Phil Knight revisits U.S. customs battle that nearly ended Nike

 PALO ALTO -- Nike co-founder and board chairman Phil Knight on Saturday delivered the Address to the Graduating Class at the Diploma Award Ceremony for the Stanford Graduate School of Business in the Frost Amphitheater. kaufen nike schuhe online

This is the second of three parts of a transcription of a recording of Knight's 25-minute speech. The first part focused on the roots of his entrepreneurial venture; this, the second part, on company growth and a regulatory tussle with the federal government in which Nike had key assists from Stanford alumni; and the third, on life lessons.

In 1964, my life got busy. By day I was a CPA for Price Waterhouse. My Army Reserve requirement takes up two Tuesdays a month and one all day Sunday, plus two weeks in the summer. Dating was a mixed success. And all along my real love was that little company that Bowerman and I had started. We get to $100,000 in sales. We get to $500,000, then a million. I multitask. I can drive a car, eat a McDonald's filet o' fish sticks and read a newspaper, all at the same time. I was pretty efficient for a couple of years until I rear-ended the car in front of me. Took a lot of time to get insurance companies lined up and my own car repaired and the cuts to my forehead fixed, so I don't do that anymore. kaufen nike schuhe online

So there I am, 34 years old, married, a 3-year-old son, 80 percent mortgage on my house, 45 employees, a personal guarantee of a $750,000 company loan, inventory growing more obsolete by the day, and no new product to sell. We had a team that had been nothing eight years before and had built it up to be recognized in the sporting goods world. And that team had designed the three top-selling Tiger running shoes. We had a large pot of coffee and the support of the sixth largest Japanese trading company. And that trading company could and did introduce us to every training shoe company in Japan and provided the financing to import those products. nike schuhe outlet online shop

We asked each of the 45 employees to submit a suggestion for a brand name. Jeff Johnson, 1963 Stanford graduate, who I'd met on a workout at Angell Field, and who was our first employee, submitted the name, Nike. nike schuhe billig kaufen

One year after the settlement, we got ASP eliminated from the entire U.S. Customs coding for benzedene chemicals, cherrystone clams as well as athletic footwear with synthetic uppers.When we'd reached the critical mass to go public, throughout the ASP years we could not go public because we could not report earnings -- which were very materially affected by the ultimate ASP resolution. With the resolution of ASP, a public offering was opened to us.melissa schuhe fabrikverkauf

And in December 1980, we did just that. From that point, the only thing standing in the way of real success, with having our dreams come true, was ourselves.