1950 - 1959: When Nike breathed its first breath, it inhaled the spirit of two men.

 

Before there was the Swoosh, before there was Nike, there were two visionary men who

pioneered a revolution in athletic footwear that redefined the industry.

Bill Bowerman was a nationally respected track and field coach at the University of Oregon, who

was constantly seeking ways to give his athletes a competitive advantage. He experimented with

different track surfaces, re-hydration drinks and – most importantly – innovations in running

shoes. But the established footwear manufacturers of the 1950s ignored the ideas he tried to offer

them, so Bowerman began cobbling shoes for his runners.

Phil Knight was a talented middle-distance runner from Portland, who enrolled at Oregon in the

fall of 1955 and competed for Bowerman’s track program. Upon graduating from Oregon,

Knight earned his MBA in finance from Stanford University, where he wrote a paper that

proposed quality running shoes could be manufactured in Japan that would compete with more

established German brands. But his letters to manufacturers in Japan and Asia went unanswered,

so Knight took a chance.

He made a cold-call on the Onitsuka Co. in Kobe, Japan, and persuaded the manufacturer of

Tiger shoes to make Knight a distributor of Tiger running shoes in the United States. When the

first set of sample shoes arrived, Knight sent several pairs to Bowerman, hoping to make a sale.

Instead, Bowerman stunned Knight by offering to become his partner, and to provide his

footwear design ideas to Tiger.

 

1960 - 1969: Founded on a handshake, $500 and mutual trust

 

They shook hands to form Blue Ribbon Sports, pledged $500 each and placed their first order of

300 pairs of shoes in January 1964. Knight sold the shoes out of the trunk of his green Plymouth

Valiant, while Bowerman began ripping apart Tiger shoes to see how he could make them lighter

and better, and enlisted his University of Oregon runners to wear-test his creations. In essence,

the foundation for what would become Nike had been established.

But Bowerman and Knight each had full-time jobs - Bowerman at Oregon and Knight at a

Portland accounting firm - so they needed someone to manage the growing requirements of Blue

Ribbon Sports. Enter Jeff Johnson, whom Knight had met at Stanford. A runner himself, Johnson

became the first full-time employee of Blue Ribbon Sports in 1965, and quickly became an

invaluable utility man for the start-up company.

 

1970 - 1979: The birth of the Nike brand, and company

 

Johnson created the first product brochures, print ads and marketing materials, and even shot the

photographs for the company’s catalogues. He established a mail-order system, opened the first

BRS retail store (located in Santa Monica, Calif.) and managed shipping/receiving. He also

designed several early Nike shoes, and even conjured up the name Nike in 1971.

Around this same time, the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka was falling apart. Knight and

Bowerman were ready to make the jump from being a footwear distributor to designing and

manufacturing their own brand of athletic shoes.

They selected a brand mark today known internationally as the “Swoosh,” which was created by

a graphic design student at Portland State University named Carolyn Davidson. The new Nike

line of footwear debuted in 1972, in time for the U.S. Track & Field Trials, which were held in

Eugene, Ore.

One particular pair of shoes made a very different impression – literally – on the dozen or so

runners who tried them. They featured a new innovation that Bowerman drew from his wife’s

waffle iron – an outsole that had waffle-type nubs for traction but were lighter than traditional

training shoes.

With a new logo, a new name and a new design innovation, what BRS now needed was an

athlete to endorse and elevate the new Nike line. Fittingly for the company founded by

Oregonians, they found such a young man from the small coastal town of Coos Bay, Ore.  His

name: Steve Prefontaine.

Prefontaine electrified the packed stands of Oregon’s Hayward Field during his college career

from 1969 to 1973. He never lost any race at his home track over the one-mile distance, and

quickly gained national exposure thanks to cover stories on magazines like Sports Illustrated and

his fourth-place finish in 1972 in the 5,000m in Munich.

Pre challenged Bowerman, Johnson and BRS in general to stretch their creative talents. In turn,

he became a powerful ambassador for BRS and Nike after he graduated from Oregon, making

numerous appearances on behalf of BRS and sending pairs of Nike shoes to prospective runners

along with personal notes of encouragement.

His tragic death at age 24 in 1975 cut short what many believed would have been an unparalleled

career in track – at the time of his death, he held American records in seven distances from

2,000m to 10,000m.  But Prefontaine’s fiery spirit lives on within Nike; Knight has often said

that Pre is the “soul of Nike.”

