The business plan for Blue Ribbon Sports came from a Stanford assignment

Nike started out as a Japanese shoe distributor called Blue Ribbon Sports

Nike cofounder Phil Knight’s first business venture was distributing Onitsuka Tiger running shoes in America. Knight would drive to track meets and sell the shoes out of the back of his car.

Nike's Phil Knight ran for Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon before they became business partners

They became business partners when Knight tried to sell the Onitsuka Tigers to Bowerman for the Oregon track team. Bowerman told Knight he didn't just want the shoes; he wanted in on the whole deal.

Nike only paid $35 for the swoosh—and cofounder Phil Knight didn’t like it at first

A student Nike cofounder Phil Knight met while teaching at Portland State designed the logo for the “Nike” football shoe (the company was still Blue Ribbon Sports at the time). When Phil Knight saw it, he said, “Well, I don’t love it, but it will grow on me.”

Nike was almost named ‘Dimension Six’

Jeff Johnson, the company’s first full-time employee, said the name came to him in a dream just before Blue Ribbon Sports filed a patent for the “Nike” football shoe. Nike cofounder Phil Knight wanted to name the company “Dimension Six,” but was ultimately convinced that a one-word name would be better. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

One of Nike’s most transformational executives started out as its lawyer

Rob Strasser helped settle a lawsuit against Onitsuka Tiger when Blue Ribbon Sports became Nike and stopped distributing the Japanese shoes. Strasser then became a powerhouse at Nike credited with saving the company from going under in the 1970s, before leaving the company in 1987.

Nike couldn’t sign legendary distance runner Steve Prefontaine due to regulations

Because of amateur running regulations, Prefontaine—who held every American running record from 2,000 to 10,000 meters at the time—couldn’t do a paid endorsement for Nike. So Nike’s Phil Knight decided to give him a $5K yearly stipend and print business cards that said Prefontaine was the “National Director of Public Affairs.” When asked what that meant, Knight said, “it means he can run fast.”

These famous brands used to have different names

Did you know that Nike used to be called Blue Ribbon Sports? Or that Google was originally named BackRub? Getting a brand's name right is a tough job; there's an entire cottage industry of brand naming agencies to prove it. See which brands got it right the first time—and which ones might be better off with their current names—in this article.

Nike made retailers pay for Air Jordans upfront to guarantee stock

Instead of paying for the inventory sold, Knight locked retailers into iron-clad agreements, where the companies would pay upfront for Nike inventory (but at a 7% discount). Knight did this to leverage debt, allowing retailers a better chance at getting the wildly popular Air Jordans.

Kanye abruptly left Nike in 2013 and took his Air Yeezys to Adidas for $10M

In 2009, Kanye West became the first non-athlete Nike produced a signature shoe for. However, Kanye left Nike for the company’s rival, Adidas, just a few years later. Kanye said Nike was stifling his creative vision, and he felt like he wasn’t getting enough royalties.

A NASA engineer came up with the idea for the air-cushioned Nike Air shoes

Frank Rudy came to Nike with the idea of using air capsules in the soles of running shoes to provide better cushioning. The first shoe with this technology, the Tailwind, came out in 1979.

Nike’s slogan was inspired by a death row inmate’s last words

Advertising superstar Dan Wieden of legendary advertising agency Widen+Kennedy said he got inspiration for Nike’s “Just do it” from an inmate’s last words on death row. Wieden said the way the inmate talked about facing uncertainty inspired him.

Shaquille O’Neal showed up to a meeting with Nike wearing head-to-toe Reebok

Nike wanted to sign then-newcomer Shaquille O’Neill, but didn’t offer Shaq his own shoe because they had already signed Alonzo Mourning. Shaq said he felt like Nike didn’t understand his potential, and the company wouldn’t have given him as much creative control as Reebok would.

Why Steve Jobs always wore the same outfit

Steve Jobs is well-known for his signature outfit: a black mock turtleneck and denim jeans. The outfit originated in Japan, where Jobs observed Sony employees all wearing matching uniforms. He proposed Apple employees do the same, but that idea was rejected. However, he still decided to create his own uniform.

Many startup founders pull out-of-the-box stunts to get their businesses off the ground

Do you know Airbnb’s founders used cereal (yes, as in the breakfast food) to secure their initial round of funding? Or that PayPal’s founders once gave out free money to get people to sign up for the platform? These stories might be crazy, but they’re not uncommon.

David Stern had a hand in starting the WNBA

For years, NBA Commissioner David Stern had been planning for an NBA-supported women’s basketball league. When the US Women’s Basketball Team captured gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, he began putting them into motion.

Chipotle was initially started to fund another restaurant

Founder Steve Ells was a chef at Stars, a tony restaurant in San Francisco. His original plan for Chipotle—which first opened in 1993 in Denver, Colorado—was to make enough money to open a separate, higher-end restaurant.

How energy drink company Red Bull makes money

Red Bull was founded by Dietrich Mateschitz and is one of the world's most successful energy drink companies. The brand's value comes from its aggressive marketing efforts among students, nightlife, and sports figures, equating the consumption of one of its cans with excitement and athleticism.

Bill Nye holds patents for three inventions and designs for a digital abacus

His pointe shoes feature a support structure to protect ballet dancers' toes during performance. The throwing technique trainer guides athletes in achieving the optimal form for throwing a ball, while the educational magnifying glass made from a plastic bag and water featured on his show.

How one Portland dive bar helped drive Pabst Blue Ribbon's comeback

In 2004, the Washington Post reported on the resurgence of Pabst Blue Ribbon, recast as a hip alternative to bigger-label brews, and said its comeback was thanks to Lutz Tavern in Portland, Oregon, which sold the beer for $1 a can.

Watch Ray Dalio's TED Talk on building an 'idea meritocracy'

In 2017, Dalio gave a TED Talk called "How to Build a Company Where the Best Ideas Win," which largely focused on Bridgewater's highly documented company culture and leadership principles. Dalio's TED Talk focused on one of his most well-known principles, "radical transparency," as a way to create an idea meritocracy.

How a Philadelphia soup kitchen taught business students about ethical decision-making

As the St. Francis Inn—a Philadelphia soup kitchen—struggled with decisions about moving its operations to serve more people, a management professor at St. Joseph's University realized his students might have been able to help. Business students used ethical decision-making frameworks to help the soup kitchen serve more people and attract more volunteers.

A Bay Area lab was supplying MLB players with steroids

The Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, also known as BALCO, began as a modest vitamin shop, but by the 1990s it was at the center of a doping scheme that rocked Major League Baseball and other professional sports.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

How a pencil-making company helped fund Thoreau's books

Thoreau's father ran a pencil-making business, designing a model that dominated the American market and paid for his son's Harvard education. Later, Henry David Thoreau would use the business to fund the publication of his two books, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" and "Walden."

Ed Sabol's vision of NFL Films impacted how sports were filmed

When the NFL put out a bid to film the 1962 NFL Championship Game, Ed Sabol promised NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle his higher price tag would be worth it. Sabol’s style of fixed high shots, close-ups of players, and fans in the stands revolutionized how sporting events are filmed, influenced moviemakers like Ron Howard, and gave birth to NFL Films.

The funding behind Google's origin, including an NSF digital libraries grant

Over $4.5M in funding from the National Science Foundation was allocated to the Stanford Integrated Digital Library Project, which aimed to develop the infrastructure for an accessible universal library of digital information sources. Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page were working on this project when developing the PageRank search algorithm.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

Poison ivy's characteristic rash is caused by an allergic response to an oily compound in the plant called urushiol.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.