Reaching out to athletes

There’s more to Nike than just doing it. I found that out during a recent tour of the Nike headquarters, called the World Campus, in Beaverton, Oregon.

I wasn’t alone in the trip. Four teenaged Letran high school basketball players came, too. RonJay Enrile, 18, Boyet Bautista, 17, Ira Buyco, 16, and Billy Ray Anabo, 17, earned their first trip abroad the hard way – it was their prize for winning Nike’s Asian 3-on-3 championship last August. We were accompanied by Letran’s Media Center Director Fr. Joemar Sibug, Nike Philippines Sports Marketing Manager Auty Villarama and Nike Philippines Sports Marketing Coordinator Relly San Agustin.

Nike isn’t only a brand of footwear and apparel. For over 4,000 employees at the Campus and about 26,000 all over the world, it’s a way of life.

Nike publicists explain that the sprawling 175-acre corporate complex is called the Campus because of its university-like atmosphere. There are no hard-and-fast rules that inhibit creativity. Workers are evaluated on performance and operate on flexible hours. At the center of the property is a 10-acre, man-made lake that is seven feet deep. There were 11 buildings initially built and inaugurated in 1990. A $150 Million expansion project was started in 1997 and when finished, it will add seven new buildings, soccer fields, a five-lane running track made of recycled shoes, and four bridges, among others.

The entrance to One Bowerman Drive is impressive. A long driveway leads to a section of 48 flags – including the Philippines’ – representing the main countries where Nike is engaged in business. Along the corridors linking each building to the other is the so-called Walkway Hall of Fame which consists of over 175 bronze face casts of world-class athletes with Nike ties. Another 150 faces will be added in the expansion project. Among the athletes in the Hall are Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi and Chinese high jumper Zhu Jianhua, an Olympic bronze medalist in 1984.

The buildings are named after athletes like Steve Prefontaine, Jordan, John McEnroe, Mia Hamm, Nolan Ryan, Mike Schmidt, and Joan Benoit. Around the buildings are lots of trees, even a Japanese garden, a football field, tennis courts, and a 1.2 mile loop running trail for joggers. A day care center is available for children of employees – there’s a playground and a room where the kids can sleep. Sports facilities are free for employees to use. The Toronto Raptors were practicing at Nike’s state-of-the-art basketball gym when we visited. There are also stores and restaurants.

Andrea Corso of the Public Relations Department arranged a full-day schedule for us. We were briefed on Nike’s history by pioneer Jeff Hollister and conferred with Basketball Footwear designer Ken Link, Asia-Pacific Footwear Director Morgan Keldsen, Research Director Dr. Mario LaFortune, and Sports Marketing Director for Basketball Steve Riggins.

While walking around the Campus, we bumped into Mel Comoda, former aide-de-camp of Philippine Air Force Brig. Gen. Loven Abadia. Comoda, 41, retired from the Air Force as a Major two years ago and joined his wife Myrna and their two sons in Portland where they settled. Comoda, a shipping clerk, said at Nike, whom you know isn’t important – it’s how hard you work that is. He noted that about 50 Filipinos are employed at the Campus where the average age of employees is 32 – it used to be 28, according to Hollister.

Keldsen, who has worked nearly eight years at Nike, is a Fil-Am. His mother Monina Tiongson is from San Fernando, Pampanga. He said Nike sells about 200 million pairs of shoes a year and one of every three Americans has bought Nikes.

Nike traces its origins to University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman and runner Phil Knight in 1957. Bowerman, a former US Olympic coach, handcrafted shoes that his tracksters used to break records. He made soles out of melted rubber poured into a waffle iron. After graduation at the Stanford Business School, Knight went to Tokyo and arranged to bring in Tiger shoes to the US. He teamed up with Bowerman in 1964, contributing $500 each to the marketing arm for Tiger and got a $50,000 loan from Japanese businessmen.

In 1971, Bowerman and Knight set up their own shoe line. A student Carolyn Davidson was paid a sum of $35 to design a logo which is now universally known as the swoosh. A salesman Jeff Johnson thought of the same Nike to honor the Greek goddess of victory. In 1991, Nike became the world’s first sports company to surpass $3 Billion in sales. Last year, it grossed over $9 Billion.

Knight said Nike owes its success to athletes. "We are all athletes," said the Nike Chief Executive Officer and President. "That’s why it feels good to wear a pair of Jordans. To go to the store in cross trainers. To wear the shirt, the jacket, the pants that say, ‘I run, I play, I train.’

We design for athletes. For their feet, their bodies, their hearts. If you’re going to take care of athletes, you can start with their feet but if you don’t reach for their hearts and minds, they’ll never reach back."

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Nike’s edge is its innovative genius. It dares to be different. Nike has lately developed music products, timing devices, and radical technical innovations such as chips in soles to monitor speed and virtual "walkie talkies" in shoes.

"We’re not afraid to innovate," said Link who has basketball shoe designs lined up to the year 2002. Link said in the works is a lightweight 11-ounce basketball shoe without seams, off-court shoes called the Presto Cage, a model called Air Posterize for players to use in executing highlight plays.

Riggins said Nike shoes are worn by over 70 percent of National Basketball Association (NBA) players, including Vince Carter, Gary Payton, Jason Kidd, Penny Hardaway, Paul Pierce, and Mike Finley. Jordan himself has a specialty Nike line whose endorsers are handpicked by the former Chicago Bulls star.

Of course, what’s taking the market by storm is the Nike Shox – the "boing" shoes for basketball, running, and cross-training. It took 16 years to perfect the three models, incorporating the "air" technology and the "spring" action using resilient "jounce bouncers" that absorb friction like in the chassis of Formula I cars.

The Nike tradition is embodies in its corporate message – "We are in love with sports." At Nike, the passion for sports is food for the soul.