Just Don’t Do It!

Joe Letizio Arts and En­ter­tain­ment ed­i­tor

Nike was founded by Phil Knight & Bill Bowerman on Jan 25th, 1965, however, was originally named Blue Ribbon Sports. The company started selling shoes out of their cars and soon after Nike was established in 1971. The current CEO of Nike is John Donahoe.

Some notable people to Nike are Tinker Hatfield, Steve Prefontaine, and Michael Jordan.

Tinker Hatfield

For those who are unfamiliar with Hatfield, he studied architecture and ran track & field at the University of Oregon. Going more in-depth with this he started as an architect for Nike stores and HQ. (He saw the similarity between shoe design & architecture).

Steve Prefontaine

Mr. Prefontaine was coached by Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon & in the 1972 Olympics. He was the guinea pig for the shoes, and his mile time was 3:54:6. (He died on May 30th in 1975.

Michael Jordan

Jordan signed a deal with Nike in 1984 and was the first to have a lifetime deal. Though NBA originally banned the Jordan shoes because of the bright colors.

JUST DON’T DO IT

Though Nike has competition from Under Armour, Puma, and Adidas. They are also facing difficulty from within, as distance runner Mary Cain sues former coach Alberto Salazar and Nike. She has filed a $20 million lawsuit against Salazar for physically and emotionally abusing her and for Nike not doing anything about it. Nike is a company that offers good products, however, when it comes to athletes there comes a point when enough is enough.

Just don’t do it, don’t let your athletes suffer from bad coaches who just see numbers and not the athlete as an individual. While we all like to win there is something more important at stake which is mental health.