The company originally named Blue Ribbon Sports was Nike.
Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman founded Blue Ribbon Sports on January 25, 1964. At first, it was primarily a distributor of Japanese athletic shoes made by Onitsuka Co., whose Tiger brand later became ASICS. Knight handled the business while Bowerman, a University of Oregon track coach, experimented with new shoe designs.
Blue Ribbon Sports began developing and selling its own footwear, eventually introducing the Nike brand. In 1971, the company officially changed its name to Nike, Inc. The name refers to Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, and was reportedly suggested by the company’s first full-time employee, Jeff Johnson.
A common mix-up is confusing the company’s original corporate name with its later shoe brand: Nike was not founded under that name. The famous Swoosh logo was also created in 1971 by graphic designer Carolyn Davidson, initially for a modest fee, before becoming one of the world’s most recognizable corporate symbols.