Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE

Authors

Phil Knight

Category
Business, Commentary

Synopsis

How many pieces of Nike clothing are currently floating around your house? We’re willing to bet our big toes (all 48 of them from the team) that there’s at least 1.

And we’re willing to bet a further 32 baby toes on you not knowing the backstory to the aforementioned sporting giant. (The other 8 toe owners weren’t fancying their odds on this one).

Knight’s memoir outlines said backstory, from the days of him selling Japanese trainers out of the back of his car, to Nike being floated on the stock market and him becoming worth millions.

What I took from reading it

It’s not clear whether Knight used a ghostwriter or if he’s done the dead himself, but whether it was one, the other, or a mixture of the two, it’s a strangely gripping read.

I say strangely because we all know how this story ends; with undeniable success and billions of dollars. Yet I spent 95% of the time worrying that the business would fail and the founding merry men (or ‘The Buttheads’ as he calls them) would lose everything.

I don’t have any snappy, actionable lessons to share with you, but I don’t think that’s what Knight wanted to achieve here.

I think Knight wanted to write scarily honest account of what starting a business is really like. And, according to my heart rate, he certainly managed to do so.

Who should read this book

E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E.

Read it on the train. At your desk. On the beach. At the kid’s swim lessons. Somewhere! Anywhere! Everywhere!

Just do it.

Where to Buy

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