Shoe Dog

The memoir offers an incredible, behind-the-scenes look at the creation and growth of Nike, one of the most iconic brands in the world. Phil Knight recounts his personal and professional journey from the early days of selling shoes out of the trunk of his car to building a global empire. His storytelling is engaging, and the book provides fascinating insights into the challenges, risks, and lessons learned along the way. What I found particularly compelling was Knight’s honesty about the struggles and setbacks he faced in building Nike. It’s a candid and inspiring account of perseverance, vision, and the drive to succeed against all odds. Shoe Dog is a must-read for entrepreneurs, business enthusiasts, or anyone interested in the story behind one of the most successful brands in history.

Phenomenal book about the importance of having a passion and chasing it. Phil Knight is passionate and he is authentic. His authenticity comes through in, “Shoe Dog,” as he candidly tells of the incredible story of building upon his passion for running by starting a shoe company and building it into something bigger than anyone imagined. The book is candid telling the good and bad in Knight’s professional and personal life from his school days, to starting a business and eventually bringing it public in the early 1980s. It is an entertaining story that goes much deeper than simply being CEO of Nike. Knight’s story is inspiring and fascinating. It is a must read for any entrepreneur.

This book gives a new appreciation for the brand reading about its roots. Well written, enjoyable to read. Phil Knight was unknowingly brilliant building his brand, icon.

Nike is one of the iconic American brands known around the world. It’s up there, if not above, brands like Levi’s, Harley-Davidson, and even Apple. It’s story, especially the early days, was one that should teach lessons to anyone starting or running a company which is why Nike’s founder, Chairman and former CEO Phil Knight wrote the book ‘Shoe Dog’ in the first place. Whether you like Nike or not, you have to respect the business that Knight and a handful of others have been able to build. It’s important to note that this is a book about the early days of Nike. While Knight does touch on some of the athletes and crisis in later years, this book is predominantly about the early days before Nike even existed. Knight is very candid about the existential crisis that he and the rest of the Nike team went through seemingly on a yearly basis. It reads at times as a classic example of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. Borrowing here to pay someone there. Going from this bank to that bank and at one point even lobbying Oregon senators for help. Knight has several pieces of advice sprinkled throughout the book too. From management (‘Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results’) to entrepreneurship (‘The cowards never started and the weak died along the way’) to life in general (‘Life is growth. Your grow or you die’). It’s ironic that one of the best business books of 2016 is a tale of globalization. The idea of globalization is currently under attack as nationalist views move into the great halls of power in the West. It would be naive to not know the story of Nike though. It’s a story of innovation, perseverance, negotiation, execution and passion. Things that should be taught at every college and high school in the West. It’s a solid read and probably a required one. It’s not often that people of Knight’s level offer up such candid insight into the begins of a global brand. With all that’s going on politically and economically, it’s a story worth knowing.

