Nike is a sports lifestyle and footwear company . It was started in 1964 by Philip H Knight and William Jay Bowerman . Forbes places its sales revenue at $ 33.82bn , with a market cap of $ 91.2bn . It places eighth on Gartner ’ s “ Top 25 Supply Chains 2017 ”, gaining such recognition “ the old fashioned-way : strong financial performance ”, according to Industry Week . With 70,700 employees , it is 249th on Forbes ’ “ The World ’ s Biggest Public Companies ”. GQ recently published a report on a 2018 upgrade Nike intends for an existing brand of shoes , rating them positively . 73