As I conclude my reading of Phil Knight’s memoir called Shoe Dog, I have some interesting points to talk about. I first want to give a quick summary of what happens along Phil’s amazing journey.

To start, Phil is a young ambitious kid coming out of Oregon with his business degree. He has dreams of starting his own company where he can sell affordable, high quality running shoes to people across the nation. To start his journey, Phil decides he is going to take a trip around the world to possibly try and find some inspiration or a good starting point to build off of. While on this trip, Phil finds himself in Japan. Here, he is able to meet with a shoe distribution company, and they land a deal. Phil is able to sell their Japanese made shoes called “tigers” to people in the US.

This marks the start of Phil’s incredible shoe journey. As time moves on, Phil faces some tough times as he is struggling to make ends meet. He constantly has to take out loans just to keep a steady flow of shoes coming into the US. However, since the shoes are from a company in Japan, often the imports are late to get to Phil and he is tasked with trying to find a way to make money. He finds himself selling shoes just to break even if that. This process is a grind for Phil, but nevertheless, it ends up helping him in the long run.

Since Phil is not happy with how is deal is going with the Japanese company, he decides to go have a meeting with them in Japan. While at this meeting, Phil sees that the head manager of the corporation has a list of other people who are selling the same shoes in the US. This causes Phil to have to break away from the company and find another distributor.

Phil is able to get a deal with another company where they can make shoes with the new Nike logo on it. This marks the start of the Nike era. While starting this  new chapter, Phil is faced with going to court due to looking at the papers from the first Japanese company. The fine is 25 million but after some negations it is reduced to 9 million. This is certainty the largest roadblock that Phil has to overcome, but he is able to do it and move on with Nike.

Over time, Nike starts to become more and more popular. They release their clothing line to go along with their shoes. Nike starts to become very popular across the nation, and many people are buying the product. Nike ends up being a huge success, and Phil Knight will always be remembered for starting the greatest shoe and apparel company of all time.

Towards the end of the book, Phil is looking back on everting he has done in his career. One of my favorite parts is when he remembers that he was just a young kid with a dream, and now he is a multi billionaire who has endorsement deals with top athletes like Tiger Woods, LeBron James, and MJ.

This was certainty one of the best books I have ever read. Nike has always been one of my favorite brands, and this was a good way to learn more about the origins of the company. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about Nike.

The language in the book is very laidback and easy to understand, so I would say this book is good for high school students and above. It is a decently long book, but it is definitely worth the time. I truly enjoyed my reading of this book, and I hope you can indulge in this great book as well.