1
THE CRAZY IDEA
INT. STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS — DAY — 1962
A small seminar room. Students in pressed shirts present final papers. YOUNG PHIL KNIGHT (24), wiry, nervous, stands at the front holding index cards he clearly doesn't need. Behind him, a chalkboard reads: "CAN JAPANESE SPORT SHOES DO TO GERMAN SPORT SHOES WHAT JAPANESE CAMERAS DID TO GERMAN CAMERAS?"
YOUNG PHIL
The global athletic shoe market is dominated by two German companies — Adidas and Puma. They're expensive. Japanese manufacturers can produce the same quality for a fraction of the cost. I believe an American distributor importing Japanese shoes could... could change everything.
Polite, tepid applause. The professor nods. Nobody in the room realizes they've just witnessed the birth of a $200 billion company.
EXT. KOBE, JAPAN — DAY — 1963
Phil Knight walks the streets of Kobe in a cheap suit. He finds the offices of ONITSUKA CO., makers of Tiger running shoes. He has no company. No business cards. No money. He has a crazy idea and a backpack.
ONITSUKA EXECUTIVE
(through translator) And what company do you represent, Mr. Knight?
Phil freezes. He looks at a painting on the wall — a blue ribbon across a shoe.
YOUNG PHIL
Blue Ribbon Sports. I represent Blue Ribbon Sports. Of Portland, Oregon.
The name was invented three seconds ago. The company does not exist. Phil Knight just lied his way into history.
EXT. KNIGHT FAMILY HOME — PORTLAND — DAY — 1964
Phil's parents' basement. Twelve boxes of Onitsuka Tiger shoes sit on the floor. Phil opens one, pulls out a shoe, turns it over. Lightweight. Elegant. Japanese craftsmanship at American prices. He picks up the phone.
YOUNG PHIL
Coach Bowerman? It's Phil. Phil Knight. I have something you need to see.
EXT. UNIVERSITY OF OREGON TRACK — DAY — 1964
BILL BOWERMAN (53), legendary track coach, built like a brick wall wrapped in a windbreaker, examines a Tiger shoe with the intensity of a jeweler appraising a diamond. He bends it. Sniffs the rubber. Puts it on the ground and steps on it.
BOWERMAN
It's not bad. But I can make it better.
YOUNG PHIL
I was hoping you'd say that. I want you to be my partner. Fifty-fifty.
BOWERMAN
Forty-nine fifty-one. I won't be an equal partner with any man half my age. You get the fifty-one.
They shake hands. Blue Ribbon Sports is now real.
EXT. TRACK MEETS ACROSS OREGON — DAY — 1965
MONTAGE: Phil selling Tiger shoes from the trunk of his Plymouth Valiant at track meets. Runners try them on, bounce on their toes, eyes widening. Phil makes $8,000 in his first year. He keeps his day job as an accountant. He runs six miles every morning.
YOUNG PHIL
(voice over) I wasn't selling shoes. I was selling a belief. The belief that if you had a body, you were an athlete. And if you were an athlete, you deserved great shoes.
CUT TO:
2
THE WAFFLE IRON
INT. BOWERMAN'S KITCHEN — DAWN — 1971
Barbara Bowerman's kitchen. Bill Bowerman stands over a waffle iron. But he's not making breakfast. He pours liquid urethane rubber into the waffle iron and clamps it shut. Smoke rises. His wife enters.
BARBARA BOWERMAN (O.S.)
Bill! That's my waffle iron!
BOWERMAN
(not looking up) It's science now, Barbara.
He opens the iron. A rubber sole with a waffle pattern. Tiny nubs that grip the track surface. Bowerman holds it up, grinning. The Waffle Trainer. It will revolutionize running shoes.
INT. BLUE RIBBON SPORTS OFFICE — DAY — 1971
A cramped office. Phil, now 33, paces. JEFF JOHNSON, his first employee and most fanatical believer, sits with sketches spread across the desk.
JEFF JOHNSON
We need our own brand name. We can't keep selling someone else's shoes forever. I had a dream last night. The name came to me: Nike.
YOUNG PHIL
Nike? The Greek goddess of victory?
JEFF JOHNSON
Short. Memorable. Two syllables, like all the great brands.
YOUNG PHIL
(long pause) I don't love it. But I don't hate it. We can always change it later.
They never changed it.
INT. PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY — DAY — 1971
CAROLYN DAVIDSON, a graphic design student, shows Phil a series of logo options. One stands out — a curved checkmark shape. A swoosh.
YOUNG PHIL
(staring at the swoosh) What is it?
CAROLYN
It represents motion. Speed. A wing.
YOUNG PHIL
I don't love it. But maybe it'll grow on me.
PHIL KNIGHT PAID CAROLYN DAVIDSON $35 FOR THE SWOOSH. HE LATER GAVE HER 500 SHARES OF NIKE STOCK, WORTH OVER $1 MILLION.
INT. BANK OF CALIFORNIA — DAY — 1975
Phil sits across from a BANK MANAGER. Nike is growing explosively but burning cash just as fast. They need credit. The banker studies the books with visible skepticism.
BANK MANAGER
Mr. Knight, your company is growing at forty percent a year but you're leveraged to the hilt. You have almost no cash reserves. This is extremely risky.
