'I never get tired of looking at it': Woman who designed Nike's swoosh explains how chance encounter with Phil Knight led to its inception 40 YEARS ago

By Brian Clark Howard
Updated: 12:27 EDT, 16 June 2011

• Carolyn Davidson was a student at Portland State when she met Phil Knight
• She was paid $35 for her logo, but was given stock later (now worth $643k)
• Mr Knight originally said:  'Well, I don't love it, but maybe it will grow on me'
• Ms Davidson is still thrilled about her design and its influence
  

As a young college student, Carolyn Davidson was asked to design what would become one of the world's most recognizable logos.

It was nearly 40 years ago that Ms Davidson came up with the swoosh symbol for Nike, but she just told OregonLive.com: 'I like it. I really do. I never get tired of looking at it'.

She probably doesn't get tired of the acclaim or the money she earned from her work, either.

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Swoosh creator: Carolyn Davidson, who invented the Nike swoosh logo in 1971, is pictured in 2003

OregonLive.com estimates the gift of 500 shares of Nike stock she received as a result of her design is now worth $643,035, and she has never sold any.

Her name is also well known to students of design and professionals in the field.

In a party in her honour at Nike's offices in the Portland, Oregon area in 1983, Ms Davidson gave a video interview about her association with the company.

More than a decade before that, in 1971, Ms Davidson was a student at Portland State University, where Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman was a legendary track coach, and co-founder Phil Knight was a young associate professor of accounting.

Ms Davidson said she was sitting in a hall at the school, when Mr Knight happened to walk by. She said he overheard her mention that she couldn't afford to take oil painting.

She said: 'He said if I'd like the job, he'd pay me so much an hour to letter some signs. It started from there'.

Mr Knight remembers that he had offered her $2 an hour, though he joked in 1983 that 'I never thought she'd spend 17.5 hours on the project!'

Chance meeting: Carolyn Davidson was a student at Portland State University when she ran into a young accounting professor, Phil Knight, who offered to pay her for design work for his side business

Party: Phil Knight and other Nike employees joke with Ms Davidson at a 1983 party in her honour

Honoured: Ms Davidson received a gold swoosh ring and gift of 500 shares of Nike stock, then worth about $150 but now worth $643,035

Ms Davison told OregonLive that she isn't sure exactly how long designing the swoosh took, but she estimates it was probably more than 17.5 hours.

At the party in her honour in 1983, an early Nike employee joked, 'As everyone here knows, she invented the Nike swoosh and got paid the outrageous sum of $35 bucks for it'.

At the same event, Mr Knight joked, 'When we gave her the $35 we did ask her not to cash it right away'.

Ms Davidson reflected, 'Maybe the price wasn't good at the time, they paid what I charged though, you know.

'I've gotten so many referrals from the people I worked with at the time. Geez it's been great'.

In fact, after graduating, Ms Davidson worked for Nike for several years, until she resigned to spend more time homemaking and to work freelance for a number of clients.

In 1983, Nike was a growing company, and the founders had wanted to do something to recognize Ms Davidson's earlier contribution.

$35 design: Ms Davidson's swoosh has appeared on millions of items over the past 40 years

High tech: These days, Nike has a wide range of products, such as the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, 'the ultimate personal running and workout experience'. The company has 30,000 employees and makes billions

So they invited her to their office for lunch, then surprised her with a party. They presented her with a gold ring in the shape of her swoosh, complete with a small diamond.

'It's beautiful', Ms Davidson said.

They also gave her a certificate of appreciation and 500 shares of stock.

'Wow, that's really...' Ms Davidson trailed off, as someone joked: 'The price keeps going down, it's worthless too'.

Another employee estimated the 500 shares of Nike stock were worth about $150 at the time. Since then, there have been four 2-for-1 stock splits.

With Wednesday's closing price of $80.39, that would come to $1,286 a share. Multiply that by 500 and add $35, and that equals $643,035.

Pitch men: Nike has long used high-profile athletes in its advertising, from Michael Jordan to Kobe Bryant

Spike: Filmmaker Spike Lee (L) long appeared in Nike commercials. He is pictured in 2004 with soccer player Thierry Henry of Arsenal at Madison Square Garden

Ms Davidson insists she isn't a millionaire today, although she lives comfortably and spends much of her time volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House.

Reflecting on the design process, Ms Davidson said in 1983, 'I guess there weren't hundreds but it felt like it at the time'.

She told OregonLive.com that it was a challenge to come up with a logo that conveyed motion, that looked good on a shoe, and that Mr Knight and the rest of the team would like.

In particular, she said Mr Knight was very impressed with the stripes of rival company Adidas, so it was hard to come up with something original.

Global reach: Nike is one of the world's most recognizable brands

She worked by sketching potential logos out by hand on tissue paper, and laying them over a drawing of a shoe.

When she first showed her final designs to Mr Knight and two other Nike executives in 1971, they weren't immediately blown away by the swoosh. 'What else you got?' they asked.

Over the next few minutes, they decided that was the best one, and they decided to move ahead with it immediately, without even giving Ms Davidson time to 'clean up the design'.

Nike had been started as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964 and had been distributing Japanese-made sneakers in the U.S. But it was poised to start designing and making its own shoes out of a plant in Mexico.

In 1972, the company first began selling shoes with the Nike name, named after the Greek goddess of victory. The company adopted the name for all its operations in 1978.

As for Ms Davidson's swoosh, Phil Knight had said, 'Well, I don't love it, but maybe it will grow on me'.

Today, Nike employs 30,000 people worldwide and had more than $19 billion in sales last year.

Nike owns subsidiaries Cole Haan, Converse, Hurley International and Umbro Ltd., and the swoosh is recognized everywhere, emblazoned on hundreds of sports products.

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