Originally, Nike was known as Blue Ribbon Sports and acted as a means to distribute shoes by the Japanese shoe maker, Asics. It’s highly unlikely that Nikes founding fathers, Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman thought that they would make a sport clothing company as successful as Nike but over the years the company has solidified its place as number one in terms of urban style and street culture.
Phil Knight was a track athlete at the University of Oregon and Bill Bowerman was his coach, so Nike has always been heavily involved in sport but it’s safe to say that their effect on women’s and men’s clothing has at least matched what it has in sport. Right from the beginning when Bowerman started making shoes by using a waffle iron for the tread, Nike was destined to change how both sport and streetwear looked.
Strong link: Nike and men’s clothing
Men’s clothing has been inextricably linked to Nike since its inception. The first ever track shoe by Nike, the Cortez, mixed the growing men’s clothing industry with the booming sport industry and began a hybrid of sport and fashion that still goes strong today. Nike has called upon basketball greats like Michael Jordan to partner up to sell Nike men’s clothing, but they have also penetrated football, golf, boxing and a whole list of other sports.
