A head track coach, Bill Bowerman，designed a pair of lighter shoes with better support and greater strength and sent the design to leading sporting-goods companies. They all turned him down.
The rejections brought Bowerman face to face with his own philosophy of ^competitive response. " He had taught his sportsmen to value competition not so much for its prizes as for its intellectual and spiritual satisfaction. This was true of his determination to make the shoes himself.
He made his first pair of track shoes light and graceful. His runners won in his handmade shoes. But who would like to manufacture such shoes?
In 1962, Knight, one of Bowerman s sportsmen, offered to travel to Japan and called on one of Japan's best manufacturers of sports shoes. The manufacturer promised to produce shoes of his design and Knight's company would be their only distributor in the U.S..A year later, a shipment of 200 Bowerman shoes arrived in Oregon.
At first, Knight and Bowerman worked with a small team and went selling out of cars at track meets. But slowly, the running world got to know the secret of their product.
Then in 1972. the Japanese company cut off all supplies to lheir company and established a separate distribution network in the U. S. In 30 days Knight succeeded in finding a new manufacturer. And today the company takes the largest share in the shoe business. You ask me the brand name of the shoes? It's Nike, named after the Greek Goddess of Victory. Bowerman, Knight and the Nike team have a firm belief that a shared responsibility requires outstanding individual performance and a willingness to contribute that performance the group.
Bowerman's response to competition is related to sportsmen's _______.