Phil Knight Quotes
102 Phil Knight Quotes
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[Less than a week after founding the forerunner to Nike] I forgot to make it part of the original agreement, but I think it ought to be made explicit: There will be no pissing on partners in the shower.
Phil Knight
Using a two-dollar commission, they really sold.
Phil Knight
We had gotten people’s attention. So a lot of American shoe distributors were going to Japan and telling Onitsuka, ‘Well, if this two-bit outfit up in the woods in Oregon can do this kind of business, wait till you get somebody that’s really in the business.
Phil Knight
We had been kicked out of one bank… The second, it was touch and go…
Phil Knight
I had been trained by him. I knew him. I loved him. I simply never took it personally. If I had anything to say about it, he was not going to leave.
Phil Knight
I have worked at Nike and its predecessor company for 48 years. Some might call me a short timer.
Phil Knight
[On working at Nike for 48 years] In those 48 years, I have never had a promotion. but it had its other benefits.
Phil Knight
I am a man who has always needed heros.
Phil Knight
A decade and a half ago an ‘Esquire’ magazine reporter, noting our advertising played up the heros as aspects of great atheletes asked the question, who is your hero? My answer was simple. My college track coach and partner, Bill Bowerman. He had won four national championships, coached more sub four minute milers than anyone when he retired. He was the 1972 Olympic coach yet he insisted he was not a track coach. He was a professor of competitive response.
Phil Knight
I said, 'I'm not asking your permission, I'm just telling you, I need someone to look up to. You're my new hero.'
Phil Knight
Nobody ever accused me of wisdom of any kind, let alone conventional.
Phil Knight
In periods of stress and grief, not only does your mind do funny things, you say things that surprise you.
Phil Knight
[On the Nike logo] I don't love it, but it will grow on me.
Phil Knight
[In 1998] The Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime, and arbitrary abuse.
Phil Knight
Do the Right Thing.
Phil Knight
We want the brand to stand for the same thing all over the world
Phil Knight
[On an American taking second place in the Olympics] He didn’t win the silver, he lost the gold.
Phil Knight
Access to play should be a kid’s inalienable right.
Phil Knight
I’m Phil Knight and I hate advertising.
Phil Knight
Nobody roots for a product.
Phil Knight
For years we thought of ourselves as a production-oriented company, meaning we put all our emphasis on designing and manufacturing the products. But now we understand the most important thing we do is market the product… Nike is a marketing-oriented company, and the product is our most important marketing tool.
Phil Knight
It was the right thing to do.
Phil Knight
That’s not a Puma, that’s a Nike. [‘What’s a Nike?’] A new brand.
Phil Knight
[On the Nike name in 2011] I quite like it now.
Phil Knight
Nike was the great goddess of victory.
Phil Knight
[On the Swoosh] It was 1971 and Ford had spent $2 million getting a trademark. We didn’t have $2 million. So I went by the graphic arts department at Portland State
Phil Knight
She came up with what is now the Swoosh for $35 which is a pretty good bargain.
Phil Knight
Now that we had a name, we had to have a trademark for the side of the shoe. It was 1971, and Ford had spent $2 million getting a trademark. We didn't have $2 million, so I went by the graphic arts department at Portland State, and there was a woman there saying, 'I don't know how I'm going to get enough money for the dress for this prom,' And I said, 'I have a job for you.' I paid her $2 an hour, and she spent 17 and a half hours. So $35 and she came up with what is now the swoosh.
Phil Knight
[On his son Matt dying in 2004 in a scuba diving accident] It aged me much faster than anything you can imagine…
Phil Knight
We think that athletes are human beings and have foibles just like human beings do…
Phil Knight
Marketing knits the whole organization together.
Phil Knight
While technology is still important, the consumer has to lead innovation.
Phil Knight
We have to innovate for a specific reason, and that reason comes from the market. Otherwise, we’ll end up making museum pieces.
Phil Knight
The way to stay ahead was through product innovation. We happened to be great at it.
Phil Knight
One of [Bill] Bowerman’s more legendary innovations is the Waffle outsole, which he discovered by pouring rubber into a waffle iron.
Phil Knight
The Waffle Trainer later became the best-selling training shoe in the United States.
Phil Knight
We just tried to get our shoes on the feet of runners.
Phil Knight
We made a disastrous move into casual shoes.
Phil Knight
Since we happened to be good at shoes, we thought we could be successful with casual shoes. But we got our brains beat out.
Phil Knight
The problems forced us to take a hard look at what we were doing, what was going wrong, what we were good at, and where we wanted to go.
Phil Knight
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