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Even if Johnson "only" got $10,000 in Nike stock, those shares would now be worth nearly $1 billion. Shoes cost $5, and you would come back from a five-mile run with your feet bleeding. No doubt its easy for the employees of today to forget how very ephemeral success is. They greeted my passion and intensity with labored sighs and vacant stares. So did financial sources for years and years. There would be no Nike without Johnson, who provided the name. Reebok's blindside tackle gave Knight pause. DETAILS BELOW Jeff Johnson (born May 7, 1973) is famous for being radio host. Once in Knights employ they were soon enough riding bikes to work, then scooters, then driving automobiles. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. By 1969, he was making enough money from these sales to quit his accountant job and work for Blue Ribbon Sports full-time. As Knight puts it, International trade always, always benefits both trading nations. It cant be repeated enough what a valuable book Shoe Dog would be for every teacher, economist, and politician in the U.S., and around the world. As Knight recalls, Not one [student] asked a single question. To the idea of Nike and its well-healed employees, the truly small and bereft of knowledge will respond that this global behemoth has overseen sweatshops around the world that exploited poorly paid employees. Time spent basking in the glow of success or recounting past triumphs is time wasted. "And he helped build that connection in our culture.". Jeff Johnson does leave for the East Coast, but not without a fight. Where Knight was once famous for governing by instinct, today Nike studies reams of statistics and convenes a focus group before designing a new shoelace. Lights reflect off the lake and illuminate the four miles of running trails that crisscross and surround the campus. Reebok's sales surpassed Nike's in 1987. He enjoyed the company of books and read about one per week, mysteries mostly. "Even when you are done with it, it is not done with you.". His parents are Lota Knight (ne Hatfield) and Bill Knight, was a lawyer and later a newspaper publisher. Because of all the contributions Phil Knight has given to sports, he was inducted in the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. Knight was raised in Portland, the son of a lawyer turned newspaper publisher. Award-winning journalist and communications specialist known best for his social and political commentary on BET, MSNBC, and syndicated radio. Knight hated the Vietnam War, and hates war in general. But then the company made a fatal mistake, one of great hubris. I nervously appraise my black leather, conservative flats and kick myself for making such a boring choice for a meeting with the man who made footwear an art form. Knight has given more than $1 billion to charity, including a $500 million donation to the University of Oregon Health & Science cancer center; $400 million to Stanford University to start the Rhodes Scholarship-inspired Knight-Hennessy Scholars graduate-level education program; and $105 million to the Standford Graduate School of Business. Knights story reveals the obnoxious folly of this odd, and economy-sapping strain of legal thought. The company came under fire in the early 1990s when there was a spate of shootings and knifings in American inner cities by teenagers coveting Nikes, which were just then pushing the $100 mark. "But we are bigger, and thus more visible, so we get more flack. Knight laughs uncomfortably and reaches for his watch as if embarrassed to have committed two personal transgressions: He reflected out loud, and he exposed a small corner of his heart. "Hello, World.". When he lived in Portland, Johnson had the privilege of watching Pre compete often at Hayward Field. Map. These towering shrines look about as much like a typical shoe store as Dennis Rodman looks like a typical human. "I thought, 'If I am going to be better than Charlie Paddock, I better do the hard thing,' so I emphasized that," Johnson says. The company desperately needed one. Jeff Johnson was best-known as Tiger King Reptile Dealer who passed away at the age of 58. Jeff Johnson, Nike's first employee, recommended calling the firm "Nike," named after the Greek flying goddess of victory, and Blue Ribbon Sports has consequently renamed Nike in 1978. As Knight recalls about his companys austere past, Any dollar that wasnt nailed down I was plowing directly back into the business. Thinking about the corporate tax through the prism of Knight always operating on a constantly shredding shoestring, the corporate tax robs companies of their present and future. Johnson was also tasked with bringing the brand east. Knights seeming purpose in bringing back the old-timers is to nourish Nikes culture, and also to hopefully remind the 5,000+ well-to-do employees in Beaverton that somewhere theres a shoe dog with drive and ambition similar to Knights. The next day sprint 100 