I was raised within the 1950’s playing basketball hour after hour on city playgrounds.
The general public courts of the day were nothing like those found today in many American towns. There were no lights, a steel, kidney-shaped backboard (ugh!) with bent rims, occasionally a steel chain net and no lines painted to correctly delineate the free throw line and from bounds. The top was often rough and cracked. You’d to know where the ball would give a true bounce where you can come unglued due to the uneven surface.
But we played on for endless hours in all weather. The worst nights were when there wasn’t any moon to play by. We’d to quit play in early stages those nights. Every Christmas I’d get a new Voit basketball underneath the tree. It had been a glorious site, sparkling, hard, looking as being a ball you’d see the pros play with on tv. I could not wait to obtain the presents unwrapped, finish the endless holiday breakfast, reach Mass and, then, finally, get my new Voit to the courts.
The only other sporting good product that came remotely near to the joy of seeing my new ball every year was when I purchased a new set of Chuck Taylor Converse All Star shoes. In that day, Chuck’s as they were universally called, were the defacto standard of sports shoe. You can buy white or black Chuck’s. There were cheaper knock-off brands of athletic shoes, but though i was poor, no kid within our neighborhood would hit the court in not a pair of Chuck’s.
Chuck Taylor Converse All Star’s were a pretty basic affair. These shoes were built with a cloth, flexible, soft upper construction. Top of the was glued to some layered rubberized sole. There was a legendary round logo glued facing outward from the shoes letting everyone be assured that these were real Chuck’s. The designer from the shoes was the former star basketball player and coach, Chuck Taylor.
Until the mid-1960’s Chuck’s remained the shoe preferred by all levels of basketball players from Pee Wee to professional. At about this time a brand new development in the evolution of athletic performance enhancement came to market. This new product changed the way in which athletes train and play, the way sports were funded and athletes were paid and revolutionized modern personal care and entertainment habits.
Bill Bowerman would be a decorated World War II hero. Following the war he returned to his native Oregon where he became among the great track coaches ever in the University of Oregon. His squads won national championships, his athletes won numerous national and Olympic championships. Bowerman created numerous training techniques he employed to pull more speed, endurance and confidence out of his athletes. He always was looking for an edge.
In 1962 Bill Bowerman took a trip to Nz, and almost unbelievably, was introduced to jogging that was popular in that island nation. Before time, jogging included in a healthy exercise program was virtually unknown in the usa. He returned home and published a small 100 page book titled Jogging. It sold more than one million copies and began the jogging craze in the United States.
In any endeavor where achieving great speed may be the goal of the game, the enemy of maximum performance is weight. Race cars go faster whether they can be made lighter. Bowerman was enthusiastic about improving athletic performance. It was this passion that pushed him to design and launch among the great consumer products, and types, of all times.
In the home workshop, Bill Bowerman would be a constant tinkerer. While trying to craft a novel performance running footwear, he’d the idea to impound his wife’s waffle iron and employ the griddle to attain the soles of prototype training shoes he was tinkering with. He seared the rubberized soles using the waffle iron and found that by removing sections of the rubber, these shoes were more aerodynamic, lighter weight and provided substantially more grip than the available shoes of this day.
The iconic Cortez running footwear, still popular even today, was created. Athletes were ecstatic using the fit, comfort and added speed that the Cortez shoes provided.
Coach Bowerman approached a former runner athlete of his, Phil Knight, with a proposition. He would design and try out the shoes, if Knight would handle the company side of the new enterprise. They sealed their cope with a handshake and Nike was created.
For many years the Nike brand has been symbolic of the growth and commercialization of sport whatsoever levels, internationally, domestically, amateur and professional. Athletes, coaches, professional teams and universities sign multi-million dollar contracts to wear Nike gear and display the famous “swoosh” branding logo on their own uniforms, footwear, balls and sport bags. Nike retail stores are in most shopping malls.
Sponsorships pioneered by Nike have resulted in the explosion of televised sports. New sports such as beach volleyball and extreme sports have boomed and penetrated sports fans consciousness. Basketball has spread from an American centered game to enjoying huge international growth largely because of Nike sponsorship deals as well as in country marketing. Almost inevitability, when sporting history is made, or records broken, Nike is involved either in marketing the event or providing athletic enhancement products.
Nike is a multi-billion dollar corporate success. There is very little sport, organized or recreational, that does not have the tentacles of the Nike reach. The brand is one of the most recognizable in the world. For a long time the Company has been considered one of America’s best employers in annual worker surveys. The State of Oregon and also the University of Oregon have obtained munificent benefits from the generosity and immense profitability of Nike.
Bill Bowerman wasn’t seeking to develop a financial fortune when he inadvertently did so by achieving his real objective of seeking more speed for his athletes. His Cortez shoes were the “alpha” product which had become the cornerstone for building one of the world’s great brands. He died in 1999.
Coach Bowerman would be a war hero, athlete, coach and teacher, beloved by each of the students and athletes that received his sway. His legacy is burnished whenever a recreational jogger dons Nike shoes and shorts to create a run, or even the University of Kentucky basketball team takes towards the court in Nike uniforms. The advantages that society continues to enjoy from his creativity and passion can make all of our lives richer provided Nike successfully expands sporting opportunities and seeks more performance benefits for its products.