Nike (NKE -0.26%) is the world's foremost sports brand, and, like most large companies, who owns Nike is not such an easy question to answer.
The company has millions of investors and has gained a massive following among both investors and consumers. The Swoosh, Nike's curved logo, is synonymous with athletic footwear and apparel around the world. Over the years, Nike has sponsored such world-famous athletes as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Lebron James, and Cristiano Ronaldo.
As a business, Nike has also been incredibly successful, dominating sports like basketball and running, and it's long been a mainstay in streetwear with staying power that would make almost any other sneaker brand envious.
Nike started in 1964 as "Blue Ribbon Sports," a scrappy running shoe company founded by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, renaming itself as Nike in 1971 after the Greek goddess of victory.
The company grew rapidly through the 1970s, went public in 1980, and continued to grow from there.
Who is the owner?
Who is the owner of Nike?
Nike (NKE -0.26%) has been publicly traded for over 40 years. It's a component of the S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, meaning it has millions of shareholders, directly and indirectly.
However, there are a few significant shareholders of the company, including founders and institutional investors.
The foremost among them is Phil Knight, who co-founded Nike along with Bill Bowerman. The two met on the University of Oregon track team. Knight was a runner, and Bowerman was the coach. Bowerman was the designer in the company's early days, while the much younger Knight ran the operations. Bowerman passed on much of his stake to employees before the 1980 initial public offering (IPO), while Knight's stake grew tremendously. Keep reading to learn more about Nike's top shareholders.
Largest Nike Shareholders
Largest Nike Shareholders
Let's take a look at NIke's largest shareholders. The figures below are from Nike's July 2023 annual proxy report.
Individuals
- Phil Knight: 51,144,661 shares, or 3.3% of shares outstanding. Knight is the co-founder of Nike and served as its longtime CEO, running the company from 1964 to 2004. He is Nike's largest individual shareholder and holds more of the stock through his Swoosh, LLC holding company.
- Mark Parker: 3,212,383 shares, 0.3% of shares outstanding. Parker is the current executive chairman and former CEO of Nike. Parker served as the CEO from 2006 to 2020.
- John Donahoe II: 1,435.975 shares, 0.1% of shares outstanding. Donahoe is the current CEO, having taken over from Parker in 2020.
- Andrew Campion: 433,658 shares, less than 0.1% of shares outstanding. Campion is the former chief operating officer (COO) and chief financial officer (CFO) of Nike and left the company in January 2024 after 17 years.
- Heidi O'Neill: 246,456 shares, less than 0.1% of shares outstanding. O'Neill is the president of Nike's consumer, product, and brand division. She joined Nike in 1998 and has held various executive roles since then, including leading Nike Direct, Nike's marketplace, and its four geographic operating regions.
Institutional investors
- Swoosh, LLC: 437 million, 29% of shares outstanding. Swoosh is the largest single shareholder of Nike stock, and it was formed to hold the majority of Phil Knight's Nike stock. It was created in 2015 when Knight announced his retirement from Nike's board.
- Vanguard Group: 109.7 million, 7.2% of shares outstanding. Vanguard is one of the world's largest investment managers, and the asset manager has steadily accumulated a stake in Nike, though some of those holdings are associated with exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other indirect holdings on behalf of clients.
- BlackRock (BLK 0.98%): 85.5 million shares, 5.7% of shares outstanding. Like Vanguard, BlackRock is another one of the largest investment managers in the world, and it owns shares of Nike associated with investments like ETFs on behalf of its clients. BlackRock's stake in Nike doubled to almost 80 million in 2016 and since then has been relatively steady.
- Travis Knight 2009 Irrevocable Trust II: 82 million, 5.4% of shares outstanding. Travis Knight is Phil Knight's son and a member of the board of directors. Some have accused the Knights of using the trust to dodge taxes, given that the trust currently holds about $1 billion in Nike stock.
Board of directors
Board of directors
Nike has a large board with 13 members on it. They are:
- Tim Cook: The Apple (AAPL 4.24%) CEO has been a director at Nike since 2005. Cook is highly regarded in the business world and rose through Apple's operations ranks to become its leader. Cook owns 48,443 shares of Nike stock.