YOUNG PHIL
All great things are risky. Mediocrity is the only safe bet, and it's the worst bet of all.
BANK MANAGER
That's a wonderful philosophy. But I need collateral.
INT. KNIGHT HOME — NIGHT — 1975
Phil sits at the kitchen table, head in hands. PENNY KNIGHT, his wife, sits across from him. Bills everywhere.
PENNY KNIGHT
How bad?
YOUNG PHIL
We're one bad quarter from bankruptcy. We're growing so fast we can't finance our own growth. The Japanese suppliers want cash upfront. The banks want us to slow down. If we slow down, we die.
PENNY KNIGHT
Then don't slow down.
CUT TO:
3
JUST DO IT
INT. NIKE HEADQUARTERS — CONFERENCE ROOM — DAY — 1984
Phil Knight, now 46, sits at the head of a long table. Nike has gone public. They're losing market share to Reebok. The aerobics craze has caught them flat-footed. The room is tense.
MARKETING DIRECTOR
Reebok outsold us last quarter. They own the women's market. Their aerobics shoes are everywhere.
PHIL KNIGHT
We don't chase trends. We set them. What do we have that Reebok doesn't?
MARKETING DIRECTOR
We have a kid named Michael Jordan. Just drafted by the Bulls. His agent wants to meet.
INT. NIKE HEADQUARTERS — DAY — 1984
MICHAEL JORDAN (21), tall, impossibly athletic, sits across from Phil Knight. Jordan looks bored. He wanted Adidas. His mother told him to take this meeting.
PHIL KNIGHT
We don't want to give you a shoe deal, Michael. We want to build a brand around you. Your own line. Air Jordan. No athlete has ever had that.
MICHAEL JORDAN
(leaning forward for the first time) My own line?
PHIL KNIGHT
Your name. Your logo. Your shoes. We think you're not just going to be good. We think you're going to be the greatest basketball player who ever lived. And we want to bet the company on it.
Jordan looks at his mother. She nods. He looks back at Knight.
MICHAEL JORDAN
Let's do it.
THE AIR JORDAN LINE EARNED $126 MILLION IN ITS FIRST YEAR. THE NBA INITIALLY BANNED THE SHOES. NIKE PAID THE $5,000 FINE PER GAME HAPPILY.
INT. WIEDEN+KENNEDY AD AGENCY — NIGHT — 1988
Dan Wieden, Nike's ad man, is struggling with a tagline. He's been at it for hours. He thinks of Gary Gilmore, the convicted murderer, whose last words before the firing squad were "Let's do it." Wieden changes one word.
He writes on a whiteboard: JUST DO IT.
Three words that will define a generation.
INT. PHIL KNIGHT'S OFFICE — DAY — 1988
WIEDEN (ON PHONE)
Phil, I've got the tagline. "Just Do It."
PHIL KNIGHT
(long pause) I don't love it.
He never loved anything at first. The name Nike. The swoosh. "Just Do It." Phil Knight's genius was not in recognizing greatness immediately — it was in not killing it.
CUT TO:
4
THE FINISH LINE
EXT. UNIVERSITY OF OREGON TRACK — DAWN — 2016
Phil Knight (78) walks the track at Hayward Field alone. The same track where Bowerman coached him. The same track where Nike was born. He's wearing Nike running shoes. He walks slowly, deliberately, touching the lane markers.
PHIL KNIGHT
(voice over) I've been asked a thousand times: what's the secret to Nike's success? I always give some answer about innovation or branding. But the real answer? I never stopped running. When the banks said no, I ran. When Onitsuka tried to cut us off, I ran. When Reebok was beating us, I ran. The cowards never started. The weak gave up along the way. That leaves us.
INT. PHIL KNIGHT'S STUDY — DAY — 2016
Phil sits at a desk writing. The manuscript pages pile up. He's writing "Shoe Dog," his memoir. On the wall behind him: the original swoosh sketch, a pair of Tiger flats, and a photo of Bill Bowerman.
PENNY KNIGHT
(entering) Are you really going to tell them everything? The near-bankruptcies? The lawsuits? The times you almost quit?
PHIL KNIGHT
Especially those times. That's the part people need to hear. Everyone sees the swoosh. Nobody sees the struggle.
EXT. BEAVERTON, OREGON — NIKE WORLD HEADQUARTERS — DAY — PRESENT
Aerial shot of the massive Nike campus. Buildings named after athletes: Mia Hamm. Tiger Woods. Serena Williams. LeBron James. At the center, a bronze statue of Bill Bowerman. Below it, Phil Knight stands looking up at his old coach.
PHIL KNIGHT
(quietly) We did it, Coach.
He reaches down and touches the sole of his shoe — still the waffle pattern, after all these years.
Nike is valued at over $170 billion. Phil Knight's personal fortune exceeds $45 billion. He has donated more than $3 billion to education, including $500 million to Stanford and $400 million to the University of Oregon. Bill Bowerman died in 1999. The waffle iron was destroyed in the first experiment. Carolyn Davidson's 500 shares, adjusted for splits, made her a millionaire. "Just Do It" remains the most recognized advertising slogan in sports history.
FADE OUT.