Knight also understood that this lust for heroes and appreciation for in-your-face attitude is not limited to American youth. The Nike swoosh is so ubiquitous that the name Nike is often omitted altogether. A small smile flits across his face, but he quickly checks it. Johnson's encyclopedic knowledge of the sport, however, convinced Wheating to do it. More on government spending, the modern economics profession has taken the absurd belief that government spending drives prosperity in a rather horrifying direction. But fledgling Boston-based Reebok high-stepped right in, creating a somewhat flimsy, but attractive shoe that women bought like tickets to a Meryl Streep movie. Despite the arguments of Johnsons father, Phil holds steady he would give Johnson a $50 raise, and that was it. One week went by before Johnson heard from anyone. Run 50 meters three times. So he pushed himself hard. "Other than that, I'm all of those things--most of those adjectives are right some of the time," he says. "If you want to spend time saying this is cool, you're going to get your ass kicked.". Knights story is unputdownable as both autobiography and business book, and then as an economics book, it is endlessly great. Nike also owns the Converse and Jordan brands. The company made a quantum leap in 1984 when it signed the 21-year old Jordan to endorse a basketball sneaker. Jeff Johnson, employee number one of Nike, and fellow Stanford runner whom Phil hired as he hasn't met anyone with his passion for running, suggested calling the firm "Nike," named after the Greek winged goddess of victory. Knights book is 383 endlessly interesting pages, but without a hint of hyperbole, he should expand his memoirs whereby he would apply his business experiences to taxes, regulation, trade and monetary policy. Contrary to what its enablers in the policy commentariat believe, government exists at the expense of work opportunity and rising wages. Just the other day a rather large woman in her 20s tackling the first run of her life easily swept past him on the riverside trail near his house, he laments. Enough already.". Late at night, he leans back in his office chair and gazes out the window. President Trump and many on his economic team regularly tell us that the China, Japan, Mexico and other foreign countries are beating us to a pulp. Funny is this ridiculous theory. From an economics standpoint, Knights recollection of nearly always being in debt for the first 18 years of the companys existence, of always fearing the one incorrect move that would bankrupt Nike, is instructive on its own. Nike is certainly not the first or only corporation to wield considerable influence in the sports world, but it is the most brazen and visible. JEFF BEZOS NET WORTH: $113 BILLION SOURCE OF WEALTH: AMAZON . He currently resides in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England, UK. When asked a potentially revealing question ("Have you deliberately cultivated an image for yourself, the way Nike has for its clients?") Following the end of his active duty, Knight enrolled at Standard Graduate School of Business, graduating in 1962 with a master's degree in business administration. But first, he traveled to Japan, where he became enamored of Japanese culture and business practices. He made running look hard. He hasn't seen her since. ", But it's more than that. Knight developed a blueprint for superior athletic shoes, produced inexpensively in Japan, where labor was cheaper. It owns a movie studio, theatres and a marketing company. ", Others are just uneasy with Nike's particular brand of advertising. This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "Shoe Dog" by Phil Knight. Simply put, government spending and taxation shrinks the amount of liquidity otherwise available to the companies of tomorrow. ". As Knight puts it, International trade always, always benefits both trading nations. It cant be repeated enough what a valuable book Shoe Dog would be for every teacher, economist, and politician in the U.S., and around the world. That's as far as he'll go. The company paid $35 to commission a new logo--a fat checkmark dubbed a "swoosh"--and the new shoe debuted at the 1972 Olympic trials in Eugene, Ore. Nike sold $3.2 million worth of shoes in 1972, and its profits doubled each of the next 10 years. "He showed me several walking drills that help strengthen the smaller stabilizing muscles around your calves that I frequently do today, although I get a lot of odd looks walking pigeon-toed with my heels high off the ground," Wheating says. You could walk in off the street and be inspired by this guy," Johnson says. He reads broadly, covering a wide range of subjects including finance, management, health, and society. Family, Spouse, Dating, and Relationships of Jeff Johnson He married his wife Jacqueline in 2012. . In Palo Alto, Johnson met Phil Knight, who of course went on to become the founder and CEO of Nike. If you are a fan of Jeff Johnson, tell us more about Him Advertisement. Phil Knight controls 24 percent of the world's largest athletic shoe and sports apparel company, Nike. 1. 1 in our industry, we've had to modify our culture and become a bit more planned.". It was Johnson (described as "Employee Number One") who suggested the name Nike - the Greek goddess of victory. His death was confirmed by TMZ on 22nd November 2021. Getting right to the point, governments can only tax and spend insofar as companies and individual investors have less money to spend on existing wages, along with expansion. Nike's analog isn't the conservative team owner, but the cocky superstar who sets the agenda and is so wildly popular he knows he can get away with just about anything. Jeff Johnson Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2022-2023. And Knight took leave of our interview by forming a steeple with his hands and bowing. Nike passed Adidas to become the industry leader in the United States in 1980, the year it went public. Phil Knight earned his net worth as the founder and largest individual shareholder of Nike Inc. Philip Hampson Knight was born in Portland, Oregon, on February 24, 1938. It wasn't the first time Johnson and Lananna collaborated. Employee No. Jeff Johnson does leave for the East Coast, but not without a fight. Neither Phil nor Bowerman, the only owners of Blue Ribbon, want to give up their equity. Unlike most people who take up running to accomplish a goal, lose weight or join a team, Johnson's initial inspiration was survival. It met with a lukewarm Buttface reception. The elite runners loved those shoes.". Stanford, CA 94305-6105 It leaves plenty of time to get to know this deep thinker who's contributed much to the distance running culture in America. Much has been made of Knight's meditative, almost dreamy mien and his affinity for all