Andrea Montolivo |
Chicago (USA), (EFE).- 500 dollars. It is what Phil Knight invested in 1964 to finance the project that led to the founding of Nike. Visionary and non-conformist, he has a heritage estimated by ‘Forbes’ at 45,900 million and turns 85 this Friday. The image of him at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, on the day of LeBron James’ record points in the NBA, went around the world. “He is one of the best speakers I have ever heard in my life,” former Nike director Hans George told EFE.
He then paid design student Carolyn Davidson $35 to make a logo for his brand. The ‘swoosh’ would become one of the most recognizable symbols in the world. Nike went from billing $8,000 in its first year to going public in the 1980s. With her success already skyrocketing, Knight gave Davidson some valuable shares of her brand.
Knight celebrates 85 years enshrined as one of the richest men in the world. An empire built on ambitious bets, which includes the Portland-based film house ‘Laika’.
Glacial in the Crypto.com Arena
He is the involuntary protagonist of one of the most impressive photos of this sporting year. With thousands of fans on their feet and phones in hand to film LeBron’s historic NBA-record scoring basket, Phil Knight sits icily comfortable in his courtside seat at Crypto.com Arena.
Enjoy to the fullest and without distractions the moment in which ‘King James’, one of Nike’s most representative athletes, enlarges his legend.
“On the one hand (his way of living the record) is due to age. Young people are born with cell phones in their hands, he is from a different generation. But it’s also his mentality. He wants to live the purity of the sport without distractions ”, assures EFE Hans George, who worked for Knight at Nike from 1996 to 2020 with senior management positions.
“At that moment you can see that he was enjoying himself to the fullest,” adds George.
The Atlanta’96 ad, the manifesto of his mentality
One of the key points in the Knight and Nike philosophy was to put athletes at the center.
An example of this mentality was seen in Nike’s ad for the Atlanta’96 Olympic Games. Nike surprised the world with a ‘spot’ marked by images of blood, athletes falling and playing to the limit, whose objective was to promote the warrior mentality with which ‘Team USA’ would face the Olympics.
“At that time it was fashionable to promote ‘peace and love.’ Instead, Nike’s reasoning was ‘our athletes are going to battle it out at the Games’. That’s why our announcement for the Games was very harsh. He stood out for his toughness at a time when everything was ‘peace and love,’” says George.
“That shows how big and how tough Knight is. The point is that Phil wanted Nike not to follow the will of the organizers, but of the athletes, ”he insists.
a blunt speaker
Since his time at the University of Oregon, to which he has donated millions of dollars after his success, Knight stood out for his introverted character, but also for his forcefulness when it came to speaking.
“He was an introvert, very reflective, but when he said something, he said it with such impact, in such a strong and inspiring way, that he is surely one of the best speakers I have ever heard in my life. He had a unique way of saying things, ”George recalls to EFE.
Apart from Nike, Knight also owns ‘Laika Entertainment’, a film house based in Oregon, more than 1,500 kilometers from Hollywood, which is dedicated to making films and feature films with the complex technique of ‘stop motion’, or frame-by-frame animation.
Among his most acclaimed films are “Coraline” (2009) or “Kubo and the Two Strings” (2016).
A transversal character, who with his intuition wrote part of the history of the sport, is played by Ben Affleck in the film ‘Air’, dedicated to the history of Nike and the sponsorship of Michael Jordan, which will be released next April.
