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18. 1977
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Shoe Dog, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Entrepreneurship, Experience, and Perseverance
Leadership
Global Economies
Balancing Family and Work
Summary
Analysis
With the United States government as his sworn enemy, Knight prepares for his most challenging battle yet. He works diligently alongside Strasser to come up with a gameplan. Additionally, Knight recruits a friend of Strasser’s, Richard Werschkul, to join his legal team. Werschkul quickly proves himself to be a welcome but strange presence at Nike headquarters. Werschkul has a dark sense of humor and a peculiar fashion sense. However, Strasser trusts him, so Knight does as well.
Knight had more than enough problems when his biggest enemy was Onitsuka, a private company. Now, he has an entire government—his government—fighting against him. Although Knight could have avoided some of his previous legal troubles, this one essentially came out of nowhere, and he will need to work harder than ever to overcome it.
Themes
While Knight works on his case with the government, he sends Hayes out to find a new factory for Nike. Eventually, Hayes finds a factory in the United States, which he buys for $200,000. Knight worries that Hayes’s factory is too expensive and will not prove useful. However, Hayes assures him it will be a valuable asset, and Knight lets him make the final decision.
Knight needs some production in the United States in case he cannot get the government to overlook the taxes he owes. Essentially, Hayes’s factory is a temporary solution until Knight can get a better grasp on what is going on. As always, Knight’s leadership style is to trust his employees to make the right decisions.
Themes
By the end of 1979, Nike is set to reach $140 million in sales. At this point, Nike is a true competitor for Adidas, and they have more innovations to come, including Rudy’s air soles. The only thing weighing the company down is the money they supposedly owe the government. Knight is annoyed at the circumstances; everything would be perfect if it was not for the United States Customs.
Nike’s earnings make it an impressive company by any metric. However, Knight and his team—although they are well off—still do not live luxurious lives because Nike itself does not have equity. This is why Knight cannot afford to pay the government, even if he wanted to.
Themes
Knight goes on another retreat with all of the top members of Nike. During the trip, he explains that Nike’s next move is to open up an apparel line. Knight believes transitioning the company into apparel is the only way for it to become a dominant market force. He tells the team he plans to put Ron Nelson, a CPA working for Nike, in charge of the new fashion department. Everyone is confused as to why Knight chooses Nelson, but they respect him and don’t question his judgment. Knight doesn’t care that Nelson is a CPA; he hires all sorts of people to do jobs other than what they were initially trained in, and so far, that has not been a problem.
Even while the company is in trouble, Knight continues operating as he always has. He plans for a brighter future where the U.S. Government will not encumber Nike and will instead allow it to grow and expand. In the meeting with the other Nike members, Knight trusts his instincts and hires Nelson even though everyone else does not understand his reasoning. It is a weak moment as far as Knight’s leadership is concerned because he decides to trust himself over everyone else on his team.
Themes
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Knight’s confidence in Nelson does not last long. Shortly after placing Nelson in charge of fashion, Knight starts paying attention to what Nelson wears on a daily basis. As it turns out, Nelson might have the worst fashion sense of anyone in the company. Knight realizes that Nelson’s fashion sense is probably going to clash with his new position.
Knight’s refusal to listen to his closest friends and employees quickly bites him. Here, he learns that not everyone can make their prior experiences fit everywhere, which is especially true when it comes to something such as fashion.
Themes
Because Nike is transitioning to a larger apparel line, Knight institutes a dress code in the office, much to the chagrin of his employees who are used to dressing how they want. Strasser, in particular, takes offense to the new dress code and deliberately starts dressing worse than ever before. Knight yells as Strasser for refusing to follow protocol but has to eat his words when Nelson—his new head of fashion—shows up in an even worse outfit.
This is one of the rare moments where Knight openly clashes with one of his employees. In particular, Knight needs to keep Strasser on his side because Nike cannot seem to keep itself out of legal trouble. Unfortunately for Knight, Strasser easily wins this exchange because of Nelson’s apparel.
Themes
A few weeks after the incident with Strasser, Nelson gives a formal presentation to the higher-ups at Nike. Unfortunately, his presentation ends up being a laughingstock, so Knight takes him off the project and replaces him with Woodell. In retrospect, he does not know why he did not give the job to Woodell in the first place.
Finally, Knight has to admit he was wrong and do what he should have done in the first place. Ultimately, little harm occurs, and Knight feels comfortable handing the project off to Woodell because Woodell excels at everything.
Themes
At the end of 1978, Nike releases the Tailwind, the first shoe to feature Rudy’s air sole technology. Nike hypes up the shoe in the months leading up to its debut at the Honolulu Marathon. Unfortunately, people don’t receive the Tailwind as well as Knight hoped. The shoes have a nasty design flaw, which causes bits of metal to break through the shoe’s sole and rub against the wearer’s feet. The failure of the Tailwind is a major blow to everyone at Nike because it is their first real product failure. To make matters worse, everyone at Nike is suffering burnout from the long and stressful hours they have been putting in, including Knight himself.
This is the first instance of a significant design flaw in anything Nike has created up to this point. Despite its legal troubles, Nike has had nothing but success as a company and has gained the public’s trust. However, this moment is a major setback for Nike, as the public turns against them for the first time. In addition to the company’s mounting legal troubles, morale is low, and Knight needs to find a way to rally his troops.
Themes
To deal with their legal battle with the U.S. government, Knight puts Werschkul in charge of writing a report that will help Nike plead its case. In response, Werschkul works tirelessly to create a book-length work he unironically calls: Werschkul on American Selling Price, Volume I. Completing the project drives Werschkul slightly insane, though it is no doubt a thorough accounting of what Knight needs to know to win his case. At the end of the year, Knight decides he cannot put off dealing with Washington, D.C. any longer, so he flies there personally.
Like the other members of Knight’s team, Werschkul is a workaholic, and he labors tirelessly to ensure Nike will succeed. Although the outcome of his hard work borders on parody, his willingness to go above and beyond recalls Johnson and Woodell, two of Nike’s finest. As 1978 ends, Knight finds himself and Nike at a make-or-break moment. If he cannot convince officials in Washington to change their minds, it could be the end of Nike.
Themes