 

1980 - 1989: A decade of transition and rededication

 

Nike entered the 1980s on a roll, thanks to the successful launch of Nike Air technology in the

Tailwind running shoe in 1979. By the end of 1980, Nike completed its IPO and became a

publicly traded company. This began a period of transition, where several of Nike’s early

pioneers decided to move on to other pursuits. Even Phil Knight stepped down as president for

more than a year in 1983-1984, although he remained the chairman of the board and CEO.

By the mid-1980s, Nike had slipped from its position as the industry leader, in part because the

company had badly miscalculated on the aerobics boom, giving upstart competitors an almost

completely open field to develop the business. Fortunately, the debut of a new signature shoe for

an NBA rookie by the name of Michael Jordan in 1985 helped bolster Nike’s bottom line.

In 1987, Nike readied a major product and marketing campaign designed to regain the industry

lead and differentiate Nike from its competitors. The focal point was the Air Max, the first Nike

footwear to feature Nike Air bags that were visible. The campaign was supported by a

memorable TV ad whose soundtrack was the original Beatles’ recording of ‘Revolution.’

A year later, Nike built on its momentum from the ‘Revolution’ campaign by launching a broad

yet empowering series of ads with the tagline “Just do it.” The series included three ads with a

young two-sport athlete named Bo Jackson, who espoused the benefits of a new cross-training

shoe.

In 1989, Nike’s cross-training business exploded, thanks in part to the incredibly popular “Bo

Knows” ad campaign. By the end of the decade, Nike had regained its position as the industry

leader, the first and only time a company in the athletic footwear/apparel industry has

accomplished such a feat. Nike has never relinquished that position again.

 

1990 - 1999: Nike extends its reach

 

Buoyed by a series of successful product launches and marketing campaigns, Nike entered the

1990s by christening its beautiful world headquarters in suburban Portland, Oregon. In

November of 1990, Portland became the first home to a new retail-as-theatre experience called

Niketown, which would earn numerous architectural design and retail awards and spawn more

than a dozen other Niketown locations around the USA and internationally.

While Nike had designed footwear and apparel for golf and soccer for a number of years, the

mid-1990s signaled a deepening commitment to truly excel in these sports. In 1994, Nike signed

several individual players from what would be the World Cup-winning Brazilian National Team.

In 1995, Nike signed the entire team, and began designing the team’s distinctive uniform. Nike

also signed the US men’s and women’s national soccer teams, as well as dozens of national

teams around the world.

In 1996, Nike Golf landed a vastly talented but as-yet-unproven young golfer named Eldrick

“Tiger” Woods for a reported $5 million per year. Competitors laughed and critics howled at

Nike’s "folly," until Tiger won the 1997 Masters by a record 12 strokes.

 

2000 - Present: Leading a new generation

 

Nike rang in the new millennium with a new footwear cushioning system called Nike Shox,

which debuted during Sydney in 2000. The development of Nike Shox culminated more than 15

years of perseverance and dedication, as Nike designers stuck with their idea until technology

could catch up. The result was a cushioning and stability system worthy of joining Nike Air as

the industry’s gold standard.

Just as Nike’s products have evolved, so has Nike’s approach to marketing. The 2002 “Secret

Tournament” campaign was Nike’s first truly integrated, global marketing effort. Departing from

the traditional “big athlete, big ad, big product” formula, Nike created a multi-faceted consumer

experience in support of the World Cup.

“Secret Tournament” incorporated advertising, the Internet, public relations, retail and consumer

events to create excitement for Nike’s soccer products and athletes in a way no single ad could

ever achieve. This new integrated approach has become the cornerstone for Nike marketing and

communications.

Today, Nike continues to seek new and innovative ways to develop superior athletic products,

and creative methods to communicate directly with our consumers. The company has continued

to expand in new ways, including strong growth in China and a deal to become the official

sponsor of the National Football League (NFL) beginning in 2012.

At an investor meeting at its world headquarters in June 2011, NIKE, Inc. announced an increase

to its fiscal 2015 revenue target to a new range of $28-30 billion, up from its previous target of

$27 billion announced in May 2010. The company also increased its fiscal 2015 revenue target

for the NIKE Brand to $24-25 billion, up from its previous target of $23 billion.

President and CEO Mark Parker said: “At NIKE, Inc. we run a complete offense, and it’s based

on a core commitment to innovation. That’s how we stay opportunistic, serve the athlete, reward

our shareholders, and continue to lead our industry.”

reliminary Information: Iconography Explained

Nike's Heritage

NIKE, pronounced NI-KEY, is the winged goddess of victory according to Greek mythology.

