“Nike vs. Reebok”
By Sheree White
Professor Mary Lind
Bus 508
May 28, 2013

Throughout history, there has been known competition amongst certain businesses in different industries. In the food industry McDonald’s and Burger King are well known rivals, in the automotive industry, GM and Ford Motor Company and in technology, Apple and Microsoft. Although these companies are each other’s competitors they are all successful in their own right and have maintained that success. Nike and Reebok have been competitors for the last few decades. Both started out creating sneakers and have built empires that went well beyond footwear.
Nike was founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight in the early 1960’s. Bowerman was a nationally known and respected track and field coach at the University of Oregon. He constantly sought ways to give his athletes a competitive advantage by experimenting with different track surfaces, re-hydration drinks and most importantly finding innovations in running shoes. Phil Knight was a middle distant runner who attended the University of Oregon, upon earning his MBA in finance from Stanford University where he proposed quality running shoes that could be manufactured in Japan, his letters went unanswered so Knight decided to take a chance and the empire that we know today as Nike, Inc. was born and thus began a revolution that defined the athletic footwear industry.
Reebok’s ancestor company was founded in the United Kingdom in the 1890’s by Joseph William Foster who simply wanted to make athletes run faster; he made the first known shoes with spikes in them. He created J. W. Foster and Sons, and in short time developed a clientele of distinguished athletes, who wore the running shoes in the Summer Games of 1924. In the mid 1950’s two of Foster’s grandsons started a companion company that we now know as Reebok, In 1979 the shoes were spotted at an