How much is Phil Knight Worth? Phil Knight Net Worth in 2025

Phil Knight Net Worth: How rich is Phil Knight? & How much money is Phil Knight worth? Time to find out!

Phil Knight is an American business magnate and philanthropist and his current net worth is $25.3 billion.

Born in Portland, Oregon, as the son of Bill Knight, a lawyer turned newspaper publisher, and Lota Knight, he grew up in the Portland neighborhood of Eastmoreland.

He attended Cleveland High School, after which he continued his studies at the University of Oregon, in Eugene. While there he served as a sports reporter for the Oregon Daily Emerald, and earned a journalism degree.

At University of Oregon he became a middle-distance runner, and winning varsity letters for his track performances in three consecutive years until 1959.

Together with two other partners, Bowerman and Geoff Hollister, he founded an American running team called Athletics West.

Before the running team became Nike, he served as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), with him even becoming an accounting professor at Portland State University (PSU).

Soon after graduating he enrolled in the Army where he served for one year on active duty and seven in the Army Reserve.

Upon finishing a year of duty, he attended the Stanford Graduate School in Business. While there he discovered his entrepreneurial side in Frank Shallenberger’s Small Business class.

In the class, he had to create a business plan and wrote the paper Can Japanese Sports Shoes Do to German Sports Shoes What Japanese Cameras Did to German Cameras?.

Right there, it was the beginning of his foray into selling running shoes.

From Stanford he graduated with a master’s degree in business administration, in 1962.

How did Phil Knight get famous?

Upon graduation he went on a trip around the world, during which he visited Kobe, Japan, where he discovered the Tiger-band running shoes.

Impressed with the quality and low cost, he made a cold call to the owner of the company, who agreed to meet with him. By the end of the meeting, he secured Tiger distribution rights for the western US.

The first Tiger samples, manufacture lasted more than a year before shipped to Knight, meanwhile, he found a job as an accountant in Portland.

When he did received the shoe samples, he mailed two pairs to his classmate, Bowerman, at the university, in hopes to receive a sale and an influential endorsement. Knight not only did receive the sale, but Bowerman offered to become a partner with Knight and give product design ideas.

The two men agreed to a partnership by handshake on January 25, 1964, the birth date of Blue Ribbon Sports, the company name that would later become into Nike.

How does Phil Knight make money?

He made his first sales out of a green Plymouth Valiant automobile at track meets.

By 1969, these early sales allowed Knight to leave his accountant job and work full-time for Blue Ribbon Sports.

The company changed its name into Nike, after Jeff Johnson, the employee number one of the firm, suggested the name. Nike comes after the Greek winged goddess of victory.

The company’s logo, “the swoosh”, now considered one of the most powerful logos in the world, only cost $35 from Carolyn Davidson.

Knight is now the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc., and previously he served as a chairman and CEO of the company.

He is one of the richest people in the world, as well as the owner of the stop motion film production company Laika.

Apart from his business career, he is a famous philanthropist who has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to each of his Alma maters, among others. He has donated over $2 billion so far.

This wraps up our Phil Knight Net Worth profile!