Nike

LANDOVER - The Oakland Mills boys indoor track team won the mile sprint medley with a time of 3 minutes, 33.38 seconds at the Nike National Meet yesterday at the Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex. The winning Scorpions team was composed of sophomore Tony Cole and seniors Chris Barksdale, Ishmael Josiah and Izudin Mehmedovic.

Gilman's Shane Cockerille wasn't the most touted quarterback heading into the Nike Football Training Camp at McDaniel College, but the future Terp finished Sunday as the event's most impressive signal-caller. Cockerille, who committed to Maryland before the Red-White Spring Game at Byrd Stadium last month, earned QB MVP honors over Eastern Christian's David Sills , who committed to USC as a seventh-grader. Cockerille told ESPN.com that he " had a mindset to be the best . " Many schools had recruited Cockerille as a safety, not a quarterback.

Nike Inc. has radically redesigned its Air Jordan basketball shoe for next winter -- and the word in the industry is that it's a slam-dunk.According to financial industry professionals who were given a sneak preview of the ninth generation of the popular shoe last week, the 1994 model will soar above its recent predecessors the way its namesake flies toward a basket.Jennifer Black Groves has seen a lot of basketball shoes in the years she's followed the athletic footwear industry. But she's never seen anything like the new version of Michael Jordan's favorite footwear.

Valley Mall in Hagerstown was temporarily closed Saturday morning after a crowd of patrons seeking to buy the new Nike Foam sneakers became out of control, police said. At 8:10 a.m., with about 100 people gathered in front of the mall's Footlocker store, a security officer called police to say that the crowd "was beginning to become unruly," said a news release from the Washington County Sheriff's Office. About 15 officers from the sheriff's office, the Maryland State Police and Hagerstown police arrived at the mall to discover that up to 150 patrons were involved, the release said.

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Nike Inc.'s fiscal second-quarter net income surged 81 percent, it reported yesterday, smashing Wall Street's estimates with strong sales of its athletic apparel and shoes worldwide.Net income rose to $176.9 million, or 60 cents a share, from $97.8 million, or 34 cents, a year earlier. The earnings far surpassed the average estimate of 54 cents from 13 analysts surveyed by First Call Corp.The company said orders for its clothing and shoes rose 54 percent, a strong increase that astonished analysts.

As Cal Ripken Jr. took his famous victory lap around Camden Yards on the night he broke Lou Gehrig's record, the words "Just Do It" blinked in huge letters on the side of the Holiday Inn that can be seen from the box seats.As Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi battled on TV in the U.S. Open finals last Sunday, interrupted mostly by commercials starring Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, you had to wonder if you were watching a championship match or a Nike info-mercial.Five days after Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones announced on "Monday Night Football" that he had accepted a big wad of sponsor- ship money from Nike, he signed Deion Sanders, Nike's second-most famous client, to a $35 million contract, proving that a salary cap is no deterrent when the corporate boys really want something.

Bill Buckner, blamed by Boston for the loss of a World Series, is back in the limelight: Buckner, who missed a crucial ground ball in Game 6, enabling the New York Mets to win, 6-5, is featured in a new Nike commercial.In the spot, filmmaker Spike Lee finds Michael Jordan playing minor-league baseball and points out that he is not a baseball star. Willie Mays, Stan Musial and Ken Griffey defend Jordan, saying, "He's trying."Then it's Buckner's turn. "Michael's no Bill Buckner," Lee says as a grounder shoots between Jordan's legs.

The timing of Nike's new commercial, which features an HIV-positive marathon runner, placed against last week's disclosure that four-time Olympic gold-medal diver Greg Louganis also is carrying the virus that causes AIDS is, to be sure, coincidental.Nevertheless, the Portland, Ore.-based athletic apparel giant is receiving a great deal of credit -- all deserved -- for venturing onto potentially dicey ground -- attempting to remove some of the stigma attached to the deadly virus by showing an HIV-afflicted person in an everyday light.

The first time you see the commercial, it takes your breath away."Thank you for letting me be the player that I always wanted to be," Tony Gwynn says."

What does the future look like for my shares of Nike Inc.? - J.T., via the Internet This global company, which commands about 37 percent of the athletic footwear market, is fast on its feet. The day 15-year-old golf prodigy Michelle Wie turned professional, she received a four-year contract from Nike that will pay her up to $5 million annually. Her youth and intent to compete in some men's events should help Nike Golf invigorate a lackluster golf market. Fancy footwork is required to stay ahead of fierce competition.

