Jon-Nolan Clingen was born in Brandon, Mississippi in 1938. He was Brandon’s only billionaire, coming from a humble beginning with his mother, Ginnie Clingen being an editor for “Mississippi Journal” and his father being a reporter for “Toilets
Quarterly”. After receiving modest high school being a middle of the class student, he also became a star cross-country runner. Soon this sport will give him the know how to dominate the competition and become a household name in the world of running shoes and athletic wear. Because of his excellence in cross-country, he received a scholarship to Oregon University. This was a difficult decision that would weigh heavy on his conscience, seeing how his heart belonged to Mississippi State
University where …show more content…
Here he found another passion other than running, business! While studying business in Eugene, he saw a solution to his future life. What can I make that will rip a hole and break the mold of the sports wear world? One problem Jon-Nolan faced was the product his country produced.
American running shoes looked like doo-doo and were to easily worn out. So he needed to find a place that will solve that problem, so Jon-Nolan looked to the land of the rising sun. At the time the Japanese were experimenting with cutting down on design and were making a lighter, better looking shoe. This interested Jon-Nolan and soon he would even visit Japan for business talks and other capitalist ventures.
But like his early days in Brandon, Nike stared out as a college kid’s dream. First it
Jon-Nolan Clingen
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was called blue ribbon shoes named after the beer. Jon-Nolan first sold it out of his
Dodge van in the working class part of Portland. Jon-Nolan’s main goal was to us the cheap, high quality Japanese shoes to take out the giants of the industry, Adidas and
Puma. Jon-Nolan believed that just because you have high wage factories like the
Europeans, doesn’t mean you rule the world. So he sought out Asia again who