The Nike Plus, the chip placed in running- shoe soles that communicates wirelessly with an iPod, has a whole cult built around it.
Nike maintains nearly 60% market share in running and nearly 90% in basketball, according to footwear consultancy SportsOneSource.
The story of how Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman developed a running shoe sole from a waffle maker has become a minor legend.
The book came out in 1981 back when running was new and hip and Nike was just a tiny company located somewhere in Oregon.
Though Nike is well known for its ties to basketball and running because of its links to such sports icons as Michael Jordan and the late track star Steve Prefontaine, it also has years of experience creating products for football players.
WSJ: Nike's New NFL Uniforms to Boost Firm's Apparel Offerings
While other record distributors and running shoe companies are now forgotten, Virgin and Nike have grown dramatically by expanding into new businesses far beyond their original arenas of success.
In a sweltering, claustrophobic chamber the size of a storage closet, a sweat-glazed man in a running top pounds away on a treadmill in the Nike Sports Research Lab in Beaverton, Ore.
The spotlight that came with his running blades and high level of achievement won him endorsements from Nike Inc.
The age of the modern running shoe that began in the 1970s with Phil Knight and Nike could just possibly begin to enter its twilight.
At Nike, the brand's third collaboration with Japanese designer Jun Takahashi has yielded a high-tech running jacket in which the super-ventilated hood and arms can be zipped out of the slim-fitting body.
Nike can illustrate this aggregate behavior but can also take the next step and offer to share the top running courses for those training or even recommend breakfast locales near the common courses for these runners to recharge post-run.
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