Nike Site Tour

Keri S.

May 23, 2010 - 11:00 PM

This Friday, I went with my business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi to the Nike world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon (near Portland) to listen to a panel of speakers and learn about the company and the industry. I have been up to the Nike campus before, and once I set foot on the campus I once again fell in love.

Life at Nike is unlike any corporate environment I have ever experienced. Employees wear jeans and the latest Nike shoes, hit the gym in the middle of the afternoon, and compete in intramural sports and activities through the year. They also negotiate with and mingle with some of the top athletes in the world. But beyond the casual atmosphere and the glamour of the sports world, these employees get stuff done! Nike is the leading sportswear developer in the world and the top shoe manufacturer, and they are always evolving and creating new and innovating products.

On this specific trip up to campus, we met with several directors and executives from different departments. In this panel, the Nike pros talked about their experiences, jobs, attitudes, and advice. It was great to learn even more about the company. There were representatives from marketing, finance, digital media, international business, and transition management from several different departments. When the Nike pro from transitions management introduced himself and his position, I had never heard of his department. Nike has a completely separate department dedicated to keeping up with new technologies and making sure the organization, suppliers, and consumers keep up with the technology. The example he gave was ordering product. Before all the new technology, orders were placed via mail or via telephone. Then, orders were placed with fax machines. After a while, the fax machine was replaced with email. Now, Nike is in the process of working with suppliers to place and receive orders via a separate online database. The man said that within the last ten years, every company in every industry has had to dedicate time, man power, and resources to transitions management, and it is now a necessity to keep up with the rapid changes we are seeing in technology. This seems like a very interesting line of work, and something I will have to investigate more as I continue my job search.

After the great panel, we walked around the campus and learned about the facilities. We walked into a few of the buildings (all of which are named after the top Nike athletes). The first building we went to was the Tiger Woods building. Each building has a display case with memorabilia from the athlete's personal and professional lives. The Tiger Woods display showed his first golf bag, which he got when he was only a few years old, school photos, and a newspaper article written about his amazing golf talent when he was only 6 years old!

We then headed over to Mia Hamm building to meet with some product developers and innovators. Nike is known for their continued innovation and constantly evolving products. Where does all this magic happen? The innovation kitchen! My group and I were able to tour this very exclusive part of campus and meet with one of the innovation directors about what is coming up next for Nike. A lot of this information was confidential, so unfortunately I can't share. All I can tell you is that, once again, Nike is in the works to plan some great new products.

I had a great experience with my business fraternity up at Nike, which ended with a trip to the infamous employee store and a few new pairs of shoes!