48 pages • 1 hour read
Phil KnightShoe Dog
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Phil Knight
Phil “Buck” Knight is the founder of Nike and author of Shoe Dog. A native Oregonian, Knight was educated at the University of Oregon, where he ran track under Bill Bowerman, and at Stanford University, where he received a master’s degree in business. While at Stanford, Knight came up with the idea of introducing Japanese running shoes to the American market. Shoe Dog describes the evolution of that idea into the company now known as Nike. Knight would go on to serve as the company’s first CEO; he stepped down from this position in 2004 but has remained involved in the company’s operations.
In recounting the company’s rocky early years, Knight characterizes himself as a driven businessman—someone unafraid of taking risks but equally committed to Telling the Truth as a Successful Business Strategy. Knight’s framing of Nike’s story is key to this depiction; by ending the main narrative with the decision to go public, Knight largely avoids discussing the 1990s scandal that surfaced involving Nike’s reliance on sweatshops and child labor. Although Knight would announce changes to company policy in response, the practice contributed to Nike’s considerable growth throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, suggesting a darker side to Knight’s emphasis on Breaking Rules in Order to Succeed.
Bill Bowerman
Bill Bowerman was Knight’s former track coach at the University of Oregon and a co-founder of Blue Ribbon and Nike. Knight used Bowerman’s legendary status—he trained 31 Olympic athletes and many other champions—to bolster Blue Ribbon and Nike’s reputation worldwide. Bowerman also created and designed many of Nike’s most popular shoes, including the waffle trainers for which the company first gained fame. Bowerman developed nerve damage after inhaling toxic fumes while experimenting with shoe designs in an unventilated workspace, leading to a physical disability. Bowerman passed away in 1999, and today, the Bowerman award is given to exceptional collegiate track athletes.
Jeff Johnson
Jeff Johnson was Blue Ribbon’s first full-time employee. Though Knight at first found Johnson’s enthusiasm off-putting, Knight came to rely on Johnson in many of Blue Ribbon’s most demanding early challenges. Like many of the company’s other early employees, Johnson was a “shoe dog”—passionate about the brand’s product to a degree some found difficult to understand.
Penny (Parks) Knight
Penny Knight is Phil Knight’s wife. Born Penny Parks, the two met when Parks was a student in Knight’s accounting class at Portland State University. They married in 1968. Parks participates in philanthropy with her husband; in May 2022, they created the Phil and Penny Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience to research degenerative brain diseases.
Bob Woodell
Bob Woodell was a former long jumper at the University of Oregon whom Knight hired to work at Blue Ribbon. Woodell had been a promising athlete when his career was derailed by an accident that left him using a wheelchair. From the beginning, Woodell was one of Knight’s most trusted and reliable employees.
Steve Prefontaine
Prefontaine, also known as “Pre,” was a prodigiously talented young distance runner from Oregon. He set several American records for distance running in the mid-1970s. Knight hired Prefontaine as one of Nike’s first celebrity endorsers, and his premature death in a car crash constitutes one of the first blows to the company—and Knight—in Shoe Dog. Each year, the Prefontaine Classic track meet is held in Eugene, Oregon. Three films have been made about his life: Fire on the Track (1995), Prefontaine (1997), and Without Limits (1998).
Kihachiro Onitsuka
Onitsuka was the head of the Onitsuka shoe company in Japan, which he established in 1949. He began by making basketball shoes before focusing on other sports like marathon running. A venerable presence, Onitsuka was widely respected at his own company and established a positive rapport with Knight. He passed away in 2007. Onitsuka has continued to be one of the best-known athletic shoe brands in the world and is particularly famous for its Mexico 66 model. Initially popularized when Bruce Lee wore a yellow and black pair in Game of Death (1972), the shoe continues to be beloved by athletes and gained additional fame Uma Thurman’s character wore them in Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003).
