Shoe Dog
Summary:
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.
In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today.
But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business—a business that would be dynamic, different.
Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream—along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything. (Summary and cover courtesy of goodreads.com)
Review:
This book was the best memoir I can remember reading in a long time and I have never been particularly a Nike fan. While liking some of their athletic gear, I had bad luck with their shoes early in life and never particularly came back to them. I had resisted picking up the book because it had been recommended to me so many times, but it was fortunately a situation where the book lived up to the hype. Knight does not emphasize his natural leadership or any of his dramatic insight, but instead is very candid in talking about his insecurities and the aspects of the job that he really struggled with. In fact, I think he’s unusually self-aware and acknowledged when he was in the wrong – both in personal and professional life.
The aspect that lifted the book up above a standard memoir is the clear and genuine love of sport throughout. As I said, because I was not a Nike enthusiast, I didn’t realize the company was so strongly rooted in running shoes despite knowing Bill Bowerman was somehow related. I had no idea Bowerman was actually a founding partner! It is a fantastic book on so many levels and would highly recommend this one to any reader, I think it would has aspects that would entertain most!
Rating: 5 stars!
Who should read it? Any sports fan, memoir or business fan.