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Swoosh! Inside Nike

By Mark

Is it because they got their clock cleaned at the World Cup last year by archrival Adidas? Is it because the world's best marketing opportunity dawns in a few short month's in China, that is, is it because it's an Olympic year? Or is it just because it's All Star Weekend next weekend? Whatever the reason, Nike has embarked on an unprecedented public relations campaign for the notoriously secretive company that has resulted in a cover story in Forbes and an upcoming prime time documentary special on CNBC by my friend Darren Rovell.

The Forbes piece was generally positive and didn't break too much new ground. It did a nice job discussing the positive impact CEO Mark Parker has made in reorganizing the company. It used to be organized into categories of products: shoes, apparel and gear (golf clubs, for instance). It is now organized by sport. Each sport, basketball, golf, soccer, cricket, etc, includes shoes, apparel, gear and all research and development associated with it.

I got an opportunity to preview the CNBC documentary which will air Tuesday night, February 12th at 10:00 Eastern time. I wholeheartedly recommend it if you have any interest at all in how Nike came to be the largest shoe and sporting apparel company in the world. Rovell does an excellent job in getting inside Nike and getting to the essence of the Nike ethos. He also delves into Nike's past labor problems with Asian shoe factories and how Nike has managed to turn this around to become a leader in employee relations, yet finds that all is not well with Nike's Vietnamese factories. Rovell presents the major figures in Nike's growth story from co-founder Phil Knight to key endorsers Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, LeBron James and others. It is an hour well worth your time, and I strongly suggest you watch it or Tivo it for later if you're busy.

You can view a preview video by following this link.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on February 09, 2008 (boomark / email).