In 1964, University of Oregon athlete Phil Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman founded “Blue Ribbon Sports(BRS)” to distribute running shoes made by the Japanese company “Onitsuka Tiger”. Later, Jeff Johnson, who ran one of the company’s factories in 1971, mentioned that all the big brand names at the time consisted of one easy-to-remember word and contained “exotic” letters like Z, X or K. So he suggested Nike, the name of the winged goddess of victory. As Johnson said in an interview, it was the best idea he ever had in his life.