[intense music]
[Narrator] In a small town in Germany 1949,
one man is attempting to start over
after a bitter family feud
tears his successful sneaker business apart.
Rudolf and Adi, the Dassler brothers.
They were together for a number of years making footwear,
and then Rudolf created a factory on the other side
of the river and created the brand Puma.
And I guess he's done kind of well for himself.
[Narrator] Fueled by a deep desire to outdo his brother,
Adi is determined to make a sneaker different
from anything else on the market.
Everyone thinks that the stripes
are just part of the branding,
but they actually serve a purpose.
Think of it as being the skeleton of the shoe,
giving it extra strength.
[Narrator] This signature feature
will go on to define a billion dollar global brand.
Adidas transcended footwear to an extent
that I don't think anyone could have foreseen.
[Narrator] And it'll inspire an ambitious former track star
and his coach to get into the game.
Phil Knight was highly competitive.
Bill Bowerman was always looking for ways
to improve performance.
He loved sort of deconstructing the footwear,
figuring out how to redesign them.
[Narrator] Together, they'll build
one of the most iconic companies of all time.
You know, this one's not bad.
It looks like a whoosh of air.
Nike was born.
[Narrator] Their groundbreaking creations...
Bill Bowerman looked at a waffle iron
and saw a new kind of running shoe.
[Narrator] Ignite a war...
Find out who they are.
We're being sued by Adidas.
[Narrator] That will elevate sneakers...
They see that this could go beyond just sport.
This can hit pop culture
and really become part of the fabric of the way we dress.
[Narrator] To a multibillion dollar phenomenon.
You would see them on celebrities,
you would see them on hip hop artists,
you would see them on actors.
It's no longer just a sneaker, it's a lifestyle.
[dramatic music]
[Narrator] First invented in 1876, early sneakers
were much different than what they are today.
Shoes used to be made out of wood
and materials like that,
so you could hear when people would walk.
So when sneakers first came out and they had the rubber outsole,
you could literally sneak up on people.
So that's why they're called sneakers.
Early sneakers and cleats had thin soles.
Not a lot of support, not a ton of grip.
[Narrator] Even by the 1960s,
they're still something mostly worn by professional athletes.
You had sneakers for tennis,
for track and field, for basketball, for soccer.
They weren't the most comfortable pair of shoes
to wear, but they served the purpose.
Well, you have Converse as far as like, a basketball shoe.
Puma, they're known for soccer and track and field.
[Narrator] But one brand emerges as a clear favorite.
Adidas was seen as the most comfortable shoe
a professional athlete could wear.
So more and more athletes started wearing them.
Adidas starts making track and field shoes for Olympians
and soccer cleats for the German national team.
They became so popular that in the 1960 Olympics in Rome,
75% of the runners were wearing Adidas.
[Narrator] And they've been the preferred brand
for former track star and Stanford NBA student,
Phil Knight.
Phil Knight was a walk-on
for the University of Oregon track team.
He always ran in Adidas
because essentially, they were the only game in town.
Adidas were a premium shoe, and they were about $150.
And he knew Adidas were expensive,
and he knew that a lot of the kids,
high school and college running culture, couldn't afford it.
Phil Knight at that time realized
that not everyone was an Olympic athlete
or a World Cup soccer player,
but he felt like everyone deserved an athletic sneaker.
[Narrator] And this idea is the inspiration
for his thesis paper in 1962.
His thesis paper was titled,
"Can Japanese Sports Shoes Do to German Sports Shoes
What Japanese Cameras Did to German Cameras?"
At the time, everything that was made Japan,
there tends to be a reputation
of high quality and engineering.
Essentially realizing that the Japanese imports
of the cameras were making so much more money
for less price per unit and overtaking the German cameras.
So his idea was perhaps
Japanese sneakers could do the same thing.
[Narrator] During his research,
Knight discovers a unique brand of sneakers
being sold in Japan.
Onitsuka Tigers had created what he truly believed
is the perfect running shoe.
