Nike's first full-time employee had a dream hours before they filed a patent in 1971, and it saved the company from being called 'Dimension Six'

Reuters

The Nike swoosh logo is seen outside the store on 5th Ave in New York.

• The iconic Nike sportswear brand was almost named "Dimension Six" when cofounder Phil Knight was preparing to file the patent paperwork in 1971.
• The company's first employee - Jeff Johnson - called the office on the day the patent was due and informed Knight he'd had a dream and saw the word "Nike."
• Nike founder Phil Knight described the incident in his 2016 memoir "Shoe Dog."
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Nike almost had a very different brand name.

Phil Knight founded the company as Blue Ribbon Sports. Just one of many companies that originally had different names, Knight's company was facing a rebrand after splitting with its longtime partner, Japanese shoemaker Onitsuka.

Knight described the incident in his 2016 memoir, "Shoe Dog." The team had spent weeks pitching names, and Knight's preference was for a brand name his employees had told him was "unspeakably bad": Dimension Six.

Then, the morning the patent was due, Knight's coworker Jeff Johnson submitted a final suggestion that had come to him in a dream: Nike, spelled N-I-K-E.

Read more: These are the stories behind 24 of the most popular brand names

In the end, it came down to three options: Nike, Falcon, or Dimension Six.

"Johnson had pointed out that seemingly all iconic brands - Clorox, Kleenex, Xerox - have short names," wrote Knight. "Two syllables or less. And they always have a strong sound in the name, a letter like 'K' or 'X,' that sticks in the mind. That all made sense. And that all described Nike."

"Maybe it'll grow on us," wrote Knight, after selecting the now-iconic name.

In his memoir, Knight describes Johnson as "Full-Time Employee Number One." The company's first salesman, Johnson also opened the first storefront in California and later manned operations on the East Coast. Johnson worked for Nike for a total of 18 years.