Review: Just Do It: The Nike Spirit in the Corporate World

Just Do It: The Nike Spirit in the Corporate World by Donald R. Katz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: A journalist's version of the rise of Nike as the father of Sports marketing and the enigma of Phil Knight

Whilst Shoe Dog is all about Phil Knight, Just Do it is all about the larger than life celebrities revolving in the Nike universe, many of whom Nike helped build their image starting with Michael Jordan. This book was written in 1994, so a lot of the current stuff in the book is already a few decades old and that shows. The book starts with a high with how Nike seems to get all its dice rolling up to 6 everytime and how they change the whole sports marketing space which was so prevalent already by the time I could make sense of the world around me that I assumed it was the norm since time immemorial only to realise it was all Nike's doing starting in the 80s where every inch of real estate (and now every pixel ) had a price to it. The Olympics controversy makes for good reading so do the initial drafts and the inner workings of Phil Knight and how he was perceived by Ekins (Nike freshers).

Another interesting reading is how everyone in Nike would breath the Just Do It phenomenon and the campus lifestyle. The book then brings in characters probably pivotal to Nike ethos but don't add value to the casual reader who isn't writing a thesis on Nike. I am sure for folks working in Nike, the evolution of the culture and key stakeholders makes for great reading.

The history and how the various competitors came into play along with how Nike literally stormed the world of sports one step at a time make for interesting nuggets and insights.

Overall an interesting first half and a middling second half almost similar to Nike's journey.

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