From 300 Pairs in a Basement to a 400 Acre Philip H. Knight Campus Nike’s Headquarters Story

From basement stockroom to rolling campus In the early 1960s, Knight and coach Bill Bowerman launched what was then Blue Ribbon Sports, importing running shoes and selling them at track meets and out of the trunk of Knight’s car.

Knight has recalled how those first 300 pairs of shoes were stored in his parents’ basement, with orders handled by phone and paperwork done on a small desk nearby.

As the company grew through the 1970s and 1980s, Nike scattered across Portland and its suburbs, operating from a patchwork of rented offices and warehouses before deciding it needed a single, purpose built headquarters that matched its ambitions.

That led to the decision to buy land near Beaverton and imagine what a “global home of sport” should look and feel like. Designing a place people want to be When Nike started planning its world headquarters in the late 1980s, Phil Knight and his team were clear that they did not want a traditional corporate office park…