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4. 1964
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
At the start of the new year, Jeff Johnson writes to Knight and asks him if he can buy a pair of Tigers. Knight responds and once again offers Johnson a job, which Johnson accepts this time. Johnson immediately goes to work and is an effective salesman. However, any time he makes any sort of move or decision, however minor, he writes to Knight and tells him about it. Knight quickly tires of Johnson’s letters and never responds to them. However, the lack of response just causes Johnson to write more. He desperately wants Knight’s approval, but Knight will not give it to him.
With Johnson, Knight gets his first chance to demonstrate what he is like as a leader. Apparently, he is pretty hands-off, which perturbs Johnson but also makes him more effective. It is difficult to tell whether Knight’s hands-off approach is an intentional strategy or something he stumbled upon accidentally. Either way, it is a leadership style that suits him and one that he sticks with throughout his time at Blue Ribbon and Nike.
Themes
Because Johnson is a successful salesman. He eventually quits his job as a social worker. He always hated the job anyway because it made him deeply unhappy. Knight appreciates Johnson’s dedication but also worries about it. He doesn’t want Johnson to put all his eggs in one basket only to have Blue Ribbon eventually fail. He does his best to ensure Johnson’s hopes never rise too high. Nevertheless, by the end of the summer, Knight offers Johnson a full-time position at the rate of $400 per month.
Knight has to walk a fine line between encouraging Johnson and taking advantage of him. In fact, one could easily argue that Knight does take advantage of Johnson regularly. If one takes this position, it is important to consider whether Knight’s business practices are always as ethical as he likes to present them. In fairness, he acknowledges that his treatment of Johnson was not always just, but he always justifies it as a means to an end.
Themes
Around the same time, Knight starts having trouble with his bank. He wants to keep taking out higher and higher loans because business is going so well, but the bank considers him a risk because Blue Ribbon is growing too fast for its equity. Knight begins to hate the word equity. He thinks the banks are too worried about Blue Ribbon’s cash balance while they should be more concerned with its meteoric rise. At the time, venture capital does not exist, so banks are the only place Knight could turn. To make matters worse, Onitsuka regularly ships shoes behind schedule, which makes it difficult to run his business.
Equity is the word Knight's lenders use when talking about his company's cash flow. Essentially, Blue Ribbon always has insufficient equity because it takes out loans without any cash to speak of. Most of Knight's money goes back into the business, and he takes out increasingly larger loans. If something happened and Knight could not repay his loan, it would be a major problem for the bank and would cripple Knight financially.
Themes
All these difficulties make Knight realize he needs to get another job. He manages to pass his CPA exam and then gets a job with Price Waterhouse, a local accounting firm, as an accountant. Knight does not mind working for Price Waterhouse, but Blue Ribbon is his primary passion and what he focuses most of his energy on. However, on top of Blue Ribbon and the accounting job, Knight also serves in the U.S. Reserves, which involves difficult physical training.
Knight's job at Price Waterhouse is the one place where positive revenue is always a given. However, working there means less time spent on Blue Ribbon, and Knight has to answer to a boss, which he hates. Between all the work he does for Price Waterhouse and Blue Ribbon, he does not have time for anything outside of work.
Themes
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Around the same time, Bowerman travels to Japan to meet with Onitsuka. There, he receives a tour of the factory and pitches his ideas to Mr. Onitsuka. Bowerman has all types of ideas for shoe modification, which Mr. Onitsuka eagerly takes into consideration. On top of his constant sneaker modifications, Bowerman starts writing a book about jogging. At this time, running is a relatively niche activity that few members of the public engage in. Knight is surprised when he hears Bowerman’s book idea and wonders who would want to read it.
The detail Knight provides about running being a niche hobby gives the reader an idea of the uphill battle Knight had to climb to turn Nike into what it is today. In the 1960s, Blue Ribbon was a small business catering to a niche market. Today it is one of the largest companies in the world that is recognizable—and worn—by nearly everyone in the United States.
Themes