It was incredibly light
and had all these air holes that would
circulate air around the foot
and prevent blisters from forming.
He basically saw these sneakers
and he thought someone could sell them State-side
because no one else was really doing that.
[Narrator] By 1964, Knight decides
to turn his homework into a business opportunity.
Phil Knight wasn't the best runner,
but he went up against
some of the best in the business.
World record holders,
future runners that were gonna be in the Olympics.
And this probably gave him the drive that he needed.
There was no stopping.
He knew he was onto something.
He really wants to take Japanese footwear
that is at a lower production cost
and sometimes higher quality.
Bring them to the states and undercut Adidas.
Funny thing is, like many entrepreneurs,
he has this vision and belief,
but he has zero experience in the shoe market.
Yes, hello, I'd like to make an international call to Japan.
He's not a salesman,
he's more of an athlete than a businessman.
It was just, like, a lot of fortitude for someone
that was fresh out of school
and a lot of self-confidence to be able to say,
I can sell these shoes.
Yes, I'm the CEO,
and we're interested in potentially distributing
your sneakers here in America.
He's audacious, he's not the CEO of anything,
yet here he is claiming to be the CEO
of this sneaker company just to grab the attention
of this Japanese sneaker business.
To have this idea
and sell it to a Japanese sneaker company,
who at that point was probably like, who is this kid?
So he's convincing them that he should be the distributor
and they go, what's the name of your company?
The name?
He had all these track ribbons
hanging on his wall, and on a whim,
he comes up with the name.
[Narrator] Knight's company will one day
be the largest sneaker brand in the world,
producing 1.6 billion shoes a year,
selling 26 pairs every second.
A company the likes of which the world has never seen.
A true icon, a true mega brand that built America,
the company that we know and love...
Blue Ribbon, the Blue Ribbon Sports Company.
Y'all ever heard of that one?
[Narrator] But after landing the exclusive rights
to distribute Onitsuka Tiger running sneakers
in North America,
Knight's having trouble getting them on shelves.
He's going to all of these sports equipment stores
where he's hearing the same message over and over again.
Thanks, but no thanks.
The world really doesn't need another running shoe.
Everyone knew Adidas, they trusted their products.
They saw them on the best athletes,
so he had to do something different.
[Narrator] Desperate, Knight turns to his former coach
and mentor for help.
He knew exactly who to go to to help sell these sneakers.
Bill Bowerman is a legendary track coach
at the University of Oregon.
He was always looking for ways
to improve his runner's physical
and psychological performance.
He wanted to make sure that they had the right materials,
they had the right products to compete at the highest level.
[Narrator] Knight's hoping Bowerman
will be his first sale.
So, what do you think?
[Narrator] But Bowerman has another idea.
How about you cut me in on the deal?
Bill Bowerman was a force to be reckoned with.
He realized that, here's an opportunity
in this new, upstart company's footwear,
that could be a very well game changer.
50/50.
[intense music]
[Narrator] It's 1964
and after approaching his former track coach
to be a potential buyer of his imported sneakers,
Phil Knight is hit with a curve ball.
How about you cut me in on the deal?
You'd have to put up half the money.
How much?
$500.
I think I can go for that.
Yeah.
Phil Knight, you know, he seemed to be someone
who was just very driven,
quite articulate on what he wanted.
He's seeing a void
and he's seeing a need in an industry
that wasn't providing the needs to better himself
and his fellow athletes.
He's surrounding himself with smarter people than him
and more innovative people than him.
So Knight drives around the Pacific Northwest,
goes to track meets, meets the coaches, meets the athletes,
and he's selling these shoes out of the trunk of his car.
[Narrator] Despite selling 1,300 pairs
of sneakers in their first year,
Blue Ribbon only grosses $8,000,
leaving the partners $11,000 in debt by 1965.
So Phil Knight is borrowing
from his friends and his parents.
His dad co-signed a loan from the bank and then cut him off.
[Narrator] But Bowerman realizes cashflow
isn't Blue Ribbon's only problem.