meters, once. But there was one tough component--the 1-mile warm-up. "What the hell is that?" The Nike swoosh is so ubiquitous that the name Nike is often omitted altogether. A former middle-distance runner at the University of Oregon (he ran a respectable 4:10 mile), Knight, MBA '62, has been on a 30-year endorphin rush. "The door was open," he says. Lest we forget, Knight spent the first eighteen years of his time running Nike worrying on a daily basis that his company would soon go under thanks to a lack of cash. For Knight, that means finding new markets to dominate and new products to peddle. Knight took on a 15 percent stake in the company in 1998, and his son Travis joined the company as an animator. Flashing a teeth-baring grin, the white-haired Johnson still dons the Swoosh from head (his sunglasses) to toe (his beloved Nike Free 3.0s, which are no longer made, but as luck would have it, he found along the way at a factory outlet store in Iowa). Phil Knight controls 24 percent of the world's largest athletic shoe and sports apparel company, Nike. In large part because of that one employee with the thousand-watt smile and springboard legs, there is no greater status symbol among youths than Nike products. When the aerobic fad hit in the mid-'80s, Nike ignored it. "He came back from California once and had this rubber teddy bear in his hand," Chadwick says. Neither Phil nor Bowerman, the only owners of Blue Ribbon, want to give up their equity. For the first time, he was excited to read about something other than sports. . Following his graduation from the University of Oregon, Knight enlisted in the United States Army, serving one year of active duty and then seven years in the Army Reserve. His channel proved to be an immediate success, earning more than 40,000 subscribers within the first six months of its existence. It leaves plenty of time to get to know this deep thinker who's contributed much to the distance running culture in America. They wanted you to never, ever outgrow your cash balance. Not much has changed since. ", Nike went public in 1980 and the stock market pressure shifted the culture from jeans and T-shirts to coats and ties. Suffocatingly so. "I was very aware of shoes when I was running track," Knight says. But in 1984, it was unprecedented. Amateur title last summer, Nike founder Phil Knight shadowed him from hole to hole, appraising the young phenom's every smile the way a golf coach would his swing. Nike has since eclipsed Adidas, but then history tells us some apparel and shoemaker will eventually eclipse Nike. The Ducks ultimately recruited Wheating in 2006 and he went on to make the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympic teams. The richest golf stars of 2022 . He returned to coaching, something he did when he worked at the Nike factory, and began serving as a volunteer assistant for the local high school running programs around Lebanon. "At this stage in my life, the creative process is of great interest to me," he says. Jeff Johnson's income source is mostly from being a successful . (It was originally called Blue Ribbon Sports before being renamed Nike in 1971.) Realigned, Nike replaced Reebok at the top of the charts in 1989 and has remained there ever since. A stroke seized his body and cut off oxygen to his brain. The head of Sony famously complained, Its like playing golf and your handicap changes on every hole.. Knight writes about how some of his first employees, Jeff Johnson (employee #1) and Bob Woodell, still visit the companys stunning Beaverton, Oregon campus to tell stories of the early days. You thought, 'I can take a chance, I can dare to do something.'". Few took Knight seriously; least of all the dominant brand at the time, Adidas. The day he was finally approved to drive, the first place he went was to his favorite riverside trail. "He showed me several walking drills that help strengthen the smaller stabilizing muscles around your calves that I frequently do today, although I get a lot of odd looks walking pigeon-toed with my heels high off the ground," Wheating says. Eventually, he'll compile his favorites into a book for runners. Its already been mentioned that Knight stared failure in the face nearly every day from his companys creation in the early 60s right up to 1980, and this speaks to the horrors of excessive governmental taxation, along with the tax that is government spending itself. He was the company's first chairman and CEO and is now the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc. With an estimated net worth of $43.3 billion as of 2023, Knight was listed by Forbes as the 24th richest person in the world. Nike passed Adidas to become the industry leader in the United States in 1980, the year it went public. Nike is back on top because it grew up, but Knight clearly misses his company's adolescent days. Add a paid profile Advisors do not pay a fee for placement on Forbes Top Advisor. . ", But it's more than that. In 2004, Matthew unfortunately