44 pages • 1 hour read
Phil KnightShoe Dog: Young Readers Edition
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Middle Grade | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “1965”
At the beginning of 1965, Knight receives a letter from Jeff Johnson saying that he thinks the Tigers have more sales potential than Adidas, so Knight once again offers him a job as a commissioned salesman for Blue Ribbon. Johnson accepts and begins sending Knight a constant stream of letters to ask questions, report his sales totals, and offer suggestions. By April, Johnson writes to tell Knight that he has quit his day job as a social worker to focus on his sales job full-time. This level of enthusiasm and “dewy romanticism” is something Knight has never encountered (95). Although Knight attempts to discourage Johnson from putting too much faith in Blue Ribbon and thinking that he can make a living with the fledgling company, Knight still agrees to hire Johnson as his first full-time employee.
At the same time, Knight is told by his banker that his company is growing too fast and that “growth off your balance sheet is dangerous” (98). Knight does not understand this concept and sees growth as mandatory for survival, so he continues to double his orders from Onitsuka and then convinces the bank to approve the loan. Given the reluctance of the bank to continue approving loans, Knight sees Blue Ribbon’s future as cloudy, so he decides to get a real job to fall back on. He is hired by Price Waterhouse as an accountant in Portland, and auditing young companies ultimately helps him understand how they survive or fail.
The one undeniable asset that Blue Ribbon has is having the legendary Bowerman as a partner. Because he has two runners competing in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Bowerman is given royal treatment when he visits Onitsuka personally. Bowerman even begins corresponding with Mr. Onitsuka when he returns home and starts sending him ideas for shoes that will be better for American runners. Eventually, Onitsuka makes samples according to Bowerman’s vision and sends them to him, where they became wildly successful for his runners at Oregon. Knight points out that “a little success always [goes] to Bowerman’s head, in the best way” (110). He ends the chapter by recounting his experiences with Bowerman attempting to test sports elixirs and running surfaces that would aid runners.
Chapter 5 Summary: “1966”
In Chapter 5, Knight describes Johnson’s continuous stream of correspondence to him from California and the obsessive work that he is doing for Blue Ribbon. By rarely answering Johnson’s letters, Knight inadvertently creates a managerial style that allows him freedom, to which Johnson “respond[s] with boundless creativity and energy” (116). Not only has Johnson begun advertising Tigers and establishing return customers, but he has also created a massive database of Blue Ribbon’s customers, with whom he keeps in regular contact. To Knight’s surprise, Johnson has also extended his sales area, which was supposed to be only western states, to include customers in 37 states, including the East Coast. As the summer begins, Knight decides to move out of his parents’ house and get an apartment, which he rents for $200 and promptly fills “floor to ceiling with shoes” (118).
The next letter from Johnson is too important for Knight to ignore. It informs him that he has been badly injured in a car accident, but it also assures Knight that Johnson “[is] managing to meet all his obligations” (119). In return, Knight agrees to authorize him to open a retail store if he can meet a quota of 3,250 sales by the end of June, which Johnson somehow does. Johnson then “set[s] about turning the store into a mecca, a holy of holies for runners” (121). Later in the summer, Johnson relays a message that the East Coast wrestling coach is still selling Tigers and even placing ads in national magazines, so Knight takes a flight to California to strategize with Johnson on how to deal with it.
Their decision is that Knight needs to go back to Japan and meet with Onitsuka again. Knight immediately goes back to Oregon, asks for two weeks off at his accounting firm, and begins studying his How to Do Business With the Japanese book on the plane. When he arrives, Knight discovers that Mr. Morimoto, the executive he had previously dealt with, is no longer with the company, and he will be meeting with Mr. Kitami. Realizing during the meeting that he is indeed an asset for Onitsuka, Knight confidently explains that he expects Blue Ribbon’s sales to increase from $44,000 in 1966 to $48,000 the following year. He asks to be the exclusive distributor for their track-and-field line in the US. Kitami tells him that this will not be possible because they want a distributor with offices on the East Coast, so Knight responds that Blue Ribbon does have East Coast offices. Onitsuka calls him in for a follow-up meeting the next day and awards Knight with a three-year contract and exclusive distribution rights in the US, but now he needs to figure out how to open an East Coast office before his next shipment arrives.
Chapter 6 Summary: “1967”
Tasked with the dilemma of urgently opening an East Coast office, Knight knows that he will have to send Johnson to do it, so he immediately hires someone to replace Johnson at the Santa Monica store without discussing the issue with Johnson first. This leads to a tense standoff with Knight and his lone employee, who has been largely responsible for Blue Ribbon’s success thus far. Johnson reluctantly agrees to go to Boston to set up an office but later gives Knight an ultimatum about his transfer, asking for a raise and to be made a full partner in Blue Ribbon. Knight flies to meet with Johnson and his father, who is acting as his son’s negotiator. Johnson’s father argues that his son deserves to become a full partner, but Knight’s offer is only a small raise because “Bowerman [is] unwilling to sell any of his stake in Blue Ribbon” (137). Knight sees in Johnson’s face that “two contrary desires [are] fighting for his heart” (137). Eventually, Johnson agrees to Knight’s offer, and the two go for a run.