- John Donahoe II is the current CEO of Nike, having taken over from Mark Parker in 2020. Donahoe has also been the CEO of eBay (EBAY 0.17%), giving him significant e-commerce experience, and he served as the CEO of ServiceNow (NOW -0.28%), giving him a tech background as well. Donahoe owns 1.44 million shares of Nike stock, making him one of the biggest shareholders. Donahoe has also sat on the Nike board since 2014.
- Thasunda Duckett has sat on the Nike board since 2019 and is the current CEO of TIAA, also known as Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America. She was previously the CEO of Chase Consumer Banking at JPMorgan Chase. Duckett owns 6,552 shares of Nike stock.
- Monica Gil is one of the newest board members, having joined the board in 2022. Gil is currently the chief administrative and marketing officer at NBCUniversal Telemundo. Gil owns 1,856 shares in Nike stock as of July 2023.
- Maria Henry has served on the board since 2023 and was the former CFO of Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB), another consumer products company. Henry was also CFO of the Hillshire Brand Company. She owns 1,730 shares of Nike stock.
- Peter Henry has been a Nike board member since 2017 and was the Dean of New York University's Stern School of Business for several years. Henry owns 4,062 shares of Nike.
- Travis Knight is the son of Nike co-founder Phil Knight and the CEO of the animation studio Laika. Knight is one of the biggest shareholders in Nike when factoring his trust. He also has 26,903 shares of his own stock in the company and has been on the board since 2015.
- Mark Parker, executive chairman of Nike, has been on the board since 2006. As the CEO of Nike for 14 years, Parker's resume is decorated. He owns 3.2 million shares of stock.
- Michelle Peluso has been a board member since 2014. Peluso is the executive vice president and chief customer officer at CVS (NYSE CVS) and was previously the CEO of Gilt Groupe. She owns 25,777 shares of Nike.
- Cathleen Benko, a former vice chairman and managing principal of Deloitte, has been a board member since 2018. She owns 10,942 shares of the stock.
- Alan Graf Jr. has been a board member since 2002. Graf is the former executive vice president and CFO of FedEx (FDX 1.37%), a position he held from 1998 to 2020. Graf owns 195,435 shares of Nike.
- John Rogers Jr. is the co-CEO and chief investment officer of Ariel Investments and has served on the Nike board of directors since 2018. Rogers owns 27,485 shares of Nike stock.
- Robert Swan is an operating partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and the former CEO of Intel (INTC 0.94%). Swan has been on the Nike board since 2022 and owns 4,532 shares of Nike stock.
Related investing topics
How to invest in Nike
How to invest in Nike
Nike has been publicly traded for more than 40 years. Anyone can invest in the stock if they want to. All you need is a brokerage account. If you don't have one, you can open one up with a brokerage like Charles Schwab (SCHW 1.4%), Fidelity, Robinhood (HOOD 3.09%), or E-Trade.
At the time of writing, a share of Nike costs less than $100 a share, so it's relatively affordable. However, if you'd like to buy less than that, you can buy fractional shares through most brokerages.
Once you've made the decision to buy the stock, all you need to do is decide how much you want to invest and hit the buy button. Typically, it's a good idea to limit new investments to 10% or less of your portfolio value in order to be adequately diversified, even for a blue chip stock like Nike.
FAQ
Who owns Nike: FAQ
Who is Nike owned by now?
Nike is a publicly traded company. It doesn't have a single owner, although co-founder Phil Knight is by far the largest shareholder, holding about a third of the stock. Millions of people around the world own Nike stock both directly and indirectly through exchange-traded funds, mutual funds, and other investment vehicles.
Is the owner of Nike a billionaire?
Nike co-founder Phil Knight is a billionaire. Most of his wealth is connected to Nike, and his stake in the sportswear giant is worth roughly $45 billion.
Does Nike own Adidas?
No, Nike does not own Adidas. The two companies are competitors -- archrivals even -- and have been two of the leading sportswear brands for more than a generation. They compete in basketball, running, soccer, and beyond, as well as in streetwear and apparel.
Can I invest in Nike?
Yes, Nike is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. Anyone can buy or sell its stock.
