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Nike -

The famous footwear and sportswear company opened its doors in 1964 following a trip Philip Knight took to Japan where he met a shoemaker named Onitsuka Tiger. Knight was once a track athlete at the University of Oregon, and agreed to import some of Onitsuka's sneakers to the United States.

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Nike -

The company was originally called Blue Ribbon Sports, and started with an order of 200 tennis shoes brought from Japan by Philip. He kept them in the basement of his father's house and took them in the trunk of his car to the track fields to sell them onsite.

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Nike -

In 1964, Philip teamed up with his former track coach, Bill Bowerman, and together they sold about 1,300 tennis shoes that year, earning them about US$8,000. The following year, they sold US$20,000 worth of shoes, and by 1966 they had enough money to open their own shop and hire employees.

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Nike - In 1971, the partnership between Philip Knight and Onitsuka Tiger Co. came to an end. Knight and Bowerman launched their own line of sports shoes and Blue Ribbon Sports changed its name to Nike after the Greek goddess of victory. Today, the brand is worth nearly US$170 billion and is one of the biggest names in the industry.

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Amazon - The idea behind Amazon was first conceived by Jeff Bezos who, in 1994, saw the Internet as the gateway to the future of business. He decided to leave his job on Wall Street and move to Seattle, where he would be strategically positioned near a large book distributor.

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Amazon - The original idea, which Bezos executed out of his garage, was to create an online bookstore. The idea worked.

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Amazon - Amazon continued to add more and more users and is now the largest online bookstore in the world. Even though Amazon doesn't just sell books anymore, that was Bezos's initial focus.

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Amazon - According to Bloomberg, Bezos is currently one of the richest men in the world with a fortune valued at US$117.5 billion.

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Toyota -

In 1924, Sakichi Toyoda invented an automatic high-speed loom, the Toyoda Model G Automatic Loom. With that, he founded the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, a company that only focused on textiles.

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Toyota -

Years later, the government of Japan encouraged Toyoda to begin developing automobiles. It was then that Toyoda decided to send his son, Kiichiro (pictured), to Europe and the United States to learn about automobile production.

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Toyota -

In 1934, Kiichiro opened a car development division within Toyoda's Automatic Loom Works. The company sold its first passenger car the following year.

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Toyota -

In 1937, the Toyota Motor Company was founded and became a separate entity of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. Today, the Toyota group is one of the most powerful companies in the automotive industry. And it's still producing textiles and sewing machines. Today, Toyota is worth almost US$300 billion.

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Netflix -

Netflix may seem like a recent success, but it was established in 1997. It was founded by Reed Hasting and Marc Randolph after Hastings was forced to pay a US$40 late fine on a rented movie.

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Netflix -

This prompted them to develop the idea for an online movie rental company that would mail DVDs to subscribers. The idea was heavily criticized at first, but NetFlix (which then had an uppercase 'F') was stable until 2007.

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Netflix -

Netflix launched its streaming service in 2007, but not as we know it today. Initially, each subscriber paid US$16.99 per month and was entitled to only 17 hours of content.

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Netflix -

Due to competition, Netflix ended the 17-hour restriction in 2008 to encourage its subscribers to access its content. This resulted in the company reaching its current status as the world's most successful streaming service. Netflix is currently valued at more than US$142 billion.

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Apple -

The first computer produced by Apple was built in a small garage in Cupertino, California. The machine was created in 1976 by Steve Wozniak (left) who joined Steve Jobs (right) and Ronald Wayne to start 'Apple Computer Co.'

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Apple -

The garage in Cupertino was in Jobs's adoptive parents' house. In it, the trio produced the brand's first 50 computers. They sold each of those computers for US$500 to a local computer store.

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Apple -

The company enjoyed success in the computer market for several years. In 1985, Jobs was removed from the company he helped create. However, in 1996 Apple went on to buy NeXT, a company also created by Jobs. The following year, Jobs resumed his leadership position at Apple, a position he held until his death in 2011.

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Apple - Apple is now one of the world's largest technology companies. They produce not only computers but many kinds of electronic products. Among them is the company's biggest success: the iPhone. The company has a fortune estimated at US$2,351 billion.

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LEGO -

One of the biggest financial crises to ever hit Europe gave rise to LEGO. During the 1929 Great Depression, Ole Kirk, a carpenter and owner of a furniture store in Billund, was forced to change his business strategy because no one could afford furniture anymore.

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LEGO -

So he began crafting car miniatures and toys under the name LEGO, the abbreviation of 'leg godt', a Danish phrase that means 'play well.'

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LEGO -

The company only produced wooden toys at first. Although the deal was not very profitable, it was bringing in more money than selling furniture. When World War II ended, plastic arrived in Denmark and Kirk was one of the first to acquire a molding machine for this new material.

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LEGO - That's when he patented the famous colorful interlocking plastic bricks and his empire began to grow. Today, LEGO continues to manufacture the parts in addition to having theme parks, movies, and countless toys. The company is worth around US$37 billion.

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Avon -

The founder of Avon, David H. McConnell, never thought he would launch a beauty products company: he was just a door-to-door book seller. However, McConnell began to notice that his female clientele was more interested in the perfume bottles he offered as a gift than in the books.

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Avon -

In 1886, McConnell decided to establish the California Perfume Company, which only sold perfumes at that time.

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Avon -

The company's first salesperson was Persis Foster Eames Albee, who was hired by McConnel to help him with the sales model, which still exists today. While out selling books, he noticed that many housewives were lonely and bored at home while their husbands went to work. He saw in this an opportunity to recruit them as saleswomen.

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Avon -

Years passed and the company developed other products. Although it experienced financial hardships in recent years, it is still one of the largest cosmetics companies in the world. In 2020, the company made US$9.1 billion in sales. 

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KFC -

The success story of KFC and founder Colonel Sanders is this list's most inspirational. Harland Sanders held several jobs and owned several businesses before founding KFC at age 65. In 1920, he founded a cruise ship company, which he later tried to sell to open a lamp manufacturing company only to find out that there was already another company producing an improved version of his lamp.

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KFC -

But Sanders's hardships didn't stop there. When he was 44, he managed to buy a motel, which later burned down completely. After that, the famous Colonel rebuilt the motel, but because of World War II he was forced to close it. After the war, he tried to franchise his chicken and sell his recipe. 

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KFC - The recipe was rejected more than a thousand times until it was bought. However, when he finally opened his restaurant, an interstate highway opened nearby, driving customers away. Sanders decided to sell the restaurant and follow his dream of making KFC a world-class franchise.

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KFC -

Sanders finally managed to expand KFC and then sell the company for US$2 million (equivalent to US$15.3 million in today's currency). To this day, the Colonel remains a core part of the company, and his face is the brand's logo that continues to open new restaurants around the world.

See also: These famous companies completely changed their names

See more: What are anonymous companies and why are they dangerous?

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