The emergence of the Nike sports apparel corporation has mirrored the sky-rocketing popularity of sports, athletes, and personal athletic activity in the late twentieth century. Nike has fueled a great deal of this popularity, particularly by employing athletes as product spokespeople and infusing the world of sports with vast amounts of capital. Moreover, by becoming a bone fide cultural icon, "the swoosh," as the corporation's symbol is referred to, has become one of the most ubiquitous product emblems in American life—possibly second only to that of Coca-Cola.

Nike began in 1962 when Phil Knight took an idea he had proposed in his MBA thesis and made it a reality. His paper proposed that well-merchandised shoes from Japan could end Germany's domination of the U.S. athletic shoe industry. After completing his Stanford degree, Knight met in Japan with the Onitsuka Tiger Company, manufacture of quality athletic shoes, and...