While “warm red” quickly became the color of choice on the official logo-not the black we often see now-the on-shoe Swoosh was meant to mix colors for maximum visual identity. The birth of Nike Basketball in 1972 via the Bruin featured the fresh logo and the first high-top Nike shoe adorned with the Swoosh was the Nike Blazer in 1973. The Nike Cortez, produced in time for the Mexico Olympics in 1972, was an early adopter of the Swoosh. The Swoosh made its consumer debut on the Nike Cleat, one of the first-ever shoes from the brand, and appeared on the famed Nike Waffle Racer at the US Track and Field Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, but consumers couldn’t get their hands on that model until 1973. With Nike the goddess, not the brand, known for her flight and wingspan in Greek mythology, Davidson crafted curved lines reminiscent of a wing, fashioning a “checkmark” design while testing the look by overlaying tissue paper with logos atop shoes. So, Knight, then an accounting instructor at the downtown Portland State University, turned to an eager graphic design student, Carolyn Davidson, to create a logo for a brand named after the Greek goddess of victory.ĭavidson, earning $2 per hour, spent 17.5 hours working on the project, according to Nike history, for a total bill of $35, all with the goal of presenting motion through the Stripe. Originally named Blue Ribbon Sports, Phil Knight’s newly dubbed Nike in 1971 needed an official mark. The Swoosh represents more than just a logo. It stands alone as a mark, signifying both brand and culture. Nowadays the Swoosh represents all things Nike. As we see new Nike designs come to the market ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Swoosh, such as the READYMADE x Nike Blazer-complete with a funky Swoosh adornment-and the original Swoosh design play prominently across the new Virgil Abloh Icons book, it harkens to the early days of Nike when designers could tell who crafted a shoe simply based on the shape of the Swoosh. And the Swoosh, with its classic startup tale of formation, served more as a roadmap for shoe designers than a hard and fast rule.
Nike had the Stripe before anyone was calling it the Swoosh.
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