Shoe Dog

Shoe Dog is like the best version of a typical businessman memoir. It starts off how you’d expect, working out of his parents basement, had some success, had a couple of scary moments, but ultimately comes out on top. That’s not really why you read this book. You know what Nike is. They’re capital-H Huge. You don’t read this to know what it was like to shoot a commercial with Michael Jordan, you read this to know what it’s like to negotiate with shoe companies in the 70s.

One of the biggest thing Knight hits on early and often is the idea of leadership and ownership. He leads by example, with little praise for his workers, though he tells the reader that was the idea. He also makes sure to always own the majority of the company, even when his (at the time) one employee wants a stake. Knight mentions that this employee is doing more work than him, but still denies his request for a new contract. Leading a successful business requires an amount of ruthlessness and selfishness, though Knight still maintained that partnership.

He also writes about business partners. He’s very open about how he could not do it alone. He brings in friends, his old coach, and takes some risks when it comes to other business partners, but they all (for the most part) work out.

He takes us through Nike’s developmental years, up until basically when they first hit it big (then got investigated by the FBI). Most people know about modern day Nike, so it was smart to write about what the beginnings were like. While this is a biography of the company, it is also a small biography of Knight himself, and it explains how he ended up where he is. He started off as a runner, so he understood those needs, then saw the opportunity for expansion into everyday use for sneakers. It’s a very well paced and well written book, however, I wouldn’t say it’s a feel-good story. Its main theme (appropriate for Nike) is winning. Not having fun, doing the right thing, or making people happy. Winning is the goal. Opening factories in China when there is little to no regulation? Doesn’t matter, we opened that market up and got there first. Win. My only employee is keeping the company afloat and wants a stake in it? I deny him and get him to keep working. Win. We get the FBI to drop their case against us thanks in part to both Senators from our state? Win, Win, Win.

In the business world, of course this makes sense, and I applaud Knight for actually creating a culture that actually rises above that basic mantra. By all accounts, it seems like Nike holds themselves to a higher standard, but this theme could turn some people off.

For me, it’s not off-putting (though I did notice it), considering the time period and the setting. Some things need to be done to be successful.

Overall, it’s clear Knight has a talent for telling the right stories. He gets his points across in an entertaining and endearing way, especially for a guy with billions of dollars. Definitely recommend, though I think the Bill Gates and Warren Buffet quotes on the front of the book are a bit much.