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Article: Nike leader Knight thinks ahead and has fun.(Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- October 23, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The story sounds too good to be true.
A University of Oregon middle-distance runner goes to Stanford business school and submits a paper on how running shoes could be designed in the United States, manufactured cheaply in Asia, and imported back to the U.S., where they could be sold at lower prices than Adidas were.
The student graduates, takes a trip to Japan, hikes Mount Fuji, and visits the Onitsuka sneaker factory in Kobe.
He comes home, becomes an accountant at Price Waterhouse and begins selling cheap, Japanese Adidas knockoffs out of the back of a station wagon at weekend track meets. He opens a makeshift warehouse in his mother's laundry room, ...