In 1961 Phil Knight, a graduate of the University of Oregon and a former competitive runner, made a deal with a Japanese shoe company called Tiger to import their shoes to the United States. When asked what company he represented, Knight, off the top of his head, replied “Blue Ribbon Sports”

(Becklund, 1994). At the time Germany was dominating the athletic footwear market. Knight had an idea to sale the high quality shoes at low prices in the United States in an attempt to end Germany’s dominance. He began selling the shoes out of the trunk of his car. His first year’s sales reached $8000. However, he only made a $250

Nike’s spending on ads also exceeds that of its components. In 1995 Nike spent $250 million, while Reebok spent $100 (“Nike Brand Marketing,”n.d.). Nike’s extra spending allows them to do more to boost their advertisements. Nike’s Web sites have a strong graphic distinctiveness. For instance, Nike enhanced its online campaign by running short video and sound ads, known as rich media. These ads were part of an integrated campaign that tied together Nike's offline and online ad efforts. The video and sound clips were intended to stimulate Web surfers' interest and drive them to Nike's site. Nike’s main target market has been athletes and young people since it started. Since this is broad market, Nike must present itself to many audiences. Most companies create products around the market, but Nike creates the products then responds to the market that surfaces. Each Nike product has a group in mind. For this reason, Nike created “micro sites” for different sports and countries. Each site goes after its target group (Bowman, 2002). There’s NikeGolf.com, NikeBasketball.com, and NikeGodess.com among others. Nike’s main site is not without it’s extras. The site permits visitors to create their own shoe and purchase it. Though Nike has been criticized for its spending, it is likely that Nike would remain the leader even if they cut back on ad spending (“Nike Brand Marketing,” n.d).

Today, Nike is number one athletic wear company in the United States and all over the World. It has around 109 apparel factories and twelve equipment factories. Nike has three distribution centers in the United States. Two of the centers are in Memphis, Tennessee and the other is in Wilsonville, Oregon. Nike also operates over two hundreds facilities in the United States including NikeTowns, Nike Factory stores, sales and administration offices, and a sixteen building company headquarters in Oregon (CO/nike.com). Nike sells its products to approximately 18,000 retail accounts in the United States and through a mix of independent distributors, licensees and subsidiaries in about 140 countries worldwide. Independent contractors manufacture most of its products. Almost all of its footwear products are produced outside the United States, while apparel products are produced both in the United States and abroad (CO/nike.com).

Nike has a long list of competitors in the footwear market that include Converse, Puma, Fila, New Balance, and K-Swiss. Also because of Nike’s diverse products offering, it also have competitors in the athletic apparel and sports equipment like Rawlings, Timberland, Polo, Spalding, FUBU, and Tommy Hilfiger. However Nike’s biggest competitor is Reebok. Reebok, named for an African gazelle was started in 1958. Within the next two decade after the company was started it began to flourish. In 1982 Reebok introduced the first athletic shoe made just for women. It was for the new exercise craze called aerobics. The shoe was called the Freestyle. The shoe is now a Reebok Classic and is Reebok’s best selling shoe of all time (Company History/reebok.com). Back then Reebok was running neck and neck with Nike. Today, Nike leaves Reebok in its dust. Reebok has tried and tried to take Nike’s position. Since the late eighties Reebok’s plan was to become number one by the year 1995. They failed. That year Reebok earned $2.8 billion in sales, while Nike earned 3.87 billion. Adidas was a close third with $2.13 billion (“Nike Brand Marketing,“n.d.). Nike continues to gross more than it’s competitors. But because of Nike higher prices the competition attempts to take over by entering the market with lower priced shoes. Nike shoes range from prices approximating $50 to well over $100 per pair. Nike even unveiled a $200 pair of Air Jordans in February of 2002. They are the 17th edition of Air Jordans. Each pair comes in its own shimmering, silvery, metallic briefcase rather

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