????要怪就怪鞋子。耐克（Nike）和銳步（Reebok）之間的爭奪持續(xù)了三十多年，而且締造了今天我們所熟知的體育明星文化。

????最初這兩家公司有著天壤之別：俄勒岡大學(xué)（University of Oregon）前田徑明星、斯坦福大學(xué)（Stanford）工商管理碩士菲爾?奈特放棄了會(huì)計(jì)工作后建立了一家鞋業(yè)進(jìn)口公司，并用希臘勝利女神的名字（Nike）為之命名。保羅?法爾曼從波士頓大學(xué)（Boston University）退學(xué)后接掌了家族的體育用品生意。他收購了一種英國產(chǎn)運(yùn)動(dòng)鞋在北美的代理權(quán)。它就是銳步，一個(gè)白色皮制女性有氧運(yùn)動(dòng)鞋系列，名字取自一種羚羊。隨著慢跑風(fēng)靡全美，銳步也開始發(fā)展壯大。1984年，法爾曼收購了銳步的母公司，又在第二年讓銳步上市。

????耐克通過積極迎合男性消費(fèi)者而名聲鵲起，建立了一種充滿狂熱氣氛的管理文化，但同時(shí)也和女性運(yùn)動(dòng)鞋市場擦肩而過。1987年，銳步超過了耐克，后者陷入苦苦的追趕之中。

????最終耐克重新占據(jù)上風(fēng)憑借的是一紙合同，和該公司簽約的是后來成為歷史上最受人崇拜的運(yùn)動(dòng)員：邁克爾?喬丹。耐克得到的不光是一名英雄般的運(yùn)動(dòng)員，還是一名很上鏡的發(fā)言人，能和觀眾直接溝通。借助喬丹和大獲成功的“飛人喬丹”（Air Jordan）品牌，耐克后來居上【飛人喬丹品牌的年銷售額后來超過了10億美元（62.7億元人民幣）】。

????作為反擊，銳步簽下了沙奎爾?奧尼爾。有一次，奧尼爾在和耐克方面會(huì)面時(shí)穿了一件印有巨大銳步商標(biāo)的夾克，讓耐克高層又驚又氣。

????1992年奧運(yùn)會(huì)上，喬丹用美國國旗擋住了夢一隊(duì)運(yùn)動(dòng)服上贊助商銳步的商標(biāo)，一度引起爭議。奈特則喜出望外。他又進(jìn)一步給銳步使絆兒，出資2.5萬美元（15.675萬元人民幣）為花樣滑冰運(yùn)動(dòng)員托尼婭?哈丁辯護(hù)，后者被指策劃了對(duì)銳步簽約運(yùn)動(dòng)員南希?克里根的惡意襲擊事件。

????耐克繼續(xù)和那些最紅的運(yùn)動(dòng)員合作，包括安德烈?阿加西、皮特?桑普拉斯和后來的泰戈?duì)?伍茲，使銳步相形見絀。2005年，阿迪達(dá)斯（Adidas）收購了銳步，但和巨無霸耐克相比，二者合并后成立的新公司雖然位居次席，但仍有一定的差距。

????獲勝者：耐克（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????Blame it on the shoes. The battle between Nike and Reebok lasted over three decades and created celebrity athlete culture as we know it today.

????Initially the two couldn't have been more different: Phil Knight, a former University of Oregon track star and a Stanford MBA, tossed his accounting career and formed a company to import running shoes to the U.S. He named it Nike after the Greek goddess of victory. Paul Fireman dropped out of Boston University to take over his family's sporting-goods business. He acquired the North American rights to British-made sneakers. Reebok, a line of white-leather women's aerobic shoes named after an antelope, took off as jogging became a national craze. Fireman bought out the parent company in 1984 and took Reebok public the following year.

????Nike, which had risen to prominence by aggressively courting male customers and fostering a jock-laden management culture, missed the market for women's sneakers. Reebok overtook Nike in 1987 as the latter struggled to catch up.

????Eventually Nike regained momentum by signing the man who would become the most iconic athlete of all time: Michael Jordan. Nike gained not just a hero athlete but also a telegenic spokesperson who connected with audiences. On the back of Jordan and the massive popularity of his Air Jordan brand, Nike surged ahead. (Air Jordan sales eventually surpassed $1 billion annually.)

????Reebok responded by signing Shaquille O'Neal, who once showed up to a meeting with Nike wearing a jacket emblazoned with a huge Reebok logo -- much to the dismay of Nike executives.

????At the 1992 Olympics, Jordan controversially draped a U.S. flag to hide the logo on the Reebok-sponsored tracksuits worn by the U.S.'s winning Dream Team. The move delighted Knight, who baited Reebok further by contributing $25,000 to figure skater Tonya Harding's defense fund after she was accused of orchestrating a vicious attack on Nancy Kerrigan, a Reebok athlete.

????Nike continued to snap up the most popular athletes, including Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, and later Tiger Woods, making Reebok seem lame by comparison. In 2005, Adidas bought Reebok, but the new, combined company is still a distant second to the Nike juggernaut.

????Winner:Nike