She sat at the side of Zeus, the ruler of the Olympic pantheon, in Olympus. A mystical presence,

symbolizing victorious encounters, NIKE presided over history's earliest battlefields. A Greek

would say, "When we go to battle and win, we say it is NIKE." Synonymous with honored

conquest, NIKE is the twentieth century footwear that lifts the world's greatest athletes to new

levels of mastery and achievement. The NIKE 'swoosh' embodies the spirit of the winged

goddess who inspired the most courageous and chivalrous warriors at the dawn of civilization.

(from Nike Consumer Affairs packet, 1996)

The Swoosh

The SWOOSH logo is a graphic design created by Caroline Davidson in 1971. It

represents the wing of the Greek Goddess NIKE. Caroline Davidson was a student at Portland

State University in advertising. She met Phil Knight while he was teaching accounting classes

and she started doing some freelance work for his company. Phil Knight asked Caroline to

design a logo that could be placed on the side of a shoe. She handed him the SWOOSH, he

handed her $35.00. In spring of 1972, the first shoe with the NIKE SWOOSH was

introduced.....the rest is history! (from Nike Consumer Affairs packet, 1996)

A brief history of Nike

The Nike athletic machine began as a small distributing outfit located in the trunk of Phil

Knight's car. From these rather inauspicious beginnings, Knight's brainchild grew to become the

shoe and athletic company that would come to define many aspects of popular culture and

myriad varieties of 'cool.'

Nike emanated from two sources: Bill Bowerman's quest for lighter, more durable racing shoes

for his Oregon runners, and Knight's search for a way to make a living without having to give up

his love of athletics. Bowerman coached track at the University of Oregon where Phil Knight ran

in 1959. Bowerman's desire for better quality running shoes clearly influenced Knight in his

search for a marketing strategy. Between them, the seed of the most influential sporting company

grew.

The story goes like this: while getting his MBA at Stanford in the early '60s, Knight took a class

with Frank Shallenberger. The semester-long project was to devise a small business, including a

marketing plan. Synthesizing Bowerman's attention to quality running shoes and the burgeoning

opinion that high-quality/low cost products could be produced in Japan and shipped to the U.S.

for distribution, Knight found his market niche. Shallenberger thought the idea interesting, but

certainly no business jackpot. Nothing more became of Knight's project.

Cut to 1963. Phil Knight traveled to Japan on a world-tour, filled with the wanderlust of young

men seeking a way to delay the inevitable call of professional life. Seemingly on a whim, Knight

scheduled an interview with a Japanese running shoe manufacturer, Tiger--a subsidiary of the

Onitsuka Company. Presenting himself as the representative of an American distributor

interested in selling Tiger shoes to American runners, Knight told the businessmen of his interest

in their product. Blue Ribbon Sports--the name Knight thought of moments after being asked

who he represented--was born. The Tiger executives liked what they heard and Knight placed his

first order for Tigers soon thereafter.

By 1964, Knight had sold $8,000 worth of Tigers and placed an order for more. Coach

Bowerman and Knight worked together, but ended up hiring a full-time salesman, Jeff Johnson.

After cresting $1 million in sales and riding the wave of the success, Knight et. al. devised the

Nike name and trademark Swoosh in 1971.

By the late '70s, Blue Ribbon Sports officially became Nike and went from $10 million to $270

million in sales. Katz (1994) describes the success via Nike's placement within the matrix of the

fitness revolution: 'the idea of exercise and game-playing ceased to be something the average

American did for fun,' instead Americans turned to working out as a cultural signifier of status.

Clearly, the circumstances surrounding the shift are not this simple; it is one of the aims of this

project to discover other generators of popular attention to health.

If Nike didn't start the fitness revolution, Knight says, "We were at least right there. And we sure

rode it for one hell of a ride" (Katz, 66). The 80s and 90s would yield greater and greater profits

as Nike began to assume the appearance of athletic juggernaut, rather than the underdog of old.

"Advertising Age" named Nike the 1996 Marketer of the Year, citing the "ubiquitous

swoosh...was more recognized and coveted by consumers than any other sports brand--arguably

any brand" (Jensen, 12/96). That same year Nike's revenues were a staggering $6.74 billion.

Expecting $8 billion sales in fiscal 1997, Nike has targeted $12 billion in sales by the year 2000.

And all from the back of a car.

