Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

A brilliant and surprisingly entertaining memoir. Sometimes these are hard to follow along with, but I found it entertaining and enjoyable. Definitely worth a read for anyone who is interested in business, and especially my Nike fans out there.

I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting to learn about Nike's humble beginnings and the many factors that influenced it. This memoir was a very entertaining read while reflecting lessons on entrepreneurship, leadership, wealth management, and work-life balance.

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight- This book covers the years of 1960-1980 the first couple paragraphs were talking about him traveling around the world presenting his shoe idea to the best shoe creators. It then goes to the struggles of owning Nike and how it but also talks about the struggles of being a husband, a son and a father. My opinion on the book is, it was hard to stay interested in this book at some points. But by the end of the book it was very intriguing and interesting to read about. My favorite quote was “but minor imperfections aside,they were very good” On page 191. I would recommend this book to the people who like memoirs or non fiction books.

Elements of this book are fascinating - the personalities who founded Nike and how each individual influenced the company over the years, the crises the fledgling business faced time and again, triumphing always but sometimes perilously close to disaster, and the endgame of ultimately going public. There's real insight here as well, particularly the amount of personal time and effort invested by the founders to forward their vision, but also the outcome and positive consequences of, for example, the sweatshop controversy of recent years. The author seems reasonably honest when talking about the costs of his passion on those around him, partners/subordinates and family alike. I did find the forward a bit off-putting - it seemed like sophomoric philosophizing, which then made me aware (and annoyed) when that recurred periodically in the book. Overall, a quick, interesting, and mostly rewarding diversion.

As a sneaker lover, I really enjoyed reading Phil Knight's memoir. It's hard to imagine that at one point, Nike was an underdog in the sneaker industry, getting pushed around by Onitsuka, Adidas and the bigger brands at the time. I wonder how they would've turned out if the origins of the Nike name and the swoosh design took a different turn? The other names and logos in contention were "interesting". Dimension 6 Air Max just doesn't have the same ring to it. I also appreciated that he addresses the criticisms that Nike has received over the years about his factories in Asia. This is a book I would read again. I'm looking forward to the movie that Netflix is supposed to be making.