SHOE DOG By Phil Knight

Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few are willing to do.

Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: high quality, low cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, ’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start ups, Knight’s is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. 

But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile banker as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill , and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of brothers.