passed away while scuba diving in El Salvador due to an undetected congenital heart defect. (Encounter), along with Popular Economics (Regnery Publishing, 2015). In his mind, Johnson is still a lithe teenager striding across the trails of northern California, sights set on breaking 4:30 for the mile. "He was not a talented runner in the way that Frank Shorter or Galen Rupp float over the track. Nike still takes risks and challenges the sports establishment, but much of the criticism leveled against the company has quieted. Net Worth in 2022. In April 2016, Simon & Schuster published Knight's memoir, "Shoe Dog". Using independent subcontractors, Nike makes many of its products in Indonesia, a world pariah for its well-documented human-rights abuses. He was notorious for bringing a book to important meetings, pretending like he wasn't paying attention, then saying something brilliant, Chadwick says. Phil even issues him a challenge sell 3,250 pairs of shoes in a few months, and Johnson could open his retail space in LA. Jeff Johnson, Nike's long retired first employee, makes Phil Knight, the company's notoriously shy and reclusive founder, look like a flashy extrovert. "What else you got?" It was pure Philip Hampson Knight: innovative, controversial and very, very successful. As Knight looked for a new position for Johnson, Johnson momentarily found himself without a job. Phil and Penny, have been long time contributors and supporters for the University of Oregon athletic fund and have been honored by many times over by the school. His father, a salesman himself, pushes Johnson to ask for more - a partnership in Blue Ribbon, $600 in monthly salary, and a third of all profits after 6,000 pairs sold. You can also click edit to tell us what the Net Worth of the Jeff Johnson is Blue Ribbons first salesman, Jeff Johnson has a personality quirk he sends Phil mountains of letters, detailing his every development, every sale and notable customer. This would doubtless offend Trump, Peter Navarro and other economic illiterates within the Trump administration, but Knight helpfully adds that China is our [Nike's] second largest market.. The press savaged the ads for posing Woods as a racial trailblazer, a path long since pioneered by black golfers such as Charlie Sifford and Lee Elder. To Knight, Nikes early history, one defined by near constant fear of bankruptcy, was the story to tell. Knights book is 383 endlessly interesting pages, but without a hint of hyperbole, he should expand his memoirs whereby he would apply his business experiences to taxes, regulation, trade and monetary policy. He wouldnt have done this if there had been manufacturing capacity in the States capable of and willing to make the shoes for him here. Over the years, he's collected his thoughts about what made Pre an icon and shares them with high school runners when he speaks at camps, clinics and races. As of 2023, Jeffrey Jordan's net worth is $100,000 - $1M. moment," Knight says. From there he pushes on to Bend, where he finds the town's Dairy Queen by relying on his instincts rather than his phone's GPS or the AAA map he keeps between the front seats. Of course, you'd expect nothing less from the man who turned a tiny company called Blue Ribbon Sports into Nike Corp., a multibillion-dollar enterprise and a household name. 1 in our industry, we've had to modify our culture and become a bit more planned.". November 23, 2021. Subsequently, Knight began selling the Tiger shoes out of his car, a green Plymouth Valiant, at various track meets across the Pacific Northwest. Currently, they are all stored in his basement. $1 Million - $5 Million. If one of those athletes weren't Michael Jordan, consumers worldwide might still be pronouncing Nike like Mike. The open itinerary doesn't seem to faze him. Johnson's free-thinking approach chafed against anything that gave off a whiff of buttoned-up corporate air. (Knight still gets a kick out of telling this story: "A few years ago there was a poll in China to name the greatest man ever. Without the full-length cushioned mid-sole, which Johnson invented from shower thongs, many of us would be on crutches today. Jeff Johnson - Sr. Director Product Development & Planning - Global Apparel - Nike | LinkedIn Jeff Johnson Retired - Feb 2022 Beaverton, Oregon, United States 435 followers 346 connections. His death was confirmed by TMZ on 22nd November 2021. Even when Johnson stopped coaching teams, he was still offering guidance to promising up-and-coming athletes. Johnson swears he doesn't have a personal story worthwhile enough to warrant a magazine feature. But first, he traveled to Japan, where he became enamored of Japanese culture and business practices. As Knight describes the scenario wrought by floating money, now the yen-to-dollar rate was like the weather. Phil Knight is an American businessman, sports fan and philanthropist who has a net worth of $40 billion. Edging closer to Nike Country, it seems odd that for the man who named