The company grew rapidly and in 1966 the two founders opened their first store in California. In 1971, they were ready to launch their own brand of footwear featuring the logo ‘Swoosh’ designed by Carolyn Davidson, and the first shoes they sell are football boots called ‘Nike’ after the Greek goddess of victory. More shoe was launched with the name Nike in 1972 and sales increased so much that in 1978, the company officially changed its name to Nike, Inc.
Soon after, Nike began sponsoring professional athletes such as Ilie Nastase in a high profile marketing programs that help companies increase sales. 1974 is also an important year in that Nike released the Trainer ‘Waffle’, the first product designed by Bowerman. Waffle sole Bowerman is the result of experiments with different outsoles and how they gripped the track, and was originally discovered when he was pouring liquid urethane into the waffle maker.
It was not long before Nike has built a 50% share in U.S. athletic footwear market and in 1980, the company went public. However, their growth has been mainly down to the word mouth recommendations, so when they launched their first national TV advertising in 1982, sales increased more rapidly than before.
In fact, the advertising agency used by Nike for the first ad, Wieden + Kennedy, is still their primary agencies, and it is one of the founders of the agency, Dan Weiden, who created the globally recognized ‘Just Do It “Nike slogan named by Advertising Age as one of the 5 slogans of the 20th century.
The remainder of the 1980s and 1990s was spent expanding the company’s product line to include a large number of sports in countries around the world, and their current brands including Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Nike +, Air Jordan and Nike Skateboarding, among other subsidiaries like Cole Haan, Hurley International, Umbro, Converse.
Now in the 20th century, Nike employs over 30,000 people and continues to sponsor a large number of high profile athletes and teams – all who proudly wore a ‘Just Do It’ and trademark ‘Swoosh’.