Former Broadneck standout Matthew Centrowitz has signed a multi-year endorsement contract with Nike, his representatives at PACE Sports Management have announced. Centrowitz -- who won bronze in the 1,500 meters at the world championships this past summer -- announced in November that he was turning pro and skipping his final year at Oregon in order to better prepare for the upcoming Olympics. "I am very excited to sign a professional contract with Nike and become part of the Nike family," Centrowitz said in a news release.

Robert E. DeNike, a retired United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co. executive, died July 10 of pneumonia at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 83. The son of a window washer and a homemaker, Mr. DeNike was born and raised in Detroit. Mr. DeNike began his business career in 1954 when he joined USF&G as a special agent in the company's Detroit office, and the next year was promoted to superintendent of the agency department. In 1958, he was appointed assistant manager of the Detroit branch and in 1962 was transferred to Syracuse, N.Y., as branch manager.

Ken Griffey, Jr. retired from baseball last summer, but apparently he is still marketable. The former Seattle Mariners superstar recently filmed a Nike Swingman commercial in which Orioles centerfielder Adam Jones made a brief cameo. And Jones was wearing a superhero outfit. Jones doesn't have any lines, but I thought you might like to see him in a backwards cap, a cape, fake pectoral muscles and a utility belt. Enjoy.

Nike made its mark with Michael Jordan sneakers in the 1980s, eventually wresting near-total control of the U.S. basketball shoe market from Adidas, Reebok and other smaller players. Now, Baltimore sports apparel company Under Armour Inc. is trying to gain a foothold in the fiercely competitive business with its first-ever basketball shoe collection, which was unveiled Thursday and will hit stores in limited numbers in November. The step is a crucial one for Under Armour, whose footwear business has been struggling even as executives consider it a key part of the corporate growth strategy.

Former Lake Clifton player Will Barton , now playing at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, was named one of the first nine members of the USA Junior National Select team that will play a World Select team in the Nike Hoop Summit on April 10 in Portland, Ore. Barton, a 6-foot-6 guard who has committed to Memphis, led the Lakers to a 28-0 season and the Class 3A state championship in 2009, earning All-Metro Player of the Year honors. NBA: Sacramento Kings small forward Donte Greene (Towson Catholic)

Two of the best-known sports brands in Maryland - Ripken Baseball Inc. and Under Armour - are forming a business alliance that will be unveiled at a news conference Wednesday at the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards. Ripken Baseball is a marketing and sales company headed by Orioles Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. Under Armour is a global sports apparel and equipment company whose chief executive officer, Kevin Plank, is a former University of Maryland football player. While details of Wednesday's announcement were not disclosed, sources familiar with the new partnership said Under Armour will have a substantial presence at Ripken's baseball properties, which include three minor league franchises, in Aberdeen, Augusta, Ga., and Port Charlotte, Fla., and perhaps more importantly, at two youth training facilities in Aberdeen and Myrtle Beach, S.C. The Under Armour brand is particularly appealing to the youth market, the source said.

BARCELONA, Spain -- The shoe wars erupted before a TV audience of 3 billion people. And it looks like Nike won. Or, at least, Michael Jordan did.Jordan, the centerpiece of Nike's promotional efforts, had balked at wearing the official United States Olympic Committee awards-ceremony uniform, which was made by Reebok and featured a Reebok patch on the right shoulder.When the U.S. basketball team took the medal stand yesterday after beating Croatia, 117-85, for the expected gold medal, all 12 players -- half work for Nike -- had unzipped their jackets so that the collars obscured the patch.

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Nike Inc. and basketball star Michael Jordan yesterday announced a new line of basketball shoes and sportswear to be made and sold by Nike under the "Jordan" brand name.The first Jordan products are expected to be on store shelves Nov. 1, in time for the holiday selling season.The line, which will include the current Air Jordan brand, is expected to generate more than $300 million in revenue in fiscal 1998, analysts said.The move allows Nike, the world's largest maker of athletic shoes and sportswear, to gain even more of the basketball-shoe market through another brand, analysts said.

With the launch of its heavily promoted cross trainer sneaker just two days away, Under Armour is preparing to expand its push into footwear, producing more shoes to be worn off the playing field. The Baltimore company has begun testing prototypes of a basketball and a running shoe, Kevin A. Plank, Under Armour Inc. chairman, president and chief executive, confirmed in a recent interview. At least one of the shoes could hit the market as early as next year. And while Plank wouldn't discuss too many details of its next foray into shoes - preferring not to steal the limelight from Saturday's launch of the cross trainer - it signals the company's intentions to make the Under Armour logo as prominent as the Nike swoosh in the sports apparel market.