SONALI MUJUMDAR

writes, speaks French, and enjoys travel

Business memoirs are unfamiliar terrain. So when I gingerly picked up Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, I was not sure what to expect between its covers that display the most famous tick in the world. Shoe Dog is the Nike story in its creator’s warmth-soaked words. The story began in the early 1960s with a 24-year-old wanting to make a difference by coming up with that one Crazy Idea. Before he embarked on his mission, Knight set out on a dream backpacking tour around the world, wanting to “visit the planet’s most beautiful and wondrous places. And its most sacred.” The enchanting trip, which makes for only a few pages in the book, had quality Japanese running shoes as part of his larger adventure. A fanboy, Knight’s idea was to import the Onitsuka Tigers and sell them in the US market, partnering with his athletics coach David Bowerman, the design experimenter known for creating the waffle iron shoe. Impulsively, the shy boy from Oregon created the Blue Ribbon Company while standing before the inscrutable Japanese attempting to sell his idea to the Onitsuka Corporation. From selling shoes from his car at track meets to building a team from scratch, to becoming a global giant, Shoe Dog traces this remarkable odyssey and the mad struggle of a maverick’s venture. A tale of grit, steely determination, and wisdom beyond age and sometimes reason, it is all strung beautifully together in lucid writing. This is a heart-warming tale of turbulence and triumphs, snippets about family and expressive portraits of the close circle of his trusty team mates who become family. Shoe

Dog exemplifies the fact that even the story of a global brand of shoes is better told when it has a soul.