School’s out, so hopefully I will be able to keep this thing a little more updated. I ran into some account problems awhile back, but now things are all squared away and working out nicely.
A few weeks before school got out I had the opportunity to visit the Nike Campus/Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. Unless you know someone that works there, it is very hard to get into the place. My Business Leaders of Tomorrow club pulled a few strings and we were able to get in. Let me tell you, the campus is nice. They have a workout facility devoted to the employees, and each building is named after an athlete that has left a mark in the sports world. They have a Mia Hamm, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, and Michael Jordan building, to name a few. It feels like a mini-college almost.
My goal going in was to see a super star athlete or score on some new Nike gear. While the athlete part didn’t happen, and I didn’t walk away with a new pair of shoes, I did get to experience some cool things. First off, in the Mia Hamm building, one of the murals on the wall featured the Oregon Ducks football team from a few years ago, with my track coach smack dab in the center.
My other big surprise came around lunchtime. The employees eat like kings at Nike. The food is delicious, and quickly prepared considering the quality of it. I thoroughly enjoyed my Tarheel Bacon Burger, and I could get used to eating there everyday. On one interesting note, the eatery employees looked like ones you would find anywhere else, except for the fact that they were wearing Nike hats.
Anyway, I just so happened to see someone that I recognized sitting at a booth alone, reading a newspaper. I had never met him in person, but I recognized his face instantly. It was Phil Knight. Knight is the co-founder of Nike, former CEO, a former runner for the University of Oregon, and current chairman of the board for Nike. Currently he is the 62nd richest guy in the world. To top it all off, I shook his hand and got a picture with him. 62nd may be somewhat down on the list, but I don’t know how many other guys I will meet who are above him. According to some of the employees, even though he is no longer CEO, his say in company decisions is still heavily listened to and followed.
We also got to see the business of Nike, and the strategy they use that has made them so successful. For example, the core focus of all their advertising is a seventeen year old high school athlete. I also got to see through some tinted windows some of their research rooms. They have half basketball courts, short rubber tracks, and everything else that is needed to test products that they are developing. In this portion of the company, sports really is a science. The have sensors on the athlete doing the testing, and use physics to help improve the product.
Towards the end of our trip, we were able to go into the building that housed the legendary waffle runner, and a bunch of Steve Prefontaine’s original things. The story goes that Bill Bowerman wanted to create a running shoe that would make his runners at the University of Oregon better. One day he had the inspiration to take his wife’s waffle iron and head out to the garage. There he created the solution used for shoe soles, and used the iron to create a innovative new sole. Nike was quick to point out in their presentation also that the Waffle runner was not their first shoe, but rather a football cleat was.
We ended the trip with a free shirt. It wasn’t the shoes I was hoping for, but it was still a generous gift. Thanks Nike.
