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Why Is Nike So Popular?

The Marketing Strategy That Got Nike to Become Kings of the Sports Apparel Industry

Evans Okoro
ILLUMINATION
Published in
10 min readAug 26, 2023

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Everyone owns at least one Nike product. Even if you don’t own one directly, someone in your circle owns one. They’re a household name and have built a massive fanbase around their brand.

In this article, we’ll walk you through Nike’s history, what they did right (marketing-wise) to become so popular, and how you can mirror these practices into your business.

History of Nike

Nike started as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964, originally a company that sold Japanese-manufactured shoes, Onitsuka Tiger.

Bill Bowerman’s dissatisfaction with the clumsiness of American running shoes spurred him to design a lighter and more comfortable running shoe.

Together they redesigned these Japanese Shoes, and after a fallout with their Japanese Suppliers, they decided to start Nike and opened a shop in 1971. The name derived from the Greek Goddess of Victory, known as the Winged Goddess, which inspired Nike’s swoosh — a wing.

Selling Shoes Under the Name, Blue Ribbon Sports

After Phil agreed to sell shoes for Onitsuka, who wanted to enter the U.S. market, he ordered 12…

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ILLUMINATION
ILLUMINATION

Published in ILLUMINATION

We curate and disseminate outstanding articles from diverse domains and disciplines to create fusion and synergy.

Evans Okoro
Evans Okoro

Written by Evans Okoro

Creating solutions to the things I struggled with - linktr.ee/tochukwuokoro

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