I was planning on posting the results to my “trunk of car” question, which has received quite a bit of attention, tomorrow  but I have a couple of emails that I want to share a little early. This one is from Tom Cassidy. Tom is a true veteran of the footwear industry with more than 23 years experience. His expertise is quite broad with sales and marketing management with global experience in footwear, apparel, and accessories in the athletic, outdoor, and action sports industries. If you would like to learn more about or contact Tom, you can visit his LinkedIn site at:  www.linkedin.com/in/thomasjcassidy or email him directly at: tjcsjc@msn.com   Thanks for the email Tom and best of luck in 09!

Tom Cassidy-footwear veteran

Hi Julia-I normally do not take the time to respond to postings, as I am trying to devote my efforts to finding a job.  However, this one caught my eye, and bringing some fun into the day is always a good thing.

Believe it or not, Nike started by selling out of the back of a station wagon (that is a term not used today very much, but if you grew up prior to the 80’s before minivans and SUV’s were on the market, it was the family car of previous generations).  Phil Knight, part founder and CEO of Nike, would go out to track meets and try to sell his shoes to the participants in the early 70’s.  Retailers did not want to carry an unknown brand like Nike when they had all of the Puma, Adidas, and Converse they needed.

Another entertaining story is the location of one of Nike’s first retail locations.  Again, prior to when Nike could convince retailers to carry their products, they opened retail stores.  By 1979 when I started with the company, there were seven: Berkeley, Westwood, Beaverton, Portland, Eugene, Georgetown, and Wellesley.  The seven in 1979 were majestic castles compared to the early stores.

One Nike store back east in the early 70’s was in a two story building shared by Nike and a mortuary.  The mortuary was on the second floor and the store was on the first floor.  Whenever shoes had to be shipped to customers, the store employees would sometimes go upstairs and “borrow” boxes to use for shipping.  The boxes had been shipped to the mortuary for supplies like embalming fluid!

Somehow they made it through the lean years.

Perseverance!

Best,

Tom