One of Bowerman's star runners was developing issues
in his foot from wearing the sneakers.
He realized that it didn't give enough arch support.
Bowerman finds them not good enough.
His athletes are complaining
that their toes are getting squished.
He's just not happy with these shoes.
He was also a tinkerer.
He loved sort of deconstructing the footwear.
He would take them apart and rebuild them,
figuring out how to redesign these footwears
to give his runners a better performance.
Bill Bowerman says, let me deconstruct this.
Let me break it down and see, how can I make it better?
And he is taking sneakers apart,
trying to see the DNA makeup of this rubber and sole,
always trying to improve tech that would translate to
better performance and yielding the results for runners.
[Bowerman] Come on.
So he creates this cushion inner sole
with a soft sponge in the inner foot and the heel.
Nobody was making this kind of sneaker
with this kind of cushioning.
You shaved 15 seconds.
Hey, before you go in, gimme one of your shoes.
The foam midsole was unprecedented.
It just was really useful in sports,
but also very comfortable to wear for a long period of time.
[Knight] What's this?
I rebuilt it.
Bill, I've been out there at every college
in the northwest trying to sell the teams on our shoes.
Well, what'd you expect when you brought me in as a partner?
The shoes are better now.
Hey, let's go again.
It was a game changer.
Knight might have been a little surprised at first,
but he's really delighted to see
how comfortable these really are.
Bill Bowerman started sending his designs
to Onitsuka Tiger
to get them to create the shoes that he wanted,
essentially designing the sneakers for them.
[Narrator] Ultimately, Onitsuka agrees
to manufacture the new design.
Now, Knight and Bowerman look for the perfect opportunity
to release their new, revolutionary sneaker.
They figure, if we're gonna debut a new shoe,
let's debut it on the biggest stage imaginable.
[Narrator] And in 1968,
there's no bigger opportunity than the Olympics.
With Mexico hosting,
Blue Ribbon comes up with a fitting name
for their new shoe, the Aztec.
It was soft and super lightweight.
It could stand up to athletes competing in multiple heats.
[Narrator] But there's already another sneaker
with a similar name made by Adidas.
I think Bowerman and Knight must have known
that there already was a shoe called the Azteca.
But if you're not going to compete
for that number one spot, why are you competing?
At this point in time,
Adidas was the premier footwear brand.
Everyone knew them,
but no one knew who Blue Ribbon Sports were.
They were the underdog, they were the new kids on the block,
but they were swinging for the fences, so to speak,
and saying that we too could sit at this table,
so watch out, Adidas.
[Narrator] This move lands them in the crosshairs
of Adi Dassler's son, Horst,
who's recently joined the family business.
Horst grew up with a father
who virtually changed the world of footwear.
Now he's coming in and he wants to prove himself.
So Horst has four sisters.
He's Adi's only son.
He needs to prove to his family
that he should be the heir apparent to his father's empire.
He's really determined to keep Adidas in the forefront
and be the leader of the pack.
What is this?
It's a Japanese shoe being sold by Americans.
And?
They're calling it the Aztec.
[tense music]
Find out who they are.
Adi Dassler was not about to let some little upstart,
unknown American company steal the name of his shoe.
You're not gonna believe this.
What's up?
We're being sued by Adidas.
Adidas was the powerhouse.
They had the money, they had the brand recognition.
Adidas could have literally just stepped on them
and crushed them.
[Narrator] In 1968, Blue Ribbon Sports
is facing a serious legal battle
that could prevent them from launching
their innovative new sneaker at the Olympic Games.
So Adidas has a shoe called Azteca Gold
and Blue Ribbon Sport comes out with a shoe called Aztec,
and they feel that it's just too similar.
So Adi sues Blue Ribbon.
[Narrator] Without the funds to battle Adidas in court,
Knight and Bowerman opt to change the name.
Hey, who is the guy that beat the Aztecs?
Uh, Cortez?
Okay, we call it the Cortez.
You should always respect very aggressive, very ambitious,
very hungry founders who are out to win.
