Shoe Dog
2014
- businesspeople, juvenile literature
- business, juvenile literature
- business, biography
- nyt:sports=2017-11-12
- nyt:paperback-nonfiction=2018-05-20
- sporting goods industry
- nike (firm)
- businesspeople
- biography
- history
The story
"In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company's early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world's most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike's annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business--a business that would be dynamic, different. Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream--along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything"--
What it’s like
Brisk, restless and hard-driven, with the forward momentum of a road trip: short scene-like chapters, vivid recollections of cramped offices, late-night ledger work and rattling sales drives through the early sixties and seventies. The voice is candid, self-deprecating and dryly funny, the prose plain and conversational, like a founder talking across a table about the sleepless years and the scrappy crew of misfits who believed in the same improbable thing. Its world is sweat, cardboard boxes, borrowed money and trunks full of shoes, with the heat of a running track and the smell of a warehouse. The mood is earnest and wry rather than dark, and the stakes are financial and personal rather than violent: intensity is low, with occasional tension over money and friendships, and no gore or sexual content. Its arc follows a restless man who bets everything on an idea and slowly learns to trust and lead the people around him. It suits a long commute, a weekend in a café or a late-night read when you want something energetic but gentle. It is for readers who enjoy underdog stories, the texture of entrepreneurship and reflective memoir with humour.
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