Reading Reflection No. 3

The book I chose to read for the final reading reflection was Shoe Dog, by Phil Knight, the creator of Nike. What surprised me most about Knight really just how creative he was. While many people automatically assume that the founder of a huge shoe company is creative, I don't think that they have ever heard about some of his ideas, especially some of the ones that were mentioned in the book. For example, Knight went out of his way to build shoes out of crazy material other than leather, the craziest of which was made out of fish scales. The ability to market and create a product like that is truly unbelievable to me. What I admire most about Knight, was his ability to take risks, even at such a young age. Knight came out of college and was ready to follow his dream, and create an incredibly successful company. What I least admired about Knight, were the business practices his company has used, not all of which were presented in the reading. Knight and Nike have been accused of questionable business practices such as the use of sweatshops for quite sometime, and it was tough to read about the successes and trials that Knight encountered, while also knowing that some, or most resulted from the unethical labor of the less fortunate. Knight did encounter adversity and failure, but was able to battle through it and continue to succeed. For example, in the early days of Nike, Knight imported shoes from a Japanese shoe companies, who later tried to breach their contract with Knight and become a lone distributor in the United States. Knight entered a sort of war with the Japanese company, until he was able to finally fight off the company, called Onitsuka, and keep Nike afloat.

The biggest competencies that Knight exhibited was confidence, and the ability to take risks. Although he started off on his own, with practically no capital, he saw an open market in the form of running and athletic footwear. He left a promising career behind to chase this need and this opportunity, and thanks the confidence that he had in himself, and in others, as well as his willingness to take calculated risks, helped him to succeed and achieve his goals.

One part of the story that was confusing to me was the fact that Nike didn't start out as Nike. In fact, the term and name Nike was even mentioned until around 200 pages into the book. I found it odd that he wrote this book about his rise, and the rise of Nike, while at the same time repeatedly referring to his company as Blue Ribbon Sports.

Knight's opinion on hard work was to work until the job he had to do was finished. For example, as a kid he tabulated sports scores for a local newspaper during the nightshift, and didn't leave until the job was done. After that, he proceeded to run home, roughly seven miles. There was also the fact that it took a significant time to get the business off the ground. For example, the first 300 pairs of shoes took over a year to be delivered. That being said, the time crunch didn't prevent Knight from continuing to work.