Nike – a company founded by runners
In 1971, internationally renowned athletics coach Bill Bowerman stared into his breakfast waffles and saw a better way to make running shoes. As he poured rubber into his wife’s waffle iron he started the running revolution. What drove him to ingenuity was to give his runners an edge.
Bowerman once determined that every ounce shaved off a miler’s shoe was 200 fewer pounds lifted in a race. With that in mind, he began creating special shoes for his athletes. In 1964, he teamed up with former Oregon student and runner Phil Knight, to form Blue Ribbon Sports, the forerunner of Nike, Inc. Bowerman’s innovative designs and Knight’s business acumen were the perfect fit.
By 1970 Knight and Bowerman became full time and with the help of their first employee, Jeff Johnson, Nike was born. Their innovative thinking and dedication to running is as true now as ever and Nike have had many highlights over the years, not least selling over a million pair of the runners favourite the Air Pegasus. Nike shoes have set countless world records, including the Air Streak Spectrum Plus worn by Paula Radcliffe in the London Marathon 2003.
There is no finish line and Nike continues to innovate by meeting the needs of runners and striving to help them perform to the best of their ability.
Nike and parkrun
Bill Bowerman believed that ‘if you have a body you are an athlete’. Nike still live by this philosophy today and are focused on encouraging and inspiring all levels of running participation. It is for this reason that Nike work with parkrun to develop and expand grass roots running across the UK.