things Asian, especially Japanese. Blue Ribbon moves out of Phils apartment and into its first real office. "Phil is always thinking ahead," says Nelson Farris, Nike's director of corporate education and a Knight confidante for 23 years. "What else you got?" Why did Knight succeed? Knight, 58, still has the lean, almost gaunt build of a runner. On Tuesday night, May 3, 2004, "The Sopranos" had just ended when Johnson, then 62, felt like he'd been hit by lightning. He correctly predicted that American culture was a marketable commodity--that teenagers from Paris to Shanghai would be just as taken with Charles Barkley's ample attitude as teenagers in Trenton and San Diego. As Knight recalls about the employees of a much younger Nike, Each of us had been misunderstood, misjudged, dismissed. Precisely because theyre doing things differently, few take them seriously. Johnson launched the company's East Coast factory in Exeter, N.H., and developed the first line of running shoes. This article will clarify Jeff Johnson's Twitter, Linkedin, Obituary, Nike Net Worth, lesser-known facts, and other information. ", An adoring sports media lapped up the young man's winning soundbite. Traveling north over the dry flatlands of western Idaho and into Oregon, Johnson decides to pack it in for the night in Ontario, a speck-of-dust town right off the interstate. It officially became Nike Inc. in 1971.. [1] As of February 15, 2023, Knight was ranked by Forbes as the 17th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$41.5 billion. In 1965, Nike founder Phil Knight hires his first full-time employee, a fellow Stanford runner named Jeff Johnson who will sell shoes in Los Angeles. From studying war heroes and generals, he holds a virtue: Dont tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.. They aren't directly about running, but their messages apply to running. In reality, the weight of time now makes three miles feel like a marathon. Year-old messages later retrieved on it confirm that to be true. In addition to his work at Nike, Knight also had a hand in the success of the animation studio Laika. These towering shrines look about as much like a typical shoe store as Dennis Rodman looks like a typical human. That same wrestling coach from 1964 who was supposed to stick to wrestling shoes. This would doubtless offend Trump, Peter Navarro and other economic illiterates within the Trump administration, but Knight helpfully adds that China is our [Nike's] second largest market.. As of 2022, Jeff Johnson's net worth is $100,000 - $1M. What stories of entrepreneurs almost invariably tell us is that these outsiders were and are discriminated against, almost as a rule. Then Jeff Johnson, '63, a fellow running geek, proposed a name that came to him in a dream: Nike, for the Greek winged goddess of victory. Instead, he opts for core exercises in his hotel room. This is important because Knight plainly spent a lot of the companys limited funds traveling on the other side of the world in search of factories capable of making his shoes. Known as "Buck," Knight had more enthusiasm than talent, which made him the ideal human guinea pig for legendary track coach Bill Bowerman's endless tinkering with running shoes. The company was renamed Nike, after the Greek winged goddess of victory, at the suggestion of their first employee, Jeff Johnson. A road trip with Jeff Johnson, Nike's original wage-earner, unveils a treasure of running history. If one of those athletes weren't Michael Jordan, consumers worldwide might still be pronouncing Nike like Mike. Johnson was also tasked with bringing the brand east. The discrimination fuels them. Reebok's sales surpassed Nike's in 1987. He had read an in-flight magazine article about the great brand names that become household terms, such as Kleenex and Xerox. Phil and Penny, have been long time contributors and supporters for the University of Oregon athletic fund and have been honored by many times over by the school. Blue Ribbon Sports cleared $3,240 in its first year, 1964. Nike was perceived as demanding that its athletes put shoe company before country. Absent a globalized supply chain, Nike once again isnt Nike. But he persevered, convinced that his inexpensive, high-performance shoes could beat the top "sneakers"--Adidas, Converse All-Stars and Keds--in the market. Johnson is in the process of digitizing them. Knight has been portrayed as mysterious, inscrutable, eccentric, unpredictable, enigmatic, idiosyncratic, shy, aloof, reclusive, competitive and a genius. "Where should I sit?" He is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc., and was previously chairman and CEO of the company. ", He spent the next 40 days in the hospital and credits his recovery to his life as a runner. Over the next four decades, Knight grew Nike from a tiny upstart shoe company, into one of the largest and most famous brands of all time. The following year he transferred to Stanford University on a whim. For a time, Nike became a lightning rod for all sorts of criticism. This is the story of Jeff Johnson and Nike, from Phil Knights book Shoe Dog. Nike aggressively signed NBA players. Knight took on a 15 percent stake in the company in 1998, and his son Travis joined the company as an animator. In 1971, Knight decided he could retire his accountant's wing tips. Award-winning journalist and communications specialist known best for his social and political commentary on BET, MSNBC, and syndicated radio. Jeff Johnson - Sr. Director Product Development & Planning - Global Michael Jordan Has Made Over $1 Billion From Nike - Forbes Jeff Johnson Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family We can handle this. He currently resides in Illinois, United States. Jeff Johnson looks torn, but he doesnt want to quit. Nike's seductive marketing focuses squarely on a charismatic athlete or image, rarely even mentioning or showing the shoes. ", Some consider Nike--with its swoosh popping up on uniforms, on the lapels of college basketball coaches, even as bus-size renderings on walls of stadiums--responsible for the over-commercialization of sports. "The market is saturated to the point where it can be sickening. Flashing a teeth-baring grin, the white-haired Johnson still dons the Swoosh from head (his sunglasses) to toe (his beloved Nike Free 3.0s, which are no longer made, but as luck would have it, he found along the way at a factory outlet store in Iowa). Notable here is that Knights early days as a shoe dog were spent in Japan, the manufacturing locale for his shoes. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Jeff Johnson and Nike: A Key Early Employee. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. somebody asked. (Two rooms of his five-bedroom house, where he lives by himself, are dedicated to his library.)