[upbeat music]
[Narrator] The Cortez is launched
just in time for the Olympics.
For a little upstart company like Blue Ribbon Sports,
to enter a stage like that, that's a definitive statement
if to no one else, Adidas, saying, we're coming for you.
So the Olympics,
even though Adidas took bronze, silver, and gold,
a number of the athletes did wear Blue Ribbon products.
This set up the stage
for all competition going back and forth.
[Narrator] After the games,
the Cortez surprisingly starts to resonate
with a wider audience.
It starts to appeal to the masses.
People are buying it not just for sport, they're buying it
'cause it's comfortable and it's a casual shoe
that they can wear every day.
You could get one for about 30 bucks
and to have something lightweight, attractive,
without incurring a massive expense,
that was sort of the brass ring.
You start seeing people wearing them
with jeans, hanging out,
and it really is a sea change in the role
that sneakers play in American fashion.
[Narrator] Within a year,
the Tiger Cortez will become the best selling shoe
for Blue Ribbon sports,
doubling their annual sales to $300,000.
With the creation of stylish,
affordable, comfortable athletic wear
that non-athletes could enjoy,
Blue Ribbon Sports is coming for that number one spot
against the company that rules the roost.
While the Cortez was doing a fraction
of what Adidas was doing at the time,
they were still eating into the company's share
and here's this company that's coming outta nowhere
and stealing all of its shine.
[Narrator] As Blue Ribbon stock starts rising,
Adidas' Horst Dassler is on guard.
Horst Dassler is very ambitious, very well traveled,
but he also has this contentious relationship
with his father.
His dad didn't wanna waste his resources
combating some small American company,
but Horst could see
that the sneaker market was changing rapidly
and he wanted to harness the attention of pop culture now.
[Narrator] In order to stay a step ahead of Knight
and Bowerman, Horst looks to expand into a sport
they're not in, one that's uniquely American.
Horst Dassler, he sees basketball for the first time
and he is mesmerized.
[pensive music]
Basketball really wasn't all that popular.
Basketball games were usually pre-taped
and broadcast at a later time,
and golf got the primetime slots in American sports TV.
[Narrator] Horst believes the sport
will only grow in popularity.
His father, though, didn't want to change,
thinking that track and field and soccer were their bread
and butter for Adidas.
[Narrator] Despite his father's disapproval,
he thinks there's an opportunity
to create a better basketball sneaker,
but he'll need to outmaneuver another American brand.
Converse almost had a, like, lock
on the basketball market, right?
Like almost every athlete wore some type of Converse.
The high cut canvas material, which offered breathability,
it offered comfortability right out of the box,
but it didn't offer all the support
that a lot of the players needed.
So it left the door open
for a brand like Adidas to walk on in.
Horst Dassler knew that a 6 foot 10, 300 pound man
jumping and banking and turning and stopping and starting
with just some canvas wrapped around his foot
was not sufficient.
He knew that Converse did not offer
the performance benefits that he knew an Adidas shoe could.
Don't show these to anyone,
especially not my father.
So Adidas, at the time, is really known
for track and field, and soccer.
So to try to venture into basketball shoes is a real risk.
[Narrator] As Dassler attempts to take down Converse,
a contract renegotiation in 1971
threatens to take out Blue Ribbon.
The only way Onitsuka Tiger will move forward with him
is if they can have 51% ownership.
Every businessman knows you never lose control,
and once you give 51% of your company
to someone else, you're out.
You're a minority owner in the business.
You have no say, you're done.
[Narrator] If they want to avoid relinquishing control
of their company, Knight and Bowerman
will have to make a bold decision.
I think every entrepreneur faces a moment
where they can cash out and give up their baby
or they can bet on themselves
and see it through for better or for worse.
And betting on yourself is a very risky
and scary thing to do.
They couldn't figure it out,
so thus, they decided to part ways.
[Narrator] Now, the duo is looking
to start over on their own.
They decided that they needed to come up with a new name.
Blue Ribbon Sports
didn't exactly exemplify speed or athleticism, right?