Knight hires John Bork, a high school track coach whom he knows, to take over the California store, and Bowerman calls to ask him to hire one of his former Oregon runners, Geoff Hollister, as a salesman. Before long, Bowerman calls again and requests that Knight also hire Bob Woodell as his fourth full-time employee. Woodell, another former Bowerman runner at Oregon who had been paralyzed in an accident as a student, is hired to open Blue Ribbon’s second retail store that will be based in Eugene, Oregon. Bowerman, meanwhile, has contacted Onitsuka with suggestions for improving the design on its main training shoe, which they took and then asked him what he wanted to name his creation. He and Knight decide to name the shoe the Cortez. Knight says that “thanks largely to Bowerman’s Cortez, [they] close[] the year in a blaze, meeting [their] expectation of revenue: eighty-four thousand dollars” (146). He closes the chapter explaining that Blue Ribbon has outgrown his apartment, so he rents a large room across town that will become the home office.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
Chapters 4-6 introduce several characters to the narrative who are vital to developing the culture for which Nike became known. Jeff Johnson becomes a commissioned salesman in 1965 and becomes Knight’s first full-time employee several months later. Throughout Chapter 4, Knight describes Johnson’s eccentricities as well as his passion and belief in what he is doing, highlighting the theme of Do What You Know and Love. He explains that Johnson immediately begins sending him an endless stream of letters detailing his sales totals and offering suggestions. While Knight likes his energy and enthusiasm, he “beg[ins] to worry that [Johnson] might have too much of each” (93). Knight argues that Johnson believes running done right is a “mystical exercise” and that that belief fuels his enthusiasm for the brand.
Johnson’s ability to translate that sense of mysticism and enthusiasm for running is why he is able to create a store that Knight describes as “a sanctuary for runners, a place that [doesn’t] just sell them shoes but celebrate[s] them and their shoes” (122). Johnson’s enthusiasm in making sales and setting up the retail store in such a way stems from the fact that he is doing what he loves. Johnson’s attention to his business allows him to realize that the wrestling coach from the Northeast is again selling Tigers and even placing ads in national magazines. Alerting Knight allows him to fly back to Japan to once again meet with Onitsuka to address the issue of his competitor. This time, Knight is given a clearer mandate of exclusive distribution rights in the US, but he has to establish an office on the East Coast. This highlights the theme of Competition in Business. As in Knight’s first meeting with Onitsuka, he spontaneously announces that his business meets Onitsuka’s requirements without that necessarily being the case. This time, he assures them he has an East Coast store location, and this is how he gains the rights to national US distribution. He does this without knowing whether he will be able to open an East Coast location or whether Johnson will be willing to do it.
Johnson at first reluctantly agrees to go east but later changes his mind and demands that he be given a raise and made a full partner. This leads to a tense standoff between Knight and his only full-time employee, but it also shows how integral Johnson is to the business’s operations. At this point, he has done far more to sell the shoes and maintain and grow a customer base than Knight has. Johnson ultimately agrees to go east and accept only a small raise, which Knight argues is due to his love for the company. Knight suggests that Johnson “[sees] Blue Ribbon as the one place in the world where he fit[s], an alternative to the corporate quicksand that had swallowed most of [their] schoolmates and friends, most of [their] generation” (137). This passage provides early foreshadowing for the kind of cultural phenomenon Nike will become because it is a brand that celebrates the experience of athletes as something special.
This leads to Blue Ribbon’s first big transition from being a regional seller to a national distributor. Knight hires John Bork, a high school track coach, to replace Johnson at the West Coast store and hires two more former Oregon runners as full-time employees per Bowerman’s request. Geoff Hollister is hired as a salesman, and Bob Woodell is hired to open a retail store in Eugene. Like Johnson, Woodell especially comes to represent the spirit of the company. While a track athlete at Oregon, he had been paralyzed in an accident but remained close to Bowerman. Hiring athletes who use and understand the shoes is another business strategy that Knight uses intuitively. Just like he intuitively leaves Johnson alone and thereby develops a hands-off managing style, Knight hires representatives for his business who can communicate both their enthusiasm and the products’ value.
In Chapter 4, Knight describes trouble that he begins having related to his company’s growth, highlighting the theme of Personal Growth as Professional Growth. He posts $8,000 in sales during his first year and is projecting to double that the following year, but his banker warns him that “if a small company grows fast, it builds up its equity” (98). Knight does not understand how a 100% increase in sales could be troubling, so he continues with his growth plan. This shows his business naivete. He uses the analogy that “you might as well tell a runner in a race that he’s running too fast” (98). He will soon learn that businesses, like runners, can, in fact, progress too quickly, which can lead to negative consequences. At the close of Chapter 6, Knight provides another example of growth as an overarching theme of his work. In 1966, he explains that his parents’ house is no longer big enough to serve as his company’s headquarters, so he moves into an apartment. Only a year later, he realizes that his apartment is also too small, so he begins renting a large room across town to serve as his headquarters. In the same way that doubling sales and hiring full-time employees represents his business’s growth, so does the actual relocating of his company office from his parents’ home to a room of his own.
