So this is how Phil Knight turned Nike into a multi billion dollar global brand

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Nike announced on June 30 that Phil Knight, who co-founded the company with Bill Bowerman just over 50 years ago, will step away from his role as chairman. Bowerman died in 1999, meaning that once Knight leaves, Nike will for the first time be completely without the men who built it from scratch into the largest and arguably most iconic sportswear brand in the world.

Knight’s legacy and his role in making Nike what it is today cannot be overstated. A director at the company since 1968 and its president for decades until 2004, Knight more than anyone drove its business success over the years as it rose from a small distributor of Onitsuka Tiger sneakers—back when it was still called Blue Ribbon Sports—and ascended to the top of the sportswear market in the 1980s.

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