So he comes up with one that he thinks will be etched
into the history books of sports forever.
A name that really evokes the striving and struggle,
trials, tribulations the wars one must wage
in order to achieve victory.
"Dimension Six."
I mean let's be honest,
Dimension Six sounds like a really bad disco band
from the '70s, or like, a new iteration of Star Trek.
[Narrator] To find a better name,
they petition company employees for suggestions.
They had millions tied up in production,
in trademarks, patents,
and everybody's like, what's the name of your company?
[Narrator] But then, an employee pitches a name he says
came to him in a dream.
So, what do you got?
It reflected the company's determination
and the drive to succeed.
I love the name for many reasons.
It was inspired by the Greek goddess of victory.
That's just so appropriate for the brand.
[Narrator] This iconic name will soon transform
the landscape of sneakers forever.
Nike.
Obviously, goddess of victory.
It's like, a great thing to rally around.
We're gonna win this sneaker war.
[Narrator] Now they'll need the perfect sneaker
to help put them back on the map.
Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight had to come up
with something unique and innovative
to introduce Nike to the world.
So the challenge was certainly before them.
[Narrator] And with the next Olympics
less than a year away,
it presents an ideal stage for their ambitious debut.
Meanwhile, back in Germany,
Horst Dassler is hoping his gamble
into basketball sneakers pays off.
Their sneakers offered unbelievable ankle support,
but also offered super grip to help the athletes run up
and down the court
to make their both lateral and medial cuts,
stopping and going without slipping and sliding.
Whereas the Chuck Taylor All-Star
has such a simplistic tread on it,
Adidas really formulated a much more sport-specific
tread pattern on both the low top version
and the high top version.
Horst Dassler's design was a pretty unique one
and it involved this circle on the sole
and it created kind of like a suction cup effect.
'Cause basketball players are cutting
and making sudden movements,
and it was such a revolutionary technology.
[Narrator] Determined to prove himself to his father,
Horst does whatever it takes
to ensure his new Supergrip sneaker succeeds.
So he approaches the coach of a new NBA expansion team.
What am I looking at here?
Our first ever basketball sneaker.
Why don't you just try them on, size 11, right?
He figured that if he can get them to wear them,
they would be the best marketers.
[tense music]
They're good, but our guys wear Converse, all pros do.
Your guys are rookies.
We are rookies in the game too.
Let's help each other.
You have to have the kind of ingenuity
and engineering capabilities to put out a good product,
and then you have to have the tenacity
and outside the box thinking to sell the damn thing.
[Narrator] The San Diego Rockets agree
to wear Adidas sneakers and Horst Dassler hopes the rest
of the basketball world will take notice.
Meanwhile, in Oregon,
Bill Bowerman's also looking for a way to stand out.
Bill Bowerman gets selected as the next head coach
of the US Olympic track team.
He was gonna do everything in his power to make sure
that those athletes were not wearing Adidas shoes.
At that point, these shoes that runners would use
was only suitable for one type of running surface.
And at that point, even at the college that he was at,
they were starting to utilize multiple surfaces.
At this time,
a lot of tracks were using synthetic polyurethane rubber
that made the tracks incredibly spongy,
that necessitated a sneaker with more grip
and Adidas were the grippiest.
[Narrator] With Nike in desperate need for a new
and superior shoe,
Bowerman finds inspiration in an unlikely place.
[Narrator] In Oregon in 1972,
Bill Bowerman is struck with inspiration
for a new shoe while eating breakfast.
As he sees the waffle,
he sees the divots in the actual waffle and boom,
that eureka moment happens.
Do you mind if I borrow the waffle iron?
This is where Bowerman's genius kicks in.
[intense music]
He realizes like, oh, this could be a sole of a sneaker.
Bill Bowerman looked at a waffle iron
and saw a new kind of running shoe.
If I look at a waffle iron,
I just think about tasty, tasty waffles.
To his wife's dismay, he grabbed some urethane
and poured it directly into that waffle iron.
