I am not sure why the title of this book is “Shoe Dog”. It even does not seem like a reading bait for readers. I guess I would not have picked to read this book or even knew that this is a memoir by Phil Knight who founded Nike. And all the more because Nike is my favourite shoes for running and I am also a big fan of its apparels. So when my good friend recommended this book, I got all excited. I went to the Kindle and immediately downloaded this book. I read the sample and was looking forward to reading the entire book but at that time I was reading Sapiens. I wanted to finish Sapiens first and as fast as possible because I had been reading it for the last 2 years. The book no doubt is interesting but it is also a big book. I eventually finished the book and one of my inspirations to finish the book was to start reading Shoe Dog.
Shoe Dog is a memoir. Which means that the author goes back in time and documents how he started building his company from scratch. What were his thoughts before? What challenges did he face ? What were his failures and successes ? Who are the people he met during this journey and many more questions and answers to them.
The book starts with a little bit of background on what Phil was doing just before he started his business. The memoir starts from 1962 when Phil was a 25 year old young graduate but was lost in what he wanted to do or become in his life. The years of his life are documented by chapters. Phil had just graduated from Stanford business school. He was a carefree 25 year old who loved running. He was one of the best athletes in his university. He had a strict father, a loving mother and twin sisters in his family. The family was close knit. Since he loved running he also loved everything associated with running. He had a lot of ideas and in his own admission he describes most of his ideas as crazy. One of those crazy ideas he presented in his entrepreneurial class at Stanford which was well received and appreciated by his professors. This idea was to build a running shoes which was durable, which was comfortable for runners and wearing which the runners would feel less fatigued. This was a time when the running shoes market was dominated by Adidas, a German shoe manufacturer. Adidas was known for its toughness and durability and most of the professional athletes were using Adidas. In these initial years Phil also wanted to travel the world. Some of the places he wanted to travel was India, Japan and Southeast Asia. He believed at that time that travel would expand his horizons and it would be part of his education. He presented his idea to his father. His father was apprehensive at the beginning but he eventually agreed to his desire.
In 1963 he starts his travel to east asian countries and he visited Japan. The relation between Japan and the US at that time was not cordial. This was primarily because of the political issues between the two countries and US’s involvement in Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings which led to the collapse of Japan. There was a huge difference in their culture, language and the way they did business. He visits Japan and visits Mount Fuji. He meets Sarah whom he dated for a while and the relationship between them is beautifully described by Phil. He also visits various other countries in the middle and south east. He also visits Calcutta in India where he gets sick with diarrhoea. In Japan he also meets company officials from shoe brand Tiger. He was mighty impressed with the shoe’s quality and he checks with them if he can start selling the shoes in America. The Tiger brand wanted to expand its territory in the west. He ordered a few samples of the shoes and this is how his journey of being a shoes salesman started. His interaction with officials from Tiger is beautifully described and there are few hilarious moments too.
He comes back to the US and also gets his shoe samples. He starts this business from his home. The people who he consulted for starting the business were his father and university coach Bowerman. He puts his own equity at the beginning but later he takes a loan from the bank to fund his business. Banks at that time were not very forthcoming in giving business loans because of the risks associated with it but Phil was able to convince the banks on the business and was eventually getting them. He also started working with Price WaterHouse Cooper because he knew he would need his own capital too to fund his business and to sustain his lifestyle. Like every other business, the figures were very tight at the beginning but as he moved through the years the revenue also started moving up. He was unable to breakeven even after the first 3 years in the business.
The first 25% of the book gives the reader an insight into this struggles in the initial days. It also gives a good picture of people who were with him in the initial days. One thing which is clear is that he had decided to take his passion as his business. He was ready to face the challenge and also took on the competition. The way he handled Japanese people in the beginning shows his maturity at the tender age of 25 years. As he expanded his business he also got his first employee in Jonathan who was also very passionate about the business. One of the strongest points was that he was very structured in his approach. He was very extroverted in his communication and used to pour his heart out in his letters to Phil. He also used to suggest changes in the shoes or the business model but Phil always ignored him. Is this going to cost him in future in his business, this is something we will have to see when we read the rest of the book.