While this company’s “swoosh” is now one of the most familiar symbols in the world, the Eugene, OR-based company—co-founded by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964—got its start as a distributor of Japanese running shoes; Knight sold them out of the trunk of his car at track meets. Now Nike controls roughly 60 percent of global market share.

In 1971, Knight and Bowerman split from their Japanese supplier, renamed the company Nike (after the Greek goddess of victory), and began designing and manufacturing their own shoes. Bowerman, who was also the track coach at the University of Oregon, was experimenting with ways to improve his runners’ speed. In the early-1970s, Bowerman destroyed the family waffle iron, and created Nike’s first smash, 1974’s “Waffle Trainer.” But it was the multiyear exclusive deal with M...