Nike Cortez Vs. Tiger Corsair - The Birth of Nike

Top: Nike Cortez // Bottom: Tiger Corsair (Image via www.sneakerfreaker.com)

Bill Bowerman as the track coach at Oregon (Image via news.nike.com)

The story of the Nike Cortez & Tiger Corsair really starts with Phil Knight as a track runner at the University of Oregon. While on the track team there, Phil Knight met and became great friends with his track coach, Bill Bowerman. Bowerman's role in this story wouldn't inflate quite yet, but would come soon down the road. 

Blue Ribbon Sports store (Image via theolympians.co)  

Upon Knight's graduation at the University of Oregon, Knight attended Stanford seeking to earn his MBA. Concluding his MBA journey, Knight wrote his Master's thesis as,  “Can Japanese sports shoes do to German sports shoes what Japanese cameras did to German cameras?” In 1962, the same year Knight completed his Master's degree, Knight traveled to Japan and managed to speak with Kihachiro Onitsuka. Kihachiro Onitsuka was the founder of the brand Onitsuka Tiger, the company who made Japanese sports shoes that Knight claimed would have a solid market in the United States. After telling a few lies, Knight convinced Onitsuka Tiger to send their product to the United States for Knight to sell at a store he made up in the moment called Blue Ribbon Sports. Despite him lying that it existed and making it up in the moment, the store would soon after come to life. Knight then convinced Bill Bowerman to go half on starting the business with him, and so they would run together (no pun intended) as business partners starting in 1964. 

First Tiger Cortez model (Image via sneakers-magazine.com)

One significant characteristic to note about Bill Bowerman was that he was always tinkering with his track runners' shoes in search of innovative ways to make the shoes better. So, once Blue Ribbon Sports began distributing Tiger sports shoes, Bowerman had an influx of options he would be able to tinker with. As Bowerman continued to tinker with the Tiger shoes, he engaged in talks with Tiger on how they could make improvements. Tiger took his advice on a couple of their models, and then, in 1968, Blue Ribbon Sports and Tiger would finally work on a model together: the Tiger Cortez.

New Nike logo (Image via theolympians.co)  

Not long after the release of the Tiger Cortez, the relationship between Onitsuka Tiger and Blue Ribbon Sports would turn bitter. Blue Ribbon Sports was much smaller than Tiger, and was tied down by their contract with Tiger that only allowed them to sell Tiger shoes. Tiger, realizing their total market potential in the U.S., began shopping around for other U.S. distributors that would be interested in selling their product, disobeying boundaries that were laid down in their contract with Blue Ribbon Sports. Being the sole distributor of Tiger in the U.S., and considering the rules of their contract with Tiger, Blue Ribbon Sports was not happy with this and saw an abrupt end to the relationship between Blue Ribbon Sports and Onitsuka Tiger in the near future. Preparing for this difficult ending, Blue Ribbon Sports decided they needed to take action. According to Kenny Moore in his book Bowerman and the Men of Oregon, they started by finding another manufacturer that could create the Cortez model since Tiger was the only one that did it. After finding a new manufacturer, Blue Ribbon Sports bought the "Swoosh" logo from the design student that created it, and began rebranding under the name "Nike" - named after the Greek goddess of victory. Nike removed the crossing lines from each side of the Cortez, replaced the lines with their new "Swoosh" logo, and began selling that product without telling Onitsuka Tiger. According to Julie Strasser in her book titled Swoosh, Tiger would only find out that Blue Ribbon Sports was re-branding the Cortez behind their back when one of their officials visited a Blue Ribbon Sports warehouse and discovered hidden pairs.

First Nike Cortez (Image via sneakers-magazine.com)

Obviously Onitsuka Tiger wasn't very happy that Blue Ribbon Sports was taking their best-selling silhouette, even though Bill Bowerman was really the one that created it. Blue Ribbon Sports, now Nike, would begin selling their version of the product with the Swoosh on the side to the extreme disliking of Tiger, and so this case would go to court. After a year, Nike prevailed in the court case, forcing Onitsuka Tiger to rename their version of the shoe as the "Tiger Corsair". There was one peculiar result of this court case, though. Both companies were allowed to continue selling their versions of the shoe since the branding and logos weren't the same. With that, according to an article written by Jack Meyer of TheStreet, the Cortez is the only sneaker model to ever become a best-selling shoe for two different shoe companies.


From the images shown in this article, I'm sure the Onitsuka Tiger branding seems familiar. This is because Onitsuka Tiger would one day merge with a couple other companies and become "Asics". Despite this merger, some of the Onitsuka Tiger vintage product is still sold under that name, rather than the name Asics. Either way, the Cortez model is still sold by Asics/Onitsuka Tiger and Nike, and can be purchased for $75.00 to $100.00 USD. An image of what each model looks like today is displayed at the very top of this article.

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Help from: Sneaker Freaker, The Olympians, Sneakers Magazine, TheStreet