Few can question Nike's financial hegemony. But nearly $7 billion in revenues clearly begs the

question, What sells these shoes? It is my assertion that Nike's power to sell comes from deep-

rooted yearnings for cultural inclusiveness and individual athletic accomplishment. These

seemingly paradoxical desires collide in consumers hearts and minds and produce the unyielding

zeal for Nike shoes and apparel. Unfortunate effects of this zeal can be found in the rash of Nike

apparel killings in 1991 and the profusion of Nike collectors and webpages designed around the

company's products. (See listing of homepages on Works Cited Page) Nike appeals to these

disparate elements of Americans' personalities through an advertising philosophy that is, at once,

simple and sublime. In addition, Nike's practice of top-level athletes promoting their products

appeal to countless ages and creeds as a way to identify with and emulate their athletic heroes.

These forces work powerfully upon the individual consumer, but one should not lose sight of the

cultural context in which the individual moves.

me / History of Nike

History of Nike

Nike, Inc. (NYSE: NKE), headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, is the largest and most successful

brand of shoes, sports equipment, clothing, and controlling more than 60% of the market and

becoming a pop culture icon. One might say that the Greek Goddess of Victory for which Nike

was named is actually the Goddess of Shoes. Nike may be one of the youngest of the major

brands, but it is the dominant brand around the world.In 1963-1964 when University of Portland

track coach, Bill Bowerman, and Phil Knight, a mid-distance runner joined forces to import and

provide low-cost, high tech running shoes from Japan in order to provide alternatives to the

German-dominated athletic shoe market. Operating under the name Blue Ribbon Sports,

Bowerman and Knight began to sell the Japanese Onitsuke Tiger (now known as ASICS)

running shoes. Jeff Johnson, a former rival of Knight, joins the company in 1965 as their first

full-time salesperson and sells shoes from the back of his van at local and regional track meets

until opening Blue Ribbon Sports’ first retail outlet at 3107 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica California.

Click here to see a picture of the Blue Ribbon Sports location in the present day. This store is no

longer in existence, but the address remains.

Blue Ribbon Sports officially incorporates in 1967 and does business under this name until

approximately 1970 when Bowerman’s desire to improve on the shoe designs of Onitsuke Tiger

and Knight’s ambition to do more than simply import and resell running shoes. Inspiration must

have struck Bill Bowerman over breakfast one morning because he borrowed the family waffle

iron and pour rubber into to create the prototype for the now famous Nike Waffle Outsole. This

invention led Bowerman and Knight to begin designing other shoes, and the company’s new

name, Nike, Inc. was born when Jeff Johnson, dreams of the Greek goddess of victory, Nike. A

succession of shoes, many based on the waffle outsole follows. Some of the most famous are the

Waffle Racer, Air Force One, Air Max 93, Max 95 , and Air Max 97 .

1971 Nike’s Swoosh design logo was created by Portland State University graphic design

student Carolyn Davidson when asked by Knight. He needed a logo to put on the side of

his company’s shoes. At the time she was paid $35 (US), and also worked for Nike for a

few years until they needed a full ad agency. Twelve years later, in 1983, Ms. Davidson

received a gold Swoosh ring with an embedded diamond at a luncheon honoring her,

along with a certificate and an undisclosed amount of Nike stock, in recognition of the

Swoosh design logo.

1979 Nike’s Air technology patented by inventor M. Frank Rudy is introduced in the

Tailwind running shoe. Gas-filled plastic membranes are inserted into the sole of running

shoes to provide cushioning.

1980 Nike completes an initial public offering of 2,377,000 shares of Class B common

stock on December 2.

1982 The Air Force 1 basketball shoe becomes the first Nike court shoe to make use of

the Air technology.

1984 Nike signs Michael Jordan to an endorsement contract and releases the first model

of his signature shoe, the Air Jordan. Originally, the NBA banned this new shoe, drawing

a tremendous amount of publicity. The introduction of the Air Jordan shoe was a key

event in Nike’s successful development.

1986 Nike revenues surpass $1 billion for the first time.

1987 The Nike Air Max shoe is introduced, which uses a much larger Air cushioning

unit, and for the first time is visible at the side of the midsole. This was the first of many

generations of Air Max-branded technologies. A television ad featuring the Beatles’ song

“Revolution” was the first and only time that a song performed by the Beatles was used

in a TV ad.

1988 Nike introduces its “Just Do It” slogan.

1989 Nike introduces a new type of footwear designed specifically for cross-training, and

features two-sport athlete Bo Jackson in a series of memorable ads called “Bo Knows.”