One can’t argue with success and I can’t think of a more successful person than Phil Knight. His autobiography, “Shoe Dog,” reveals secrets of his accomplishments in the development of his mega firm, Nike. I know Phil Knight’s secret of success. He uses people. He captures them with his acuity at perceiving dedication and a sense of responsibly. Then he ignores them as they attend to their job. If they stumble, despite his abhorrence of micromanaging, he demonstrates strong guidance because poor performance invariably brings a personal visit from him. He also has an aversion to most standard business practices. He makes bankers nervous with his edge of the chasm financial condition. He will saw the legs off a perceived competitor. He is unfazed by seeking money from any source that might have it. He gets in the face of employees, suppliers, sales reps, or anyone else who lets him down. In short, he knows which pile of crap that, when stirred, brings the sweet smell of success. If you think I’m being critical of Knight or his methods, you are wrong. I believe that he is incredibly intelligent, moral, and astute in his business practices. The people who may have been used should have no complaints. They have become immensely successful and prosperous as Nike has become the bellwether for success under Knight’s leadership. There are many milestones in Knight’s book. The Japanese company that originally produced his Blue Ribbon shoes gets its comeuppance for poor performance; Knight gets new, more innovative financing. The first shipment of Nike shoes, manufactured in Mexico, arrive just in time for a big show but have a crappy finish and crooked swooshes; he makes do. Bill Bowerman’s innovative waffle sole, described in Patent #284,736 as “having integral polygon shaped studs…of square, rectangular or triple cross section…[and] a plurality of flat sides which…give greatly improved traction,” provide a great boon for the fledgling company. The signing of Nike’s first professional sports star, tennis player Ilie Nastase, is the start of lucrative endorsements by universally recognized athletes. These are a few examples of the hurdles Knight sails over. He writes about his voyage with clarity, using marvelous language, as he recounts riveting personal triumphs (along with some flops). His steely-eyed pursuit of his goals is truly inspirational. I learned a great deal about him, including his respect and inspirational relationship with his father. It’s apparent that this love has much to do with his successful life’s story. It carries over to the essence and success of his team. “Shoe Dog” is an entrancing read from an icon in the business world. Yet it’s not another self-indulgent recital of personal greatness and achievement. It’s immensely personable and readable, allowing the essence of the man to shine through. It’s inspiring. Schuyler T Wallace Author of TIN LIZARD TALES

Wow. I loved this book. Having worked with Nike on a few jobs, I had a lot of gaps of its history. This book isn't so much about shoes as it is about the epic journey of entrepreneurship, friendship, and self-discovery. Knight writes with such honesty and humility at times, it's hard to believe that this is the man worth billions that created the most iconic sports apparel brand in the world. What I like most is Knight's mindset. He had determination and fire in his belly. His belief in his brand was relentless despite some major setbacks. And in this book, he talks about a lot of them. The only part that got sluggish for me was the end with all the US government negotiations stuff. Other than that, it was a very interesting read. It's a bonus that it was written from an Oregonian because I'm a Native Oregonian--and never have I been so proud to be one. His talk about the Men of Oregon echoes the kind of things pioneers and founding fathers sound like. You can tell that Knight wanted to leave a legacy in he could be proud. He was grateful for his roots. They way Knight talks about Steve Prefontaine is so endearing. It was interesting to hear an insider's version of this amazing track athlete. In fact, because I knew so little about Pre, I started to feel like a bad Oregonian (in my defense, he did die before I was born). Now I know why everything that Nike stands for can be traced in the spirit of Pre. He was a charismatic rebel with a cause. (If you go to the Nike HQ museum, they still loop his Olympic run on an old television.) Through it all, you get a sense of what loyalty and friendship meant to Knight: it's literally the glue that held his business together. Since I'm friends with many Nike directors and executives, it's clear now why most of them have worked there for over thirty years (I think their campus badges are black). That's practically unheard of. I'm biased because I've done work with Nike and grew up in Portland. But I'm unbiased in that I'm a loyal fan of Asics running shoes. Ironically, that's how Knight built his empire so I don't feel all that bad. Still, I do have lots of Nike gear and now I look at it a whole lot differently. The swoosh is much brighter than before. Part of my neutrality with Nike was all the talk about the sweat shops in the late 1990's. Knight clearly gives his two cents on that towards the end of the book which still leaves room to interpret the whole issue. But now I see both sides of the coin. Since they changed their tune, put more money into philanthropies (hundreds of millions), and are the model for corporate sustainable development, ultimately I think they're a good force in the universe. Reading this book I soon realized that no matter what Knight was talking about--Nike's flaws or Nike's triumphs--he was a great storyteller. Just as he mentions embedding his sons into historical events in their nightly bedtime story, Knight mindfully embeds the reader into the history of Oregon, America, and the shoe industry. Somehow he made it all sound exciting. I was worried that the book would not be complete. It doesn't have a table of contents so until you get it, you don't know that it's the history of Nike from 1962-1980. Each year is a chapter, and then he sums up the last twenty years of Nike in a chapter at the end. But it all makes sense: Knight ends the book in the year he took his company public. I'm sure he had more adventures to tell, but he got out the main story of all of his hard-fought battles with competitors, athletes, governments, and ultimately himself. Since I've been to the HQ (which employees call the campus), I know there are dozens of more stories. They're all bigger than life. Each building has a history of its own and every time I'm out there, they're building another cluster of buildings. (I was told they stopped naming buildings after people who are alive because of the Lance Armstrong debacle.) Pretty soon they'll buy the whole town of Beaverton and just call it Nike Town. There are stories like Tiger Woods breaking a glass window that houses the lap pool--an entire football field away. That's what you get with Nike: incredible story after incredible story. Guess what the call the marketing department? Nike Story. It makes perfect sense. It's where they articulate the soul of Nike to the world. If there ever was a company with soul, Nike is it. (No pun intended: sole/soul.) This book really captures the amazing story of a businessman and his vision. Anyone interested in entrepreneurship, teamwork, leadership, track, shoes, or Oregon should pick it up for sure. You won't regret it!

