Nike
Inducted in 1993

It began as a plan to help athletes run faster, and now is a runaway success story. It began with a modest investment of $500 each from its two founders, and now is a $3.4 billion paradigm of sports, fitness and marketing innovation.

In 1964, University of Oregon track star Phil Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman launched an enterprise called Blue Ribbon Sports, distributing high-performance running shoes they discovered in Japan. Soon they were developing and designing prototypes with feedback from other runners. By 1971, they made a major leap, creating shoes for other sports, and added apparel. With the new decade, it took a new name-Nike-inspired by the Greek Goddess of victory.

Nike literally pioneered so many aspects of marketing that in the process it has provided valuable lessons in building brand equity. It brilliantly mined the gold of product endorsement, aligning with promising young athletes who put Nike products to the test on the playing fields, and then ultimately became public advocates. In 1983, it took promotion to new heights, building oversized murals and billboards of Nike athletes throughout Los Angeles as part of its pre-Olympic push to coordinate product, advertising and merchandising. What helped take it over the top in 1985 was a basketball rookie and a shoe all his own-Michael Jordan and Nike Air Jordan.

Nike has always stayed a step ahead of the competition in technology and in marketing. In 1992, it inked an exclusive agreement with the Athletics Congress which puts every USA Track & Field team athlete in Nike competition gear for the rest of the century.

In every arena, and, now in every comer of the world-with more than 32 percent of its revenues from international markets-it has lived up to its namesake. It is victorious.