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Jeff Johnson
Bowerman is one of Knight’s former running coaches. He’s also one of the best running coaches in the United States. When Bowerman learns about Blue Ribbon, he becomes Knight’s business partner. Bowerman has a similar temperament to Knight’s father, and Knight desperately wants to please him. Bowerman is also a true innovator and designed many of the shoes for which Nike would eventually become famous. Knight also models his leadership style after techniques he learned while under Bowerman’s mentorship.
Bill Bowerman Quotes in Shoe Dog
The Shoe Dog quotes below are all either spoken by Bill Bowerman or refer to Bill Bowerman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
7. 1967
Quotes
I was developing an unhealthy contempt for Adidas. Or maybe it was healthy. That one German company had dominated the shoe market for a couple of decades, and they possessed all the arrogance of unchallenged dominance. Of course it’s possible that they weren’t arrogant at all, that to motivate myself I needed to see them as a monster. In any event, I despised them. I was tired of looking up every day and seeing them far, far ahead. I couldn’t bear the thought that it was my fate to do so forever.
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Explanation and Analysis:
14. 1974
Quotes
Fear of failure, I thought, will never be our downfall as a company. Not that any of us thought we wouldn’t fail; in fact we had every expectation that we would. But when we did fail, we had faith that we’d do it fast, learn from it, and be better for it.
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Bill Bowerman Quotes in Shoe Dog
The Shoe Dog quotes below are all either spoken by Bill Bowerman or refer to Bill Bowerman. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
7. 1967
Quotes
I was developing an unhealthy contempt for Adidas. Or maybe it was healthy. That one German company had dominated the shoe market for a couple of decades, and they possessed all the arrogance of unchallenged dominance. Of course it’s possible that they weren’t arrogant at all, that to motivate myself I needed to see them as a monster. In any event, I despised them. I was tired of looking up every day and seeing them far, far ahead. I couldn’t bear the thought that it was my fate to do so forever.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
14. 1974
Quotes
Fear of failure, I thought, will never be our downfall as a company. Not that any of us thought we wouldn’t fail; in fact we had every expectation that we would. But when we did fail, we had faith that we’d do it fast, learn from it, and be better for it.