At the time, rubber was being used in somewhat
of a vulcanized manner, so it required expensive machinery,
and he's just using a household waffle iron,
literally just taking rubber composite, pouring it in,
pressing it down.
The idea of creating a waffle grid
to create grip was deceptively brilliant
because you now had studs that could grip in any direction.
[Narrator] With a groundbreaking design
for a new running sneaker,
Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman look for a new logo
that's just as innovative.
He happened to find Carolyn Davidson,
a Portland State University student studying graphic design
who was charged with designing something
that evoked motion.
So Davidson submits a whole bunch of designs
to Phil Knight.
[Narrator] Provided with minimal guidance
and a mere $35 check,
Davidson delivers an array of designs.
And eventually, Bowerman really loves one of them.
[pensive music]
You know, this one's not bad.
It's based on the wing of that particular Greek goddess
and she made it look more like it had a motion to it.
I mean, it's the perfect design.
It looks like a whoosh of air.
This logo that can stand on its own.
You can put that logo on a billboard anywhere in the world
and people will know it's Nike.
I don't love it.
And Phil Knight hates it.
And it's kind of crazy to think that small decisions made
by one individual
ended up shifting the entire paradigm of footwear.
Yeah, but maybe it'll grow on me.
Yeah, the Nike swoosh was born.
It symbolizes achievement.
It symbolizes empowerment and the pursuit of excellence.
The power of the Nike swoosh really lies in its simplicity.
It has propulsive-ness to it.
It has almost an aerodynamism to it.
It's just so easily brandable.
I mean, when you see the swoosh on the side
of a running shoe, it's almost creating this optical energy
and swiftness to it.
[Narrator] With a new shoe and new logo ready to launch,
Nike is gearing up once again to take on Adidas.
So you got this up and coming brand
trying to knock off the top,
like, that should tell you everything you need to know
about Nike at that time.
Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman were the underdogs.
Knight is very determined.
He has that never quit, never make excuse mindset.
My favorite part about business
is the David and Goliath story.
I do not believe that Adidas was sitting there
with real great concern of this cute little thing
in the Pacific Northwest called Nike.
That becomes the problem.
Underestimating your emerging competition
has been the historical truth of why you lose.
[Narrator] In 1972, under a new branded logo,
Nike debuts their first sneaker
with its revolutionary waffle sole at the Munich Olympics.
While Adidas was very dominant at the Olympics,
they couldn't deny that Nike was on the scene,
that they were a force to be reckoned with.
The special thing about the waffle sole
is that it is the ability for it to be used
on multiple different running surfaces.
I mean, it was groundbreaking.
[Narrator] Within one year,
sales of Nike sneakers reach five million annually
and begin to attract new customers around the world.
But as Nike continues to soar, in 1976,
Adidas reaches new heights.
[crowd cheering]
Adidas scores a major coup
in signing one of the biggest basketball stars of all time,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
and it brings the brand to stratospheric awareness.
So Horst has taken a relatively unknown brand
of athletic shoe for basketball
and turned it into the number one shoe in basketball.
[Narrator] Within the year,
85% of all professional basketball players in America
have made the switch from Converse to Adidas.
It's good to see you, brought you a pair.
I think Horst had to have felt, if I grow the brand,
build the brand, build a better shoe,
this company will be mine
when my father goes, logically.
Our shoes are number one in the NBA.
So you would think that his father would think, aha,
my son understands it, he gets it, he's driven.
He's willing to think outside the box,
and instead...
You disobeyed me.
Adi Dassler just feels betrayed
and he's furious at Horst,
and he never entirely forgives Horst for this.
[Narrator] Making matters worse,
just two years later, tragedy strikes.
Adi Dassler, the man who set the benchmark
for footwear all around the globe, dies.
Horst had to think, I have moved mountains for this brand.
Who else could he want as a successor?
[Narrator] Adi, however, had different plans.
Rather than leave the company to Horst,
he blindsides him and leaves it to his sister and his mother.
I think Horst had to have felt
like he was slapped in the face,
just like, the ultimate betrayal.
