Whenever there’s a conversation around logo design, there’s bound to be someone who mentions how the Nike logo was made for just $35. And that’s usually where the whole story ends. However, the story is far more complex than that. In order to understand some terms around branding and the value of design, we need to get better acquainted with the whole story.
The story of the creation of the Nike logo dates back to the beginning of 1970, but in fact the whole story surrounding the launch of the Nike brand began much earlier. Namely, since 1960, when Phil Knight, who was an amateur runner at the time, took the first steps in creating the future empire, it took 8 years to create the Nike logo itself. At that time, Phil was a student who was engaged in reselling sneakers on the black market, and he was not even aware that one day his business would grow into one of the world’s biggest brands.
Phil’s choice to sell sports shoes was not accidental. He was sporty, loved running and was interested in new sports products. At that time, the sports footwear market was not so diverse. The market was mainly dominated by Adidas, whose logo we talked about earlier, as well as some cheaper and uncomfortable sneakers. Knight thought more seriously about expanding his business and selling more serious sports equipment, and thus came up with the idea of withdrawing favorable goods from Japan, as the main supplier of sports shoes, and placing them on the American market. Phil went to Japan in 1962, and made a contract with a local Japanese company to start selling products on American soil within a year. At that time his brand was called Blue Ribbon Sports, at that time better known as Tigerice. Soon his business began to grow, and he wanted to pay more attention to his visual image, but also to the brand itself, which would have a shorter and easier to remember name.
So he came up with the idea to use the name itself for his brand, as Nike, on the recommendation of his colleague Jeff Johnson, who dreamed of the Greek goddess Nike. So Phil, at that time still a student himself, turned to his college colleague, student Carolyn Davidson, to help him make a logo. Phil had already approached her for some design services from time to time when he started the business and they had already collaborated. Phil wanted the logo itself to reflect values such as dynamism, strength, speed, good visual perception and difference in comparison to other well-known brands.
There is an urban legend that says that the shape of the checkmark actually came from a completely spontaneous gesture of a designer who, in anger that she didn’t like any of the ideas, allegedly wanted to disqualify that solution, so she drew a line with her hand over the name, as if she wanted to cross out the solution. However, for those who understand design and visual communication, that shape itself is most reminiscent of the stylized wing of the sculpture of the goddess Nike from Samothrace, which Carolin herself claimed. Phil was not satisfied with that solution at first and rejected it, and paid Carolina only $35 for it, just to have some cover for the effort invested. He said that’s not what he wanted. Nevertheless, he adopted that logo, with that pictogram that later became a world-famous synonym for quality.
Caroline herself later received a special recognition from the Nike company, as well as 500 shares of the company itself, and that was a great reward for what she did. The value of the shares itself is not known, but today it is estimated at around one million dollars. However, what is most important, the Nike logo did not make the company itself famous and valuable, it was the opposite, the company became famous through its work and development, constant investment in marketing, with the logo itself, which became famous with the help of its simplicity.
The logo itself later underwent several modifications. First of all, the tick symbol is separated from the typography itself, to make it easier to read. In the end, since it was well promoted with strong marketing, it started to be used independently, as a recognizable trademark of the company.
