What It's Like Walking Around Nike's Huge Global Headquarters In Beautiful, Sunny Oregon

Jay Yarow
Nike headquarters tour21Business Insider

Nike flew us out to its world headquarters last week to talk about its newest golf equipment.

While there, it also took us on a tour of the campus. We didn’t get chance to snoop around in the offices, to see what it’s like for employees, but we did get a sense of what the place is like. It’s not as massive as Microsoft or Google, but it’s in the next tier.

Nike, unsurprisingly, is all about athletes and sports. It has two soccer fields, a tennis court, a big gym, and a putting green. There’s also a big running trail.

Typically it’s raining and miserable in Oregon this time of year. The day we walked around the campus, it just happened to be sunny.

We started our tour in the Tiger Woods building. There is a statue for Woods in the lobby.

Generally, we don't encourage people to read in a visual slideshow like this ... but this screed about Tiger Woods is a doozy worth reading. He's compared to Frank Lloyd Wright, Helen Keller, and Helen Keller. Lower down, it says he conducted 'a jihad against the record books.'

Deeper in the building, there's this relief of Tiger Woods.

It's made out of tees, which is pretty neat.

And here is a display case with some Woods memorabilia.

ESPN is playing all over the campus. (Sorry Fox Sports One!)

Moving outside, there's a big soccer field, or pitch, if you will.

This is the Ronaldo sculpture next to the soccer field.

To the left is this replica of the tee box of the 18th tee at Pebble Beach, one of Woods' favourite venues. One day he was here, bombing drives from this tee box over the soccer field.

We moved on from the Tiger Woods building...

There's this swampy creek area that we cross on a bridge. (The campus was built on a swamp.)

Some geese were hanging out on this chilly day at Nike.

This is 'Lake Nike,' a man-made lake in the heart of the campus, just behind the main buildings of the 'old' campus. The old campus is the older buildings.

Throughout the campus are big banners with Nike athletes.

There was this lovely statue of two people on a bench, but our tour guide didn't know who these people are supposed to be.

We went into the Prefontaine building next. Nike had its college uniforms on display.

Here's a neat detail: Inside West Virginia's uniform is a canary. It's in reference to sending a canary into a coal mine. Only the players can see it, and it's the last thing they see as the put on the jersey.

Nike has a project to document the history of Nike, called Nike DNA. In this room, we get a little sample of Nike's history.

An old van selling Nikes.

While most people focus on Phil Knight, at Nike, there is a lot of talk about Bill Bowerman, Knight's co-founder.

This is the original waffle iron that Bowerman used to make soles for shoes.

This is an early Nike sneaker that was used in Olympic trials. It was hand cobbled.

This is the front of Nike HQ.

Here's what that looks like from the reverse angle. This is what it's like to walk up to Nike's main entrance.

We moved on to other buildings...

The halls are lined with big name athletes in bronze, like Gary Carter.

This building is Nike's main cafeteria/campus area. Our tour guide said he saw Phil Knight in there eating lunch one day.

This is the Michael Jordan building. All the buildings are named after athletes.

Inside, we see all the Jordan sneakers through the years.

Time for a funny story: Smoking isn't allowed on Nike's campus. But there's an exception to the rule: Michael Jordan. If you smell cigar smoke, then you know Jordan is nearby.

Next stop: The Bo Jackson Wellness Center.

Bo Knows.

It has a pool table.

There's also another massive soccer field.

We were there a little after noon, and Nike employees were in the middle of some intense training sessions.

One of our tour guides says he saw Roger Federer doing squats in this gym one day.

More machines, this time for aerobic workouts.

There's a gorgeous basketball court.

Photo taken from above of the court.

Random Nike banners hanging in the rafters.

There's a track above the court, where a Nike employee was running laps. Nike says Olympic athletes train on the campus sometimes.

Back outside, we had a ground level view of the field. Nike is filled with athletic and sports-obsessed folks.

The ground of the field is made of 40,000 chopped up shoes.

In another building we spotted this. Employees get to test out the latest and the greatest equipment.

There was also a time capsule on campus. We forget what date it was buried.

This Japanese style-garden was built in honour of one of Nike's earliest financial backers.

Wrapping up our tour, there's this putting green which is behind that soccer field we showed you at the start of the tour.

Remember how we said Tiger was bombing drives on the campus? He hit one 334 yards in 2001 to this spot.

And that's that! Want to see another big campus in the pacific northwest?

A Tour Of Microsoft's Truly Gigantic, Sprawling Campus »

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