In the summer of 1990, Nike threw itself a rager of a party to celebrate the opening of its now-iconic campus in Beaverton, Ore. On the banks of a glittering pond at the heart of the campus, cofounder Phil Knight, the Shoe Dog himself, hosted the sneaker and apparel company’s biggest partners in retail, wholesale, and manufacturing, its superstar athlete endorsers, and the company’s top executives. The distinguished guest list very much did not include a 26-year-old third-year sales associate named Elliott Hill.
In his short time at the company, though, Hill had already turned a few heads. After a Nike exec came to speak to his sports marketing program at Ohio University, Hill had cajoled his way into what he thought was a job at the company’s Memphis facility; it turned out to be a six-month internship. (He didn’t tell his mom.) He busted his butt, moved boxes, filled out forms, did whatever needed doing. When his six months were up, he was offered a sales job and inherited 168 apparel accounts across north Texas and Oklahoma.