[intense music]
[Narrator] Meanwhile, back in the States,
no longer a scrappy upstart,
Nike sales hit $149 million in 1979,
but Adidas is still leading the American market.
Nike had made a name for themselves in running,
but Adidas was the basketball shoe.
It's taking over the basketball scene,
but Phil Knight is not one to back down from a challenge.
Nike wanted to make the jump to another sport.
They're looking ahead again.
What's a sport that people are playing, they're excited about,
that's fast paced and moving?
Basketball.
[Narrator] And they're looking to a scientist for help.
Frank Rudy was a retired aeronautics engineer
and he had tons of ideas
that he wanted to incorporate into sneakers.
[Narrator] But so far, Rudy has been passed over
by 23 other companies, including Adidas.
Horst saw it and didn't think that it was what Adidas needed.
He thought it was actually just a gimmick.
Rudy being the person that never takes no for an answer,
basically said, okay, if you don't say yes,
someone else will.
All right, so what do you got for me?
He was able to enclose dense gases
into the rubber membrane, inventing the air cushion.
This created kind of like an air bubble
inside the sneaker's midsole.
They look like bubbles.
They're actually pressurized airbags.
The air unit is basically a shock absorber
and it also works to kind of give you more cushion.
When Phil Knight saw it, he too was not enthused by it.
He thought it was a gimmick, he thought it was a joke.
But then when he heard the news
that Adidas had passed on it, he said, well,
let me take a look at this.
[intense music]
Phil Knight does what any athlete will do.
He takes the shoes and he goes for a six mile run,
and by the end of it, he actually physically notes, hey,
this feels pretty comfortable.
I think you got something here.
Frank Rudy signs a deal
for something like 15 cents a piece
for every Air sole sold.
Knight has always been nipping at the heels of Adidas,
and now he feels like he has the tools
to really do some damage.
[Narrator] In 1982, Nike releases
the first basketball shoe with Air technology,
the Air Force One.
You couldn't see the Air,
but yet the athletes could feel the Air,
they can talk about the Air.
It made them play better, jump higher, run faster.
But while it did good in certain areas,
overall it didn't do well.
And it's funny because at that time,
they were gonna discontinue the line.
[Narrator] By 1984, sales dropped nearly 30%,
putting the company in dire financial straits.
They were thinking of getting out
of basketball altogether.
But Phil Knight wasn't gonna give up just like that.
He knew that if he can get the right player to wear Nike,
he can have people see Nike
as more than just a running shoe.
To save the company, Nike had to go big or go home.
They had to do something.
Lo and behold, young basketball player
out of North Carolina was about to enter his rookie year.
[Narrator] To save the languishing Nike brand,
Knight is going to go all in.
It's a little bit crazy for any company to identify him
as a future superstar,
let alone invest in him the way Nike ultimately did.
[Narrator] They'll gamble everything
to put the future of Nike
in the hands of a rookie from North Carolina.
oking for a lifeline
to revive their Air Force One sneaker
and break through Adidas' stranglehold
on the basketball market,
and they're betting it all on a curious rookie
named Michael Jordan.
He wasn't the first pick in the NBA draft,
he was the third.
And so it wasn't a foregone conclusion
that this was the greatest basketball player of all time.
It was the talent scout at the collegiate level.
He's the person that actually convinced
and told the folks at Nike
that if we're looking for that unicorn, this is the one.
I mean, Nike is really sweating it and at this point,
they really can't afford to be wrong.
[Narrator] But Nike isn't a slam dunk for Jordan either.
When Michael Jordan decided to actually take the meeting
with Nike, it wasn't his first choice.
He really wanted to wear Adidas sneakers.
[Narrator] To woo Jordan,
Nike makes a bold proposition,
offering him a staggering $2.5 million over five years
to wear Nike sneakers during games.
He's an unknown talent,
he could fizzle out in year one.
I think a lot of people looked at Nike
as being reckless with their spending.
[Narrator] In an effort to top Adidas,
Nike signs Michael Jordan
to the largest sneaker deal in history.