1990 Nike opens the first Niketown store in downtown Portland, Ore., and the store

quickly earns numerous retail design and business awards. Over the next 10 years, Nike

will open 14 more Niketown stores across the USA and in England and Germany.

1993 Nike introduces an innovative sustainability program, Reuse-A-Shoe, which

collects athletic shoes, separates and grinds them up into Nike Grind. this is used in the

making of athletic courts, tracks and fields.

1994 Nike signs a long-term partnership with the Brazilian national football (soccer)

team, launching a company-wide effort to become the world’s leading football brand.

1996 Nike signs Eldrick “Tiger” Woods soon after the young golfing phenomenon gives

up his amateur status. Woods becomes the standard bearer for Nike Golf as that division

gains market share.

1996 Nike causes controversy with advertising campaign at the Summer Olympics in

Atlanta which features the slogan, “You Don’t Win Silver – You Lose Gold.” Nike’s use

of this slogan draws harsh criticism from many sources, including several former

Olympic silver and bronze medalists.

1996 Nike opens Niketown New York, its signature ‘flagship’ store located in midtown

Manhattan.

1998 Phil Knight formally commits Nike to strict standards for manufacturing facilities

used by Nike, including: minimum age; air quality; mandatory education programs;

expansion of micro loan program; factory monitoring; and enhanced transparency of

Nike’s corporate social responsibility practices.

1999 Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike, dies on Dec. 24 at age 88.

2000 Introduction of the Shox athletic shoe technology.

2002 Rap Star Nelly releases a chart topping song about Air Force Ones.

2003 Nike makes a successful bid to buy bankrupt rival Converse Shoes for $305 million.

2003 For the first time in the company’s history, international sales exceed USA sales, as

Nike continues to develop into a truly global company.

2003 Nike is named “Advertiser of the Year” by the Cannes Advertising Festival, the

first company to earn that honor twice (also 1994) in the festival’s 50-year history.

2003 High school basketball star LeBron James signs with Nike, while Syracuse

University star Carmelo Anthony signs with Jordan Brand. James and Anthony finish 1-

2, respectively, in rookie-of-the-year balloting.

2004 Phil Knight steps down as CEO and President of Nike, but continues as chairman.

Knight is replaced by William D. Perez as CEO of Nike, effective Dec. 28.

2004 Annual revenues exceed $13 billion.

2004 In June, Chinese animator Zhu Zhiqianq, of Xiao Xiao fame, files a lawsuit against

Nike for plagiarizing his cartoon stickmen in their commercials. Nike representatives

deny the accusations, claiming that the stickman figure lacks originality, and is public

domain. Zhu eventually wins the lawsuit, and Nike is sentenced to pay $36,000 to the

cartoonist.

2005 Nike launches the Air Jordan XX, the 20th edition of the iconic Air Jordan

basketball shoe series.

2005 Nike launches the Nike Considered line, an effort to reduce waste and introduce

eco-friendly products.

2005 Business Week Magazine features an article about the enduring popularity of the

Nike Air Force One

The Quick History of Nike, Nike Advertising and Nike Brands

Nike, the number one manufacturer of footwear and apparel, has become a household name on

the same level as mogul companies McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Budweiser. Nike was founded

in 1964 by track coach and runner duo Bill Bowerman and Phillip Knight as Blue Ribbons

Sports, later becoming Nike, Inc. in 1978. The name Nike was chosen in reference to the Greek

Goddess of victory.

Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the sportswear and equipment supplier made $16 billion in

revenue in 2007, up from 9.2 billion in 1997. Nike currently employs 30,000 people worldwide.

Nike sells products under Nike, Inc., Nike Golf, Nike+, Nike Pro, Nike SB (Skateboarding), Air

Jordan, and Team Starter, with subsidiaries Cole Haan, Umbro (since 2007), Converse, and

Hurley International. Nike has come a long way from when its founders used to sell the shoes out

of the trunk of their cars until the first Nike store was built in 1966. Now Nike products are sold

in numerous shoe and apparel stores worldwide as well as in specialty Niketown stores and

online at Nike.com.

Nike sells clothing and equipment for sports like Track and Field, Football, Baseball, Soccer,

Tennis, Cricket, Basketball, and Skateboarding. Nike has numerous websites dedicated to each

of their target audiences including Nikebasketball.com, Nikerunning.com and Nikefootball.com.

