Nike History and history of Nike Mercurial boots

 Introduction 

In 1962 Phil Knight, who was a University of Orgon track and field athlete, toured a Onitsuka factory in Japan and he was impressed by the firm’s quality and speed of production. Because of this trip to Japan Phil Knight and his former coach Bill Bowerman formed Blue Ribbon Sports. Then in 1971 Blue Ribbon Sports decided to change their firms name to Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory. Then in the same year their iconic Nike Swoosh was created for $35 by one of the design students in Portland State University. At this point in time Nike focused on athletics and used all their R&D on their athletics department. However, Nike branched outwards of athletics when they realised, they wouldn’t be able to solely focus on the athletics side of things. They then ventured to basketball and after signing Michael Jordan in 1984 it all took off. 

 

Nike’s marketing strategies were innovative, with them focusing on the “Just do it” slogan. This focuses not on the glory of winning, but hard work and daily struggle of putting effort in no matter what. Nike’s imagery enhances the slogan, focusing on everyday people overcoming obstacles and embracing positions that are seemingly at odds with the status. Below is the first Nike – Just Do It advert where they portray the real adversity of the company.


 

Originally, Nike released their first football boot in 1971 for the world cup in Mexico. However, no one brought the boot with them to the world cup. In 1982 Nike had their first breakthrough in the football where they signed Aston Villa to a boot deal, at this time every football team preferred Adidas and Puma. Then in 1996 Nike sponsored the best football team in the world, the Brazil Football Federation. Following this they made their first major commercial 




 

It was a golden era for football in the 90s, with the Premier League booming and slowly taking over the football landscape with the influx of foreign players to the English game. Therefore, Nike wanted to pounce on this opportunity and produce the Nike Mecurial to revolutionize the football world. 

 

Nike released the Nike Mercurial boots in 1998. These boots were originally designed to be an update on the Tiempo range, looking at how track spikes could inform a quicker boot for Ronaldo Nazario. This boot was revolutionary as a thinner plate, along with a KNG-100 synthetic upper was added to the boot. Since then, Nike have made 19 mercurial variations with different technological advances in each boot and they’re not stopping there as they areuncovering new technology every year. Below is the entire Nike Mecurial history from the very first boot to the most recent boot. Just shows how far technology has come! 



References:


(thestreet.com) History of Nike https://www.thestreet.com/lifestyle/history-of-nike-15057083 (accessed 10 March 2024)


 (ultrafootball.com) The History of Nike Football https://www.ultrafootball.com/blogs/ultra-mag/nikes-history-in-football(accessed 10 March 2024)

 

(npr.org) Just Do It: How the iconic Nike tagline built a career for the late Dan Wieden https://www.npr.org/2022/10/06/1127032721/nike-just-do-it-slogan-success-dan-wieden-kennedy-dies Manuela Lopez Restrepo (accessed 10 March 2024)

 

(footyheadlines.com) https://www.footyheadlines.com/2023/11/next-gen-nike-mercurial-boots-to-be-in-2024.html(accessed 10 March 2024)

 

(britannica.com) Nike, Inc. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nike-Inc Debbie Carlson 






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