Quotees Archive

You have to come up with what the consumer wants, and you need a vehicle to understand it.

- Phil Knight

You only have to succeed the last time.

- Phil Knight

You’re got to worry about what’s coming up to stay ahead of the curve…

- Phil Knight

We had gotten people’s attention. So a lot of American shoe distributors were going to Japan and telling Onitsuka, ‘Well, if this two-bit outfit up in the woods in Oregon can do this kind of business, wait till you get somebody that’s really in the business.

- Phil Knight

We had no capital but we grew.

- Phil Knight

We have to innovate for a specific reason, and that reason comes from the market. Otherwise, we’ll end up making museum pieces.

- Phil Knight

We just sort of factor all that information into the computer between the ears and come up with conclusions.

- Phil Knight

We just tried to get our shoes on the feet of runners.

- Phil Knight

We made a disastrous move into casual shoes.

- Phil Knight

We think that athletes are human beings and have foibles just like human beings do…

- Phil Knight

We understand the most important thing we do is market the product…

- Phil Knight

We used to think that everything started in the lab. Now we realize that everything spins off the consumer.

- Phil Knight

We want the brand to stand for the same thing all over the world

- Phil Knight

We wanted Nike to be the world’s best sports and fitness company. Once you say that, you have a focus. You don’t end up making wing tips or sponsoring the next Rolling Stones world tour.

- Phil Knight

We were always trying to look for people who could help us beyond what we were doing.

- Phil Knight

We were guerilla marketers, and we still are, a little bit.

- Phil Knight

We were pretty schizophrenic. We were going to take on the world, but we couldn’t make payroll.

- Phil Knight

We’re not in the fashion business, as the Wall Street Journal wrote the other day. We’re in the sports business, and there’s a big difference.

- Phil Knight

When I hung in, he saw character, and that was the end of it. Later, it was funny to watch him hazing other guys the same way – funny after you’d been through the cycle.

- Phil Knight

Whether you’re talking about the core consumer or the person on the street, the principle is the same: you have to come up with what the consumer wants, and you need a vehicle to understand it.

- Phil Knight

While technology is still important, the consumer has to lead innovation.

- Phil Knight

Why does a 67-year-old guy who got his start running an athletic shoe company think he can enter a field famous for gobbling up fortunes.

- Phil Knight

You can’t explain much in 60 seconds, but when you show Michael Jordan, you don’t have to. It’s that simple.

- Phil Knight

Since we happened to be good at shoes, we thought we could be successful with casual shoes. But we got our brains beat out.

- Phil Knight

Sometimes I look out there and I get goosebumps…

- Phil Knight

Sports is like rock ‘n’ roll. Both are dominant cultural forces, both speak an international language, and both are all about emotions.

- Phil Knight

That’s not a Puma, that’s a Nike. [‘What’s a Nike?’] A new brand.

- Phil Knight

The problems forced us to take a hard look at what we were doing, what was going wrong, what we were good at, and where we wanted to go.

- Phil Knight

The slowdown in futures orders clearly signals that revenue growth in the second half of fiscal 1998 will be below our previous expectations. This is largely a result of the slowdown in the Asia Pacific market, where we now anticipate more moderate revenue growth in fiscal 1998 after increasing 84 percent on a constant dollar basis in fiscal 1997.

- Phil Knight

The slower growth in revenues and continued pressure on margins will result in negative earnings comparison for at least the next two quarters, with fiscal 1998 earnings per share likely to be in the 2 to 2.15 range.

- Phil Knight

The thing that I’m going to focus on today is essentially the cloud that has been over Nike’s head over the last couple years.

- Phil Knight

The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few.

- Phil Knight

The Waffle Trainer later became the best-selling training shoe in the United States.

- Phil Knight

The way to stay ahead was through product innovation. We happened to be great at it.

- Phil Knight

There is an immutable conflict at work in life and in business, a constant battle between peace and chaos. Neither can be mastered, but both can be influenced. How you go about that is the key to success.

- Phil Knight

There is no shoe school, so where do you recruit people for a company that develops and markets running shoes? The running track… We and the consumer were one and the same.

- Phil Knight

There will be no pissing on partners in the shower.

- Phil Knight

They have done great things within what you would call established American sports. Freddy has the potential to bring soccer almost for the first time into the public’s consciousness. Soccer in the United States isn’t really part of the culture. What it needs, I think, is a superhero, and he clearly could be it. Now, that’s putting a lot of pressure on him, but the kid’s got all the potential to do that.

- Phil Knight

Ultimately, we wanted Nike to be the world’s best sports and fitness company. Once you say that, you have a focus. You don’t end up making wing tips or sponsoring the next Rolling Stones world tour.

- Phil Knight

Up until the time I was 14 years old, I was sure that I was going to be a big-league baseball player. But that dream came to a rude awakening when I got cut from my high school baseball team.

- Phil Knight

Using a two-dollar commission, they really sold.

- Phil Knight

We could see that he was a charismatic guy who jumps over the moon and is very competitive, but nobody could have predicted what he would become to our culture.

- Phil Knight

We had been kicked out of one bank… The second, it was touch and go…

- Phil Knight

It doesn’t matter how many people you offend, as long as you’re getting your message to your consumers. I say to those people who do not want to offend anybody: You are going to have a very, very difficult time having meaningful advertising.

- Phil Knight

It was the right thing to do.

- Phil Knight

It’s disappointing, but it’s still a really good book. I’m glad Kenny did it, and I’m glad it’s going to get out. … I still endorse the book. I think everybody should buy it. I think he did a great job on a very complicated topic.

- Phil Knight

It’s not enough to do good things. You have to let people know what you’re doing.

- Phil Knight

Marketing knits the whole organization together.

- Phil Knight

Meeting sports athletes that are the best in the world is a thrill to this day.

- Phil Knight

Nike is a marketing-oriented company, and the product is our most important marketing tool.

- Phil Knight