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

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.

Davidson, who at the time was looking to earn some extra money, was tasked with designing a stripe that could be placed on the side of the shoe and that would suggest motion and speed.

Working by overlaying tissue paper on drawings of the shoe, she developed several options and eventually presented Knight with five different designs, one of which was the now famous Swoosh…