Shane Parrish

She looks at him and says, if you can't trust the company your son is working for, then who can you trust?

Think about what's happening here.

There was no spreadsheet that justified this investment.

There was no bank that would touch Blue Ribbon.

But this woman had watched Knight give her paralyzed son a chance when no one else would.

She watched him treat Bob with respect, with real responsibility, and with trust.

And she decided that a man who would do that was worth betting everything on.

The Woodall loan bought time, but it didn't fix the real problem.

Knight discovered that Onitsuka was actively shopping for other American distributors.

The company that gave him his start was now trying to cut him out.

The partnership that built Blue Ribbon was dying.

Knight faced a choice, fight for a relationship that was already dead or bet everything on making his own shoe.

And with help from a Japanese trading company called Nishu, he found new manufacturers.

His team started designing their own products.

Jeff Johnson suggested the name Nike after it came to him in a dream.

A graphic design student named Carolyn Davidson created this swoosh logo that is so popular today for $35.

Knight's reaction when he saw it was, I don't love it, but it will grow on me.

In 1972, Nike made its debut at the National Sporting Goods Association show in Chicago.

The shoes were flawed.

Some of the swooshes were crooked, but buyers trusted Blue Ribbon enough to give them a shot.