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How Nike became one of the coolest and most valuable brands in the world
It's an indisputable fact that no brand has driven sneaker culture like Nike.
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It has connected running, hip hop, and streetwear, made athletes into legends, and helped change American attitudes on exercise.
Here's just a few of the ways Nike has defined "cool" in American culture since its founding more than 50 years ago.
Drake Baer contributed reporting to an earlier version of this article.
Steve Prefontaine, a 22-year-old known as "Pre," as he came to be known, was an elite runner.
He set his first national record at age 15 by running two miles in 8:41:5. He held an American record in every long-distance event, from 2,000 meters to 10,000 meters, before his tragic death in a car accident at 24 years old.
Pre signed his deal with Nike in 1974 for $5,000. The Nike brand was just three years old.
With his flowing hair, punk rock attitude, and unprecedented success, Pre helped brand Nike as swaggering, dominant, and committed to athletic excellence.
Nike cofounder Bill Bowerman was a track coach at the University of Oregon. He was instrumental in luring Pre to the University of Oregon and having him sign on to Nike.
Bowerman was a huge proponent of running recreationally, or, as it would become known, jogging. While it seems like running has always been popular, it didn't actually become a common pursuit until the running boom of the 1970s.
"Certainly running was already popular among kids and athletes in the 1970s, but it wasn't the social activity that we see it as today," says marketing analyst Garrett Moon. "The growing white-collar workforce helped pave the way for social activities that included the promotion of cardiovascular health. Once the trend was ingrained, the need shifted and the 'jogging shoes' themselves became the felt need."
Bowerman helped push running into the mainstream with "Jogging," a book he wrote with a medical doctor explaining the benefits of running recreationally. As a sportswear maker with a US market share of close to 50% in running shoes, Nike was able to benefit from this.
No one could have predicted what Michael Jordan's Nike endorsement would mean for the brand. The first shoe the two collaborated on, the Air Jordan, was released in September 1985.
The shoes were famously "banned" from the court by the NBA in October 1985, as they didn't fit the required color scheme. The league fined Jordan $5,000 each time he wore the sneakers during a game, and Nike gladly covered the expenses.
Nike created a TV commercial with this fact, giving the shoes an infamously cool vibe. The attention gained from the incident helped the shoe become a runaway success.
The Air Jordan brand later became its own sub-brand of Nike. It developed a cult following, with sneaker fans lining up for every new limited release.
Nike has the Wieden and Kennedy advertising agency to thank for its iconic ads.
In the late 1980s, Wieden and Kennedy paired Jordan with Spike Lee, who played his hyperactive Mars Blackmon character in a series of commercial spots over four years.
According to former Wieden and Kennedy creative director Jim Riswold, it was the first time a Nike commercial featured something other than a sweating athlete pursuing greatness. Instead, it was goofy.
"That they were the first time [Nike] showed a human side of the athlete, and used humor, and had some fun with popular culture," Riswold said in a blog post. "I think that opened up the access point for Nike to not just necessarily be for serious athletes, but for anybody, for fans, because there's no bigger fan than Mars Blackmon."
By the 1990s, Nike had cemented its status as the biggest sportswear maker in the US. It was so popular, its market share reached 47.5% in 1997. Nearly one out of every two sneakers sold were made by Nike.
Riding off a wave of signing additional endorsement deals with top athletes after Jordan, it became cool and trendy to wear the company's sneakers and apparel.
In 2002, Nelly's "Air Force Ones" made it to number 3 on the Billboard charts.
Named for the Air Force One shoe Nike first released back in 1982, it's a song about buying a couple pairs of sneakers.
This would begin a rich history of mentions of Nike and its Jordan brand in rap and hip hop music, continuing to recent years with Drake and Future's "Jumpman" and Frank Ocean's "Nikes."
In 2007, Nike started its collaboration with rap and hip hop icon Kanye West. This marked the first time Nike allowed a full collaboration with a celebrity who was not an athlete.
West's star power, along with the unique designs of the Air Yeezy I and II, made the shoes sell out instantly upon release.
In 2016, Nike dropped a self-lacing sneaker called the HyperAdapt 1.0, a major technological advancement.
It's the first release with Nike's new adaptive lacing technology, first predicted in a shoe dubbed the Nike Mag in "Back to the Future II."
With science fiction as its guide, Nike set out to create a real-life shoe that worked similarly, where you can just slip your foot in your shoe, and it tightens automatically — no need to lace it.
The shoe was released to high demand, despite their $720 price tag.
Nike has capitalized on its cool reputation by steadily moving upmarket and into new categories. Many of those are akin to the athleisure trend, which dominates casual wear in North America.
In addition to Nike's classic sports apparel, they also make and sell a premium sports brand, Nike Sportswear, and a premium, experimental streetwear brand, Nike Lab.
Nike and NikeLab also frequently collaborate with some of the most sought-after brands by tastemakers, like Supreme, APC, and Comme des Garçons.
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