Nike didn’t run TV ads until 1982. Previously, Nike concentrated on sponsorships and celebrity

athletes’ endorsements – including both professional athletes and college teams.

The first professional athlete endorser was Ilie Natase – a Romanian tennis player. The first track

and field athlete to endorse the brand was Steve Prefontaine.

Nike has signed top athletes in the sports of Football, Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, Cycling,

Golf, Tennis, Skateboarding, Boxing, Track and Field and Formula 1 Racing. One of Nike’s best

PR decisions was signing Michael Jordan as a celebrity endorser in 1984.

Nike’s steady competition in the 1980s was Reebok. To break any similarities they had to

Reebok, Nike began promoting its shoes as fashion accessories. Reebok had cornered the

younger, aerobics audience, so Nike started concentrating their ads around the person wearing

the product rather than the product itself. In the 80s, Nike grew to hold 50% of the market share

in the athletic shoe market.

In 1988, Nike employees met with advertising agency Wieden and Kennedy (formed in 1982). In

the midst of the meeting, Dan Weiden turned to the Nike employees and said, “You Nike guys,

you just do it.” And so the infamous Just Do It tagline was born.

The original Just Do It campaign was aimed at Nike’s traditional target, 18-40 year old males, as

well as younger teens and females. The campaign reached consumers on a humorous level and

tapped into the fitness craze happening at the time. The ads worked to shame people into

exercising, and when exercising to wear Nike’s.

Through the celebrity endorsement of John McEnroe, Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan, the Just

Do It ads helped Nike be seen as a hip brand that people wanted to wear whether exercising or

not. The Just Do It campaign was chosen by the magazine Ad Age as one of the top five

advertising slogans of the 20th century.

Nike sponsors Hoop It Up, a program for high school basketball players, and The Golden West

Invitational, for high school track and field players. Nike also donates money to the Let Me Play

Fund – named after a 1995 Nike advertisement. The Fund issues grants for equipment and

uniforms.

Nike launched their skateboard collection, NikeSB, in 2002 in an attempt to gain market share in

the quickly growing skateboarding craze. Before Nike SB, skateboarders wore Nike basketball

sneakers because of their strong grips and ankle support, as well as their great comfort level.

Over the years, skateboarders have had fluctuating opinions of Nike – enjoying the brands’

quality products, but rejecting its commercial aspects. Nike’s two main competitors for

skateboard shoes are Vans and DC Shoes.

Occasionally the NikeSB shoes get ruined quickly if used for skateboarding – leading their users

to steer away from skating in the shoes and instead wear them for their collectible value. To keep

up its collectible aspect, Nike keeps down the numbers of its NikeSB’s produced and ships them

to shops with a $65 – $100.00 suggested retail price, although the shop owners often sell them

for much more.

In 2007, NikeSB released a Skateboarding video titled “Nothing But The Truth” starring Brian

Anderson, Wieger Van Wageningen, Paul Rodriguez Jr., Omar Salazar, Stefan Janoski, and

Aaron Gonzalez. NikeSB promotes their products in hip-magazine ads in skateboard magazines

like Transworld, Skateboarding Mag, Skateboarder, Thrasher, Slap, Big Brother.

In 2005, Nike released a series of ads aimed at women athletes. The sassy, humorous ads urged

women to celebrate their Thunder Thies and Big Butts. The strictly print campaign drove women

to the website NikeWomen.com. The campaign discussed 6 body parts and mirrored the Dove

Real Women campaign.

In 2006, Nike released the fourth pair of sneakers sponsored by LeBron James – Nike Air Zoom

LeBron IV. Not only was the shoe the single sponsor of an airing of ESPN Sports Center, there

were also 400,000 DVDs distributed that showed the making of the shoe and its unique ad

campaign.

There were many advertising outlets used for the fourth shoe in the series that were not used as

heavily in the first, second or third versions. These included ads on MTV.com and ESPN.com,

video clips on MTV2, TV commercials, print ads, and a “Retro-Chic,” neon billboard placed

near Madison Square Garden that showed LeBron dunking continuously.

Nike promoted NikeLab.com along with the release of the movie Transformers through a TV

commercial in which a large Nike shoe on a billboard transforms into a transformer.

Recently, after radio host Don Imus made his infamous comments on air, Nike created a spin-off

ad campaign defending women athletes. The campaign stars female athletes Serena Williams,

Gabby Reece and Picabo Street.

Nike recently teamed with Apple to create the Nike+ series which links the runner’s shoes to

their iPod Nano to monitor their performance.