced that it has tried to remove and dispose of all flyers. They stated that the people who designed it were skateboarders and Minor Threat fans themselves who created the advertisement out of respect and appreciation for the band. The dispute was eventually settled out of court between Nike and Minor Threat.

As part of the 6.0 campaign, Nike introduced a new line of T-shirts that include phrases such as "Dope", "Get High" and "Ride Pipe" – sports lingo that is also a double entendre for drug use. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino expressed his objection to the shirts after seeing them in a window display at the city's Niketown and asked the store to remove the display. "What we don't need is a major corporation like Nike, which tries to appeal to the younger generation, out there giving credence to the drug issue," Menino told The Boston Herald. A company official stated the shirts were meant to pay homage to extreme sports, and that Nike does not condone the illegal use of drugs. Nike was forced to replace the shirt line.

Sponsorship

Nike sponsors top athletes in many sports to use its products and promote and advertise its technology and design. Nike's first professional athlete endorser was Romanian tennis player Ilie Năstase. The first track endorser was distance runner Steve Prefontaine. Prefontaine was the prized pupil of the company's co-founder, Bill Bowerman, while he coached at the University of Oregon. Today, the Steve Prefontaine Building is named in his honor at Nike's corporate headquarters. Nike has only made one statue of its sponsored athletes and it is of Steve Prefontaine.

Nike has also sponsored many other successful track and field athletes over the years, such as Sebastian Coe, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Michael Johnson and Allyson Felix. The signing of basketball player Michael Jordan in 1984, with his subsequent promotion of Nike over the course of his career, with Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon, proved to be one of the biggest boosts to Nike's publicity and sales.

Nike is a major sponsor of the athletic programs at Penn State University and named its first child care facility after Joe Paterno when it opened in 1990 at the company's headquarters. Nike originally announced it would not remove Paterno's name from the building in the wake of the Penn State sex abuse scandal. After the Freeh Report was released on July 12, 2012, Nike CEO Mark Parker announced the name Joe Paterno would be removed immediately from the child development center. A new name has yet to be announced.

In 1982, prolific Liverpool striker Ian Rush became the first footballer to sign a sponsorship deal with Nike. In the early 1990s, Nike made endorsement deals with famous players such as Romário, be Eric Cantona and Edgar Davids. A Barcelona prodigy, Lionel Messi had been signed with Nike since age 14, but transferred to Adidas after they successfully challenged their rival's claim to his image rights in court. They continued the growth in the sport by signing more top players including: Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Francesco Totti, Thierry Henry, Didier Drogba, Andrés Iniesta, Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane.

In 2026, Nike still have many of the sport's biggest stars under its name, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Haaland, Vinícius Júnior, Virgil van Dijk, Robert Lewandowski, Bruno Fernandes, Cole Palmer, Marcus Rashford, and Jamal Musiala among others.

Nike has been the official ball supplier for the Premier League since the 2000–01 season. In 2012, Nike carried a commercial partnership with the Asian Football Confederation.

In August 2014, Nike announced that it will not renew its kit supply deal with Manchester United after the 2014–15 season, citing rising costs. Since the start of the 2015–16 season, Adidas has manufactured Manchester United's kit as part of a world-record 10-year deal worth a minimum of £750 million.

Nike still has many of the top teams playing in their uniforms, including: FC Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Sporting CP, Corinthians, Beşiktaş JK. The national teams of United States, Brazil, England, France, Netherlands, Norway, Croatia, Finland, Poland, Slovenia, Canada. Uruguay, Nigeria and Australia among many others also use Nike.

Nike has been the sponsor for many top ranked tennis players. Brand's commercial success in the sport went hand in hand with the endorsement deals signed with the biggest and the world's most charismatic stars and number one ranked players of the subsequent eras, including John McEnroe in the 1980s, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras in the 1990s and Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, Aryna Sabalenka, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Naomi Osaka with the start of the 21st century.

Nike sponsored Tiger Woods until 2024, and remained on his side amid the controversies that shaped the golfer's career. In January 2013, Nike signed Rory McIlroy, the then No 1 golfer in the world to a 10-year sponsorship deal worth $250 million. Nike has also gone on to sign top players in golf including Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, Nelly Korda, Tommy Fleetwood, Tony Finau and Cam Davis. Nike's 2016 decision to exit the golf equipment business–such as club manufacturing–due to an 8.2% decline sales in one year meant sponsored athletes exclusively wore Nike apparel.

Nike was the official kit sponsor for the Indian cricket team from 2005 to 2020. On February 21, 2013, Nike announced it suspended its contract with South African limbless athlete Oscar Pistorius, due to him being charged with premeditated murder.

Nike consolidated its position in basketball in 2015 when it was announced that the company would sign an 8-year deal with the NBA, taking over from the league's previous uniform sponsor, Adidas. The deal required all franchise team members to wear jerseys and shorts with the Swoosh logo, beginning with the 2017/18 season. After the success of partnership with Jordan, which resulted in the creation of the unique Air Jordan brand, Nike has continued to build partnership with the biggest names in basketball. LeBron James was given the Slogan "We are All Witnesses" when he signed with Nike. Similar to "Air Jordan", James' brand became massively popular. Some have had signature shoes designed for them, including Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and more recently, James and Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, Paul George and Luka Dončić, among others.

In Australia, Nike is the on-and-off-field apparel supplier of two clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's: Collingwood and the Sydney Swans. It has also previously supplied the on and off field apparel for the Carlton Football Club between 1998–2019, and the Port Adelaide Football Club between 1997 and 2006.

Nike recently made signature shoes for WNBA stars as well, as the league's popularity takes off. Although a dozen women have received signature sneakers in the WNBA's 27-year history, it had been over a decade since a woman had received a signature sneaker. Nike's first signature shoe in the WNBA was with Sheryl Swoops, and since then it has made signature silhouettes for Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley, Cynthia Cooper, and most recently for Sabrina Ionescu. Caitlin Clark will also receive a signature shoe deal as part of her eight-year, 28 million dollar deal.

A news report originating from CNN reported that Nike spent $11.5 billion, nearly a third of its sales, on marketing and endorsement contracts in the year 2018. Nike and its Jordan brand sponsored 85 men's and women's basketball teams in the NCAA tournament.

About Nike

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Corporate ratings

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History

Acquisitions

Finance

Logo evolution

Headquarters

Ownership

Products

Sports apparel

Street fashions

Collectibles

Virtual

Marketing strategy

Advertising

NBA uniform deal

Sponsorship

Ties with the University of Oregon

Causes

Nike Community Ambassador Program

Research

Environmental record

Recycling

Sulfur hexafluoride

Toxic chemicals

Water pollution

Carbon footprint

Sustainability

Controversies

Sweatshops

Child labor

Strike in China factory

Paradise Papers

Colin Kaepernick

Hong Kong protests

Vaporfly controversy

Forced Uyghur labor allegations

Welfare of animals used in sourcing

Exclusionary branding

Human resources

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