Nike

The Nike After Dark Tour is a Nike-organized running event series designed exclusively for women, held after dark in cities around the world. It's part of Nike's broader effort to grow women's running communities and celebrate female athletes at every level. The tour has built a dedicated following under the #afterdarktour hashtag across Nike's social platforms.

The Nike Pegasus Plus 2 is an update to Nike's long-running Pegasus line of training and racing shoes, featuring an upgraded foam compound for more responsive cushioning underfoot. The Pegasus family is one of Nike's most enduring running shoe lineages, and the Plus 2 iteration targets competitive everyday runners. Nike has pushed it heavily across their running content under the #pegasusplus2 hashtag.

"Just Do It" was coined in 1988 by advertising copywriter Dan Wieden of the agency Wieden+Kennedy, who has said he drew loose inspiration from the final words of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore. Nike adopted it for a major campaign that year and it quickly became one of the most recognized brand slogans in marketing history. To this day it remains Nike's entire bio on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

Nike was co-founded by Phil Knight, a University of Oregon track athlete, and his coach Bill Bowerman in 1964, originally operating under the name Blue Ribbon Sports. The company was renamed Nike, Inc. in 1971, the same year the iconic swoosh logo was introduced. Phil Knight's memoir Shoe Dog chronicles the full story of the brand's unlikely origins.

Yes — graphic design student Carolyn Davidson created the Nike swoosh in 1971 and was paid just $35 for the work. Phil Knight reportedly wasn't fully sold on it at first but decided to use it anyway. Years later, Nike gave Davidson a diamond swoosh ring and Nike stock as a belated recognition of her contribution to one of the most iconic logos in brand history.

In 2018, for the 30th anniversary of "Just Do It," Nike released a campaign starring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick with the headline "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything." The campaign was polarizing — some consumers publicly boycotted Nike while others praised the brand for taking a political stance. It ultimately became one of the most talked-about advertising campaigns of the decade and was followed by a reported surge in Nike's online sales.

Yes, LeBron James signed a lifetime endorsement deal with Nike that is widely reported to be worth over a billion dollars, making it one of the largest athlete endorsement agreements in history. The deal gives LeBron his own ongoing signature shoe line under the Nike umbrella. His partnership with the brand is a cornerstone of Nike's basketball marketing identity.

Nike's Only Basketball campaign is a celebration of basketball as a distinct culture — the game's style, language, community, and competitive spirit — rather than just the sport itself. It leans into the lifestyle dimension of basketball that Nike has helped define through decades of athlete partnerships and signature shoe releases. The campaign appears across Nike's social content under the #onlybasketball hashtag.

Nike's global headquarters is located in Beaverton, Oregon, just outside Portland, on a sprawling campus known as the Nike World Campus. Nike's roots in the Pacific Northwest trace directly back to the University of Oregon track program where Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman first collaborated. The campus features buildings named after Nike-sponsored athletes.

Nike's TikTok leans heavily into running culture, using hashtags like #runnertok and #running alongside campaign-specific tags like #afterdarktour and #pegasusplus2 to connect with a wide community of everyday and competitive runners. The content mixes product showcases, athlete storytelling, and motivational clips aimed at a predominantly young adult audience. Nike's TikTok engagement runs well above the category average for major sportswear brands, making it one of their faster-growing platforms.