The basic pattern for NIKE’s sales and distribution was set in the early years. The company
used independent sales representatives, paid entirely on commission, to reach an expanding base of
accounts. The reps were largely order takers, and NIKE itself performed all order processing, credit,
and physical distribution work from three increasingly automated regional warehouse/offices in
Oregon, New Hampshire, and Tennessee. The Futures program was the key sales program.
By 1982 the NIKE sales management team supervised 26 independent rep agencies. Host
agency heads, typically entrepreneurs who employed 7 to 10 salespersons (often athletes), had been