Blue Ribbon Sports, a company founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight in 1964, eventually turned into Nike, Inc. ( NYSE: NKE) in 1978.

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Not long after graduating he heard about what was then called Blue Ribbon Sports, a fledgling shoe company in Oregon run by a coach, William Bowerman, and one of his former runners, Philip H.

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Through the 1970s, when it was still known as Blue Ribbon Sports, the company focused its business model on finding low-cost producers overseas in an effort to undercut competitors and gain entry into the marketplace.

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Knight, a former University of Oregon track star, founded Blue Ribbon sports in 1964, selling Japanese running shoes out of the trunk of his car at track meets on the weekends while teaching accounting at Portland State.

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