They literally mortgaged the entire future
on this one player.
He's getting 25% of royalties.
He is getting a hand in the sneaker design of his own shoe
with patented Air design.
The entire situation's pretty bizarre.
You have a virtually untested rookie
who's making more money than anyone else,
who's now coming out with his own shoe
that doesn't look like any other shoe.
They're red, and black.
For the Chicago Bulls.
Well, he won't be able to wear them on the court.
The NBA rule at that time
was that your footwear had to be mostly white.
They're gonna fine us.
Let them.
[Narrator] Released on April 1st, 1985,
The Air Jordan 1 sells for $65,
over 185 today.
First time Michael Jordan wears his sneakers,
they are black and red ones
and obviously they look super cool.
Everyone thought so, except for the NBA
and they were like, nope.
And they slap a $5,000 fine per game
for every game he wears those shoes, they're out of uniform.
Nike loves it.
They're more than happy to pay the fine.
It is generating a buzz throughout the world
that these shoes are different, that they're special.
[Narrator] They even turn the buzz
into a successful marketing campaign.
This is a testament to the genius of Nike marketing.
They created a commercial about the sneakers being banned.
[Newscaster] On September 15th,
Nike created a revolutionary new basketball shoe.
On October 18th, the NBA threw them out of the game.
Fortunately, the NBA can't stop you from wearing them.
[Narrator] In the first month alone,
they sell 450,000 pairs, making almost $30 million.
Jordan becomes the Rookie of the Year.
His shoe is now really the symbol of rebellion, right?
It is the hottest shoe on the market.
[Narrator] By the year's end,
Nike makes $150 million.
Phil Knight is in the position that he's in
is because he's just whip smart.
What a brilliant partnership.
Everyone wanted to be like Mike.
[Narrator] Nike has not only beaten Adidas in basketball,
but is on track to surpass them
as the number one athletic shoe company in the world.
And it's a fact not lost on Horst Dassler.
After Horst's mother passes away, he gets full control
of the company and he starts to implement his vision
and his idea for Adidas.
[Narrator] In an attempt to strike back at Nike,
he makes an unprecedented move
by targeting a completely different demographic,
signing a hip hop group to a million dollar deal.
This emerging thing called called hip hop
that was going to change the world,
and so it was a monumental moment.
[Narrator] The group's name is Run DMC
and their song, "My Adidas,"
reaches number five on the Billboard charts.
I think it's easy to misunderstand this song
as a celebration of streetwear or name checking a brand.
It was saying, I'm rocking these particular shoes
as I break down barriers as a black artist,
a rap artist, as a formerly underprivileged kid from Queens.
And it lays the groundwork
of so many celebrity, music, brand endorsements
that we see today.
[Narrator] That year, Adidas sells 500,000 pairs
of Superstars, prompting them to roll out
an entire Run DMC line.
I would argue that what Michael Jordan did for Nike,
Run DMC did for Adidas.
It was that big and I would tell you, if people can remember,
the Adidas thing was bigger than the Jordan thing.
It's no longer just a sneaker company.
It's a lifestyle company.
And if it wasn't for Horst,
I don't know if that would've happened.
Unfortunately, Horst Dassler dies
only one year later in 1987.
His visionary approach left Adidas
as the world's largest sports brand,
earning nearly $2.2 billion.
If you look at pretty much any given Adidas shoe
to this day, you will see echoes of the original design
that Adi Dassler made all those years ago.
[Narrator] Yet in 2015, it's Phil Knight
who takes the ultimate victory lap
when he retires after accomplishing his goal
of besting Adidas,
raking in a staggering $51 billion a year.
Nike's biggest impact on the world was convincing
the world that any person who has a body is an athlete.
And so they made it a lot more accessible.
These brands all began with a moment
of individual inspiration, and sometimes it's the most weird
or unlikely place that that inspiration comes from.
But nonetheless, the inspiration behind one
or two individuals has become the source
of these brands that have changed our lives
and our country forever.