From Blue Ribbon Sports to Nike The Humble Origins of The Swoosh

From Blue Ribbon Sports to Nike In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman were still operating under the name Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), acting primarily as a U.S. distributor for Japanese Onitsuka Tiger running shoes.

As contracts with Onitsuka began to wind down, Knight realised the company’s future could not depend on someone else’s product or identity. To grow, BRS needed its own shoe and its own mark.

In February 1971, Knight contracted a factory in Mexico to produce a black soccer/football cleat with a white sole, a model that needed to look clearly different from Onitsuka designs. That requirement to distinguish the shoe visually from competitors was what led him to seek a unique brand stripe.

Enter Carolyn Davidson and a $35 logo To create this new mark, Knight turned to Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student he had met while teaching accounting at Portland State University…