where it all started

Originally, Nike was known as Blue Ribbon Sports concentrated solely on shoes that were sold out of co-creater Phil Knight's trunk before and after his track meets. The company started out as a distributor for a Japanese shoe maker named Onitsuka Tiger. In 1966 Blue Ribbon Sports opened up their first retail store in Santa Monica, California. The profits grew rapidly and the relationship between BRS and Onitsula Tiger grew farther apart. in 1971 the two business partners went their different ways and Nike planned to launch their own shoe bearing the swoosh logo. The first shoe BRS sold with the new logo was a soccer shoe named "Nike".