the company, Oregon never felt like home. The following morning Johnson had to undergo an MRI. Travis knight has since been promoted to be the CEO and president of Laika. "At first, we couldn't be establishment, because we didn't have any money," Knight says. Jeff Johnson looks torn, but he doesnt want to quit. . Jeff Johnson Net Worth His net worth has been growing significantly in 2022-2023. "She'll smoke me.". Besides sharing the nuts and bolts of training, Johnson transformed the budding talent into a middle-distance specialist and filled out his regimen with plyometrics. Three days later, Woods called a news conference, stepped before the TV cameras and announced that he was quitting college to join the Professional Golf Association Tour. Johnson explained the story about iconic brand names, and that the word was also for the Greek winged goddess of victory. Shallenberger gave his class the following assignment: Invent a new business, describe its purpose and create a marketing plan. "It was probably going to close in five minutes and I'd have another job, probably one I hated just as much as the one I had now and was bad at. It did, however, present a tradeoff: Despite Johnson's dislike of the business environment, the influx of investment dollars would eventually allow him to retire at 41. They got their iconic "swoosh" logo from graphic design student Carolyn Davidson in 1971, paying her $35 for the commission. ". Logically it did. "I have no idea what you're going to write about," he repeats over and over again as he veers on the highway. The longtime friends go all the way back to when Lananna lived in Hanover, N.H., and coached at Dartmouth. He straightens out of a slouch, steadies his gaze and, like a shortstop, waits to field the next question. Then there are the three library-style drawers where Johnson keeps thousands of note cards scribbled with quotes he's come across over the years. John Tamny is a Forbes contributor, editor of RealClearMarkets, a senior fellow in economics at Reason Foundation, and a senior economic adviser to Toreador Research & Trading. Just as a baseball player is only as good as his last at-bat, Knight figures Nike is only as good as its last quarterly report. Though he carries a cell phone in the car, he insists that he never uses it. He then set out on a graduation trip which included a stop in Kobe, Japan, where he discovered Tiger brand running shoes, manufactured by Onitsuka Co. in Kobe. Every day different. Knight streamlined the company (laying off 600 of the company's 2,000 employees) and reorganized Nike along more conventional, corporate lines. So Bowerman began making shoes himself, and since I wasn't the best guy on the team, I was the logical one to test the shoes.". ", An adoring sports media lapped up the young man's winning soundbite. He unobtrusively enters the Wimbledon conference room on the fourth floor of the John McEnroe Building on the Nike World Campus in Beaverton, Ore. (a good hour's jog from Portland), clears his throat, introduces himself and apologizes for being 10 minutes late. Traveling north over the dry flatlands of western Idaho and into Oregon, Johnson decides to pack it in for the night in Ontario, a speck-of-dust town right off the interstate. "If you want to spend time saying this is cool, you're going to get your ass kicked.". Johnson's co-worker, Walt Chadwick, remembers Johnson testing out materials that had never been used before in the sports shoe industry. Blue Ribbon moves out of Phils apartment and into its first real office. Maybe it was his recovery from his stroke that really hammered it home. Nike NKE closed its stores across the U . Today, Forbes estimates his net worth at more than $25 billion, making him the 24th richest person in the United States . Jeff Johnson's income source is mostly from being a successful . The great Canadian economist Reuven Brenner once referred to macroeconomics as a tautology and a myth, a dangerous one at that, sustaining the illusion that prosperity is necessarily linked with territory, national units, and government spending in general. Phil Knight, the wildly talented, courageous, and visionary founder of Nike would likely share Brenners contempt for the macro side of economics. In keeping with Nike's collegiate, fraternal atmosphere, the company's sprawling complex was officially dubbed the Campus. During this period, Johnson moved to the Bay Area and ran the day-to-day practices. It's the central, unifying culture of the United States and the stuff of romance and dreams. He also taught as an accounting professor at Portland State University (PSU). So far, with Chadwick's help, they've converted about 12,000. "Until the third or fourth week, the possibility that I would never get out of a wheelchair was real. In his paper, "Can Japanese Sports Shoes Do to German Sports Shoes What Japanese Cameras Did to German Cameras?" Nike is also opening up more Nike Town stores, which are as much museum as retail