MOLI VIEW™

Long ago, before it blossomed into a coveted consumer fetish object, the sneaker was a mundane piece of athletic gear. The transformation is mostly due to Nike, and the near-religious fervor with which it has built its brand. Here's a look at how the company convinced millions to pay upwards of $150 for casual shoes, and shook up the art of selling along the way:

The Logo The Swoosh

In 1971, co-founder Phil Knight paid Carolyn Davidson, a graphic-design student, $35 to design a logo. "I don't love it," was his initial reaction. Whereas Adidas's famous three stripes were like ribs holding the shoe's body together, this wasteful swoop did little more than call attention to itself. And so Knight spent nearly 10 years experimenting with all kinds of logo strategies, including the "sunburst"—a circle of tiny swooshes. In the early 1980s, he settled on the stand alone Swoosh we know today and eventually rewarded Davidson's prescience with a diamond ring and a gift of Nike stock.

The Heel Labor practices

Nike's well-publicized weak spot is the 600,000-plus workers who labor in its contractors' overseas factories. The controversy reached a boil in 1996 when Life published photos of Pakistani children stitching together be-Swooshed soccer balls. Nike responded by hiring former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young to tour Nike factories in Asia. Despite Young's conclusion that Nike was "doing a good job," a leaked audit from Nike's own accounting firm confirmed many of the worst charges—$2-a-day wages, physical abuse, and exposure to toxic fumes. The company's recent corporate responsibility report—which touts a switch to healthier, water-based glue, among other things—can be summed up in two words: "We're trying!"

The Tongue Phil Knight

Fifty years ago, co-founder and longtime CEO, Phil Knight, ran the mile for the University of Oregon. He conceived of Nike as his MBA project and the company started off modestly, with Knight selling imported Japanese sneakers at track meets. Billions of dollars later, the company still preaches the rainy-day Calvinism of a Pacific Northwest track geek—races without finish lines, things that we just must do, etc.—advocating the purification of the soul through painful and solitary exertion. Knight left Nike's CEO post in 2004, but remains the company's largest shareholder and chairman of its board.

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