The insight that came to encompass Nike in its entirety, was grounded in centerpiece of sports within American culture. It was the insight that helped Nike create a strategy from which came great slogans like “Just Do It”, and “Believe in Something”. It also led to a campaign called “Unlimited” which encouraged people of all abilities and in tandem with a film called “Unlimited You” that featured well known people who had achieved great things along with who Nike considered the real stars – regular men, women, and children.
Nike’s brilliant two-pronged move fit hand in glove with a new version of f American culture. Nike inspired and re-affirmed the belief that no matter who you were or what race you were from, women, men , and children through dedication and hard work could achieve anything. It was an American dream that now included everyone. To underscore that point, Nike signed up the greatest athletes that included women, different ethnicities, and multiple types of sports to reflect that belief.
The Mysterious Alchemy of Nike’s Success
Still, no one has really been able to explain how Nike grew to a level of success beyond imagination. Like Bowerman and his running shoes, we’ve tried countless times deconstruct and reconstruct Nike to figure out how it was made. All we know it wasn’t just one thing. Nike was an undefinable combination of many things. Much in the same way, culture can’t be deconstructed and reconstructed because it is always in the process of changing and redefining itself along the way. It wasn’t that Nike had become a part of American culture. Nike instead melded with and mirrored American culture as it went through its changes. Nike’s founders Knight and Bowerman, were themselves an offspring of American culture and expressed through their running shoes the same American values found culture of sports, which in their case was running. That could explain how Nike was able to expand to cover all sports through which they the were able to eventually root themselves into an entire nation. Because of Nikes relationship with American culture, they were a mirror of America’s self-identify that was reflected back to itself. In turn, that had an influence on American culture that was then was reflected back to Nike. The company, informed by the changes they saw in that reflection, incorporated it into new shoe designs which, of course, mirrored American culture to itself. . And so it goes. It’s like changing the wheels on a moving car. One could say that Nike and American culture have a symbiotic relationship. If that’s the case, Nike’s mysterious alchemy that transformed Nike into a legend will forever im a mystery.
Obviously, Nike’s intertwined relationship with culture can’t take all the credit for the company’s success. There were other important factors such as the role Japan played in the early days, Nike’s business management and operations, its financial management, logistics, a large, strong, and committed work force, etc. Without those there would be no Nike. That said, Nike’s involvement and insight into America’s ever-evolving cultural and subcultural mindset combined with Nike’s timeless mantra, certainly made a significant contribution to Nike’s success. One can make the argument that it was the fuel for Nike to become the $192 billion-dollar megalithic company of today. Not bad for a couple of crazy founders in Oregon, that started out with only $300, and sold running shoes out of the trunk of a car.