outlet. Johnson waited until it was later on the West Coast and called Nike headquarters. "I was the fifth-fastest miler on my Los Altos [San Francisco] high school team and ran 4:41.". Upon arrival in town, that's where Johnson goes to pay his respects. At one point, Jeff Johnson sends one letter that Phil cant ignore. He is from United States. Jeff Johnson - the first employee In 1965 they hired Jeff Johnson - the perfect employee one could hope for. If readers are interested in learning about economics, and truly understanding economics, they need only purchase and read Knights book. Much has been made of Knight's meditative, almost dreamy mien and his affinity for all things Asian, especially Japanese. Employee No. He holds Class A and Class B shares through a Delaware-based holding company appropriately named "Swoosh". Then Jeff Johnson, '63, a fellow running geek, proposed a name that came to him in a dream: Nike, for the Greek winged goddess of victory. The freedom to do what he enjoyed. The following year he transferred to Stanford University on a whim. Implicit in antitrust is that the present foretells the future, but it doesnt. Knight is not one for reflection. For instance, Nike donated $25,000 to Tonya Harding's defense fund in 1994, in part to tweak Reebok, the sponsors of Nancy Kerrigan. (Shortform note: Just take a minute to remember that business used to be done entirely through phone and letters, not email). Now, 10 years after Nike's upheaval, Phil Knight has become a sort of professor emeritus. The always silly notion of antitrust is further exposed in this essential autobiography. His black, collarless shirt buttons up to his Adam's apple. He enlisted in the army for a year (and served in the reserves for seven), then enrolled at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford. Governments often fear companies that grow too large and powerful. They wrap themselves in antitrust laws to fight what they dont trust, and dont understand. After returning from Japan in 1964, the 26-year-old Knight began peddling Onitsuka running shoes from the back of his green Plymouth Valiant at track meets across the Pacific Northwest. "I wasn't very good at the new job and I hated it," he says. He was a middle-distance runner for the University of Oregon track team, which at the time had one of the best programs in the country. Even though the company's commercials have been hailed as pop art, Nike has been denounced for turning sports stars into cartoonish berathletes and creating a market of young consumers blinded by idolatry. Jeff Johnson, employee number one of Nike, and fellow Stanford runner whom Phil hired as he hasn't met anyone with his passion for running, suggested calling the firm "Nike," named after the Greek winged goddess of victory. Some say the logo is worth the net worth of the Nike brand, valuing it as a more than $30 billion image. The elite runners loved those shoes.". From the sources, it has been confirmed that his wife called 911 after he shot himself in front of her. Then the German companies came in with $30 shoes, which were more comfortable. [1] As of February 15, 2023, Knight was ranked by Forbes as the 17th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$41.5 billion. ". The lessons within it are many. At the same time, the company's mass marketing made the shoes so attractive and desirable that they became a de rigueur accessory to the American wardrobe and dream--even if increasingly sedentary teens only wore them to watch TV. Its a fixer-upper, with tissue thin walls and broken windows. he asks. I just went, 'I'm out of here.'". Your email address will not be published. But he persevered, convinced that his inexpensive, high-performance shoes could beat the top "sneakers"--Adidas, Converse All-Stars and Keds--in the market. ", His voice gets louder, his words faster. After 50 years of working out, his body was familiar breaking down tissue, resting and recovering, and doing it all over again the next day. 1 walked out the door with no regrets. Stanford University. What these ankle-biters fail to understand is that when Nike arrived in Vietnam (this alone could be a book itself, and an interesting one at that), the workers in its factories were walking to work. For someone whose empire rests on visceral consumer reactions, Knight is remarkably self-contained. He found a way to harness society's worship of heroes, obsession with status symbols and predilection for singular, often rebellious figures. Nor did he make "Just Do It" the slogan that best encapsulates the 1990s. With a net worth of $5.3 billion, Knight ranks sixth on Forbes's latest list of the richest Americans. "We've decided to call it Nike," his co-worker told Johnson over the phone. Its hard to say exactly. "The athletes are knocking themselves out in the rehab room. It forgot about the women. And I'm still uneasy with it. "I thought that was ridiculous . His voice hardens. The company was growing at such a tremendous rate that