Scenach jimi nie i równaniami przy czas chce się papieru reliably, unlike with Onitsuka, but it's hard to ramp up supply without taking on inventory risk. is already walking a fine line of profitability, and any missed shipment would delay payment to Nissho, which would cut down their ability to borrow, which would turn delay their next factory order. has idea what if they go to retailers and ask for large upfront orders 6 months advance with big discounts, up to 7%? At first the retailers are hesitant, but they turn around when unveils a few flashy new shoes, like updated Bruin and new Cortezes. even the stragglers desperately sign up to avoid being locked out. and have their second child, Bruins from the early 70s The trial with Onitsuka begins Portland on the matter of breach of contract and ownership of trademarks. Over several days, members of Blue Ribbon and Onitsuka are interviewed as witnesses. The stance of Onitsuka is that Blue Ribbon had always engineered a con, employing spies and deception to string them along until they could cut Onitsuka out. Blue Ribbon has a path to winning. Knight gives questionable testimony about stealing from Kitami's briefcase and nurturing a spy within Onitsuka A former store manager, Bork, has turned traitor and joined Kitami's team, and he feeds them surgical questions to expose Blue Ribbon's operations. Bowerman, out of contempt, hasn't prepared and fumbles through his testimony. And Kitami lies about his movements, claiming he was only exploring distributors for market research, and the idea for Onitsuka to buy Blue Ribbon came from Knight. But there are silver linings. Iwano, Kitami's assistant, testifies honestly that there was a fixed plan to break Blue Ribbon's contract, and Kitami had discussed it times. And Kitami suspiciously requests a translator despite his fluent English, and even corrects the translator English a few times. and the Blue Ribbon legal team are ecstatic. They weren't expecting a win. A week after the ruling, Onitsuka pre-empts the judge's damages by offering a settlement of $400. Blue Ribbon takes the deal. They sign the papers with Kitami present, and as they leave they take the same elevator down. Surely Washington and Cornwallis weren't forced to ride the same horse away from Yorktown, muses. The lead attorney on the case, Strasser, impresses much that they recruit him to be -house counsel for Blue Ribbon.Strasser The issue of the year is manufacturing by working with Japanese factories, Blue Ribbon was subject to currency and labor cost fluctuations. They needed new factories new countries. Taiwan seemed obvious, but they were still ramping up their quality. Puerto was their second option, and despite the poorer quality they plan to take raw materials Puerto and assemble shoes New England. having just moved to Oregon at 's behest, is now tasked with managing the New England factory. He complains but knows that he can trust no one to do the job, he moves back cross-country. This year, is on path to $8 million sales. Beating seems like a possibility at this point. They open more stores and make more deals. They sign more endorsements, but Pre is still their top endorser. We'll always have Pre, says. Financially, Knight constantly pushes the pedal to the metal. He knows there is huge demand for shoes, and he can't sell them quickly enough. why limit factory orders to go the black, when you know the demand is out there? He doesn't this as reckless the demand is there. This means Blue Ribbon lives check to check, barely making their monthly payments to the Bank of California and Nissho. Just one late payment to Blue Ribbon, and the whole tower might crumble. And one day, that one check from a retailer is late. They're $75 short, out of a total $1 million, to pay Nissho. To make it work, they deplete the bank accounts of all their retail stores and factories. Then the factory workers' paychecks bounce. And their creditors' checks bounce. Then Bank of California tells them they no longer want Blue Ribbon's business, they're freezing their funds, and they've contacted the FBI, since it looks like fraud to them. Knight takes all this to Nissho.