"just do it" the Nike way

Nike is the elite sports brand in the world, you have to wear Nike gear or footwear if you want to be somebody and look good. Nike founded by Philip knight, former University of Oregon track athlete and Bill Bowerman in January 1964. Its original name was Blue Ribbon Sports before it came to be known as Nike. By 1980, Nike had reached a 50 % market share in the United States athletic shoe market, and the company went public in December of that year. By 1980 the slogan “just do it” went off because of co-founder Dan Wieden. Throughout the 1980s, Nike expanded its products line to include many other sports and regions throughout the world.

After watching a Nike commercial you think whatever that athlete is wearing is going to make you shine if you wear it. It’s going to make you play better and look better. Yes from personal experience I do believe this when I watch these commercials, it’s because they promote well. In most cases I do believe there products will help your running and speed a little and they will make you look better but as far as shining and becoming this amazing athlete no I don’t believe that. Nike can make our young adults think that way though. Kids who want to become professional athletes want the best gear and if they think it will make them play better or perform better there going to buy it. If teens see Michael Jordan or Derek Jeter wearing Nike gear they are going to want to get it. If they can wear it then if we do we will be just like them, we will be as great as them. In today’s culture wearing that swoosh means that you are a somebody, you are one cool dude or women.

I must say that unlike a lot of other sports brands they don’t advertise that if you buy this product you will do amazing things for example: jump higher, run faster, be quicker. I think Nikes goal in promoting is the look you get from wearing their stuff, “how good you will look when you’re wearing our products”. Kids today will do pretty much anything for a pair of “fresh” Nikes; teens have been shot over these shoes. That just goes to show you how big this brand is. There was even a song about the Nike air force ones. Nike is huge. Everybody knows who Nike is and everybody wants what they have and I think it will always be that way because Nike did it right and they know how to promote to all ages.

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Honus and Me

I never liked reading at all or understood any of it when I was little and going through middle school. What changed all that was me reading the book ‘’Honus and me’’ by Dan Gutman in 7th grade. Ever since I was four years of age I loved baseball. I was brought up playing the game and I absolutly loved it. Every day that’s all I would think about and of course I didn’t like school and thought it was dumb and worthless, and reading was stupid and something I had no interest in at all. That was the main reason I couldn’t really read that well at that time or didn’t like it was because I had no interest in the books I read for class. That was until I read my first baseball book ‘’Honus and me’’. I never felt the way I did with reading this book. In my English classes we would all go every two weeks to the library and get a new book for class and read the book for 30 minutes every time we had English class. Once I received this book it was like I couldn’t get off of it, I could not stop reading it. There would be times were my teacher would tell us times up and I would get upset and want to keep on reading. I tried to quick read or read when she wasn’t looking just so I could get more from the book. Never in my life have I ever felt this way about a book. This was one of the first times I understood what was going on in a book also. Reading ‘’Honus and me’’ really opened my eyes to how much reading can help me and how I can read and like it. After I was done with that book Its like I changed. I now loved to read and I would look forward to getting new books and hoping I would really enjoy them. I would now find myself like trying to be in the characters shoes in the books I was reading now and it made them ten times more interesting then they were before. Reading to me before was difficult and boring. Now when I read I enjoy it and can understand most of the things I read and its not a task as it was before me. So I must say I have to thank Dan Gutman for writing a book that I really enjoyed and that helped me with my readings today. To this day he is still my favorite author because in some way he gave me my first reading and helped me learn how to enjoy reading and understand it. I know it was really my own fault for learning but I still give him credit.

About Tyler Drinkard

I am from the suburbs of Glen Burnie Maryland. My parents split up when I was 9 years old. I have lived with my father ever since, untill I enrolled at UMBC. I have quite a big family. I have four brothers and two sisters. I play baseball and will play for UMBC this year. I have a dog named Alice. I met my girlfriend in 11th grade and have been with her for 1 year and 4 months now. She also goes to UMBC and will be playing softball for them this year as well. My plan is to play pro ball after college but if that doesnt work out I want to own my own business.