Knight had to reorganize the roles of his top managers every six months. At 6:30 a.m. on Friday morning, Johnson abruptly woke up from a sound sleep, shot up in bed and knew he had it. The discrimination fuels them. And for those with underdeveloped public personas, Nike has not hesitated to fill in the blanks. From an economics standpoint, Knights recollection of nearly always being in debt for the first 18 years of the companys existence, of always fearing the one incorrect move that would bankrupt Nike, is instructive on its own. Some say the logo is worth the net worth of the Nike brand, valuing it as a . Knight says she later received stock that was worth . He had read an in-flight magazine article about the great brand names that become household terms, such as Kleenex and Xerox. When they met, Andrew Wheating told Johnson he wanted to be a top 5K runner. Nike has enjoyed great growth in the women's, apparel and outdoors markets. According to Johnson's self-set fitness schedule, in which he works out six days per week, he is supposed to swim this afternoon, but he doesn't because the hotel pool is too crowded. "You didn't even have to understand track. Knight isn't wearing his ever-present Oakley sunglasses (he's rarely photographed without them), which is a bonus, as his pale blue eyes open wide and sparkle when a topic engages him. As mentioned at this reviews beginning, global trade made what became Nike possible. Knight was raised in the Portland neighborhood of Eastmoreland, and graduated from Cleveland High School. We can handle this. The right side of his body felt numb. He made running look hard. So, how much is Jeff Johnson worth at the age of 69 years old? Phil and his wife Penelope now live in Beaverton, Oregon. Thirty years ago, American teenagers owned either a pair of Converse All-Stars or Keds. "First, Shallenberger defined the type of person who was an entrepreneur--and I realized he was talking to me. The response from his top-of-the-heap MBA classmates was silence. I could accept it on an intellectual level, but I really didn't believe it," he says. So many days Nike nearly died thanks to a lack of funds, and it raises the question of how many other brilliant concepts died before their success could benefit people around the world as Nike has, not to mention the companys global base of well-healed employees. This is a crucial economic point given the odd focus of economists on a Federal Reserve that projects its always overstated influence through a risk averse banking system. Knight was so impressed with both the quality and low production costs that he made a deal with Onitsuka to distribute Tigers in the United States. Johnsons and Woodells stories, along with Knights amazing book, hopefully remind the employees of this truth, all the while enhancing their already bursting pride in what theyre a part of. In fiscal year 1996, Nike's revenue hit a stratospheric $6.5 billion (with $550 million in income). Also in 1992, a group named Made in America called for a boycott of Nike products because Nike shoes (like most athletic footwear) are made overseas, mainly in Asia where labor is cheap. Laika's first feature film was the stop motion animated film "Coraline" (2009). This is important because Knight plainly spent a lot of the companys limited funds traveling on the other side of the world in search of factories capable of making his shoes. Really? In 1965, Nike founder Phil Knight hires his first full-time employee, a fellow Stanford runner named Jeff Johnson who will sell shoes in Los Angeles. The yen, formerly pegged to the dollar, suddenly had no definition. Unlike most people who take up running to accomplish a goal, lose weight or join a team, Johnson's initial inspiration was survival. What stories of entrepreneurs almost invariably tell us is that these outsiders were and are discriminated against, almost as a rule. Knight, who describes his own management style as "selectively hands-on," is still an everyday, hovering presence and very much the man in charge. (Chicago's store is one of the city's top tourist attractions.) somebody asked. Hes lived Brenners quote, and much more. He can be reached at matt@anhonorablerun.com. If he were to add some wisdom of his own, he'd choose something that sums up his long perspective on running. Over the next four decades, Knight grew Nike from a tiny upstart shoe company, into one of the largest and most famous brands of all time. The Real Reason, How Phil Knight started Nike when he was just 24 years old, The ups and downs of Nike over 20 years of business. ), Motivation Tips When Marathon Day Is Not Your Day, Everything You Need to Know About Hip Pain. Nike courts controversy. He accuses the company of exploiting Indonesians while quietly encouraging the Suharto government to crack down on dissent. China is a large market for Nike precisely because the U.S. is a large market for Nike goods produced in China. And Johnson was an even more prolific salesman than Knight.