These logos are imprinted in our minds. This is a new feature about where they came from and why they work.

Brand: Nike

Original logo designer: Carolyn Davidson

Year: 1971

Opening Knight: In 1971, Phil Knight co-owned (with University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman) an athletic-shoe company called Blue Ribbon Sports, a US distributor of the Japanese Onitsuka Tiger brand of running shoes. But Knight and Bowerman were about to introduce their own brand of shoes, which would debut the following year. The company would be renamed Nike, after the winged Greek goddess of victory.

Knight taught accounting part-time at Portland State University and hired an undergraduate design student there, Carolyn Davidson, to draft logo design options for the shoe. Knight’s only direction was that it “have something to do with movement,” Davidson told ABC News in 2016.

Among her sketches was a wing-like shape that we know today as the swoosh. After Knight presented her designs to others at his then-small company, he told her the verdict.

“I remember him coming out and saying they had picked the swoosh, that he didn’t love it, but maybe it would grow on him,” Davidson recalled to ABC News.

Davidson’s bill for creating the Nike swoosh: $35.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Inflexible supply chains and “opaque” supplier relationships are among the myriad of challenges organizations face today, and as CFO Brew’s Drew Adamek reports, challenge brings change:

There is also a move to “reshore” supply chains by bringing critical supply manufacturing back to North America. General Motors announced earlier this year that it was reshoring its electric vehicle and battery production to Michigan, investing $7 billion in a new plant. Micron Technology is investing $40 billion to build new chip-manufacturing plants in the US. [...]

Companies are also moving away from “just in time” inventory management and increasing inventories, according to a recent McKinsey report. Although that strategy can be risky; retailers Target and Walmart have both seen their earnings fall this year because of excess inventory.

Keep reading here.—DA

Today’s top retail reads.

Ripple effect: After pandemic-driven lockdowns, a severe drought across China is causing factories to close, which could trigger additional supply-chain issues across the globe. (the New York Times)

Watch and learn: How Dior became one of fashion’s fastest-growing and most-successful brands. (Business of Fashion)

A different solution: As inflation keeps up, the Fed may continue turning to tried-and-tested methods, like hiking interest rates, to bring it down. But is it the right way to go? (Vox)

Three of the stories below are real...and one is most definitely not. Can you spot the fake?

1. You can now add water to some of Kellogg’s instant cereal bowls.
2. Ugg collaborated with a design studio to create a new sofa.
3. Chanel Beauty has joined forces with McDonald’s for a limited-edition designer burger.
4. One toilet paper company sued another, alleging they make identical rolls that are very long.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• Why some brands’ resale programs don’t accept clothing that’s been altered
• Misfits Market CEO on its acquisition of Imperfect Foods
• International retailers interested in India may need to follow these ground rules