It may seem surprising that a review of a “sports book” would appear on my site, where book reviews are essentially reserved for the domain of politics and economics. But that surprise would stem from a gigantic misunderstanding, for Shoedog is no “sports book.” Rather, it is a virtual economics textbook. And one every business student in America should read. Indeed, it is one a certain White House occupant should read as well. For those interested in sports, as I am, history, as I am, and business, as I am, this book was a tremendous synthesis of the three, in the particular context of describing the birth of one of the greatest brands in American history – indeed, in world history … I doubt the story of a company’s founding and rise to greatness has ever ended a couple decades before the company’s peak, but that is the genius of Shoedog. Nike founder, Phil Knight, begins the story of this iconic brand at the most embryonic of stages, and ends the story in 1980, at their public offering, despite two and a half decades of utter domination that commenced subsequently. The story of Nike to us mere mortals is Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, and “Just Do It.” But as readers of this fine book will discover, the real story of Nike took place in the late 1960’s and throughout the 1970’s, as the formative challenges that make a business took place. And if any company would become rightful heir to “Just Do It” — it was Nike. Nike has employed hundreds of thousands of people over the decades, and has created untold amounts of wealth by giving consumers something they wanted: Initially, a high quality running shoe; eventually, a brand — a belief — an affiliation. But the genius of finding future basketball, track, and golf stars to endorse the brand was a small part of the story of this company’s ascension. The genius that created Nike is the genius of this book: It focused on personnel management, on global cost synergies, on harnessing an international supply chain the likes of which the world had never seen, on overcoming legal adversity, and above all else, managing the challenges of liquidity and capital that nearly any company faces in the early innings of their existence. This is an economics book. It is a tribute to the miracle of free trade which has created more wealth than any other phenomena in the history of civilization. It is a rebuke of the evils of crony capitalism and those rent-seeking piranhas who would attempt to use government alliances to strangle healthy competition. We are living in an era when forces on the right and the left are capitulating to a childish view of globalization — one seeking to make it a bogeyman for anything and everything — and ignoring the absolutely indisputable evidence for the enhancement of quality of life globalization has created. Few companies better illustrate what matching willing buyers and sellers around the world can mean for consumers, for producers, for shareholders, for employees, and for indeed all stakeholders in a given organization than Nike. While countless others do, for it is a universal lesson, Nike is the story of a young man and his track coach creating $100 billion of wealth that has circulated across a vast, vast ecosystem, by understanding the miracles of global trade. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough for one looking for a biographical narrative version of an economics lesson, versus the academic attempts that often prove too dry. The story of Shoedog was anything but dry, and the message of Shoedog is anything but trite.

An inspiring never say quit book about Phil Knight’s thought, creation and building of Nike into a global sporting power! A great read for any entrepreneur/business person looking to start a business/run a business and the dedication to your dreams that is needed to succeed.