EXHIBIT 99 SCRIPT EARNINGS RELEASE CONF. CALL

EXHIBIT 99

NIKE, Inc.
Q305 Earnings Release Conference Call
March 17, 2005

PAMELA CATLETT
Vice President of Investor Relations

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Happy St. Patrick's Day. We're
pleased you're joining us today to discuss our Nike's fiscal 2005 third
quarter results. For those of you who need to reference our release,
you'll find it on our website, www.nikebiz.com. You'll also find
expanded information on the website about some of the highlights we'll
be discussing today. Participants in today's call are Bill Perez, Nike,
Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer; Charlie Denson and Mark
Parker, President's of the Nike brand; and Don Blair, Nike's Chief
Financial Officer. Each of today's participants will provide brief
prepared remarks, which are also available on our website immediately
following the call.

Before I turn it over to Don, let me remind you that on this call,
we're going make forward-looking statements based on our current
expectations and those statements are subject to certain risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.
These risks and uncertainties are detailed in the reports we file with
the SEC, including forms 8-K and 10-Q. Some forward-looking statements
concern futures orders that are not necessarily indicative of total
revenues for subsequent periods, due to cancellations and the mix of
futures and at once orders, which may vary significantly from quarter
to quarter. In addition, it's important to remember a significant
portion of our business, including equipment, most of Nike retail, Nike
Golf, Converse, Cole Haan, Bauer, Hurley, and Exeter brands group are
not included in these futures numbers. Finally, during this call, we
may discuss non-GAAP financial measures. The presentation of comparable
GAAP measures and quantitative reconciliations can also be found at
Nike's website. In this call we may also discuss non-public financial
and statistical information, which is also available on that site, at
www.nikebiz.com. Now here is Don Blair.

DONALD W. BLAIR
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Pam. Our global portfolio continued to deliver outstanding
growth in the third quarter of fiscal 2005 as we posted rapid growth in
revenues and profits. For the quarter, our revenues grew 14 percent to
$3.3 billion. Changes in currency exchange rates accounted for about 3
points of growth. Consistent with last quarter, acquisitions had a
negligible impact on our third quarter revenue growth, since we're well
past the anniversary of the acquisition of Converse, and the impact of
the Starter acquisition was not material this quarter. Diluted earnings
per share for the quarter were $1.01, up 36 percent versus fiscal 2004.

For the quarter, our consolidated gross margin was 44.1 percent, up 2
full percentage points versus last year's third quarter.

Our international regions accounted for about two-thirds of the
consolidated gross margin improvement as positive currency changes were
partially offset by the impact of higher closeout inventories and
strategies to improve product value in Europe and Asia. Overall, the
gross impact of currency movements contributed 2.4 points to the
consolidated gross margin increase.

SG&A grew 16 percent in the quarter, reflecting about 3 percentage
points of growth due to stronger foreign currencies.

Futures orders for the next five months grew 9.6 percent in real
dollars, including about 1 percentage point of growth from stronger
foreign currencies.

Our trailing 12-month return on invested capital was 23.4 percent, up
260 basis points versus the third quarter of fiscal 2004. And over the
first nine months of fiscal 2005, we've generated $883 million of free
cash flow from operations. I should note that since return on invested
capital and free cash flow from operations are non-GAAP terms, we have
posted the definitions and calculations on our website.

This year we've also continued to deliver significant amounts of cash
to our shareholders. Over the first 9 months of the year, we've paid
out over $170 million in dividends and repurchased over $400 million of
our own stock.

In our European region, which includes the Middle East and Africa,
revenues grew 18 percent in Q3, with 9 points of the growth coming from
more favorable exchange rates. Our real dollar revenues by product type
are reported in our press release. In constant dollars, footwear
revenues grew 6 percent, apparel revenues advanced 15 percent, and
equipment revenues were up 10 percent.

In the quarter, the most significant constant dollar revenue growth
came in Italy, Central Europe, Turkey, Russia, and the UK; revenues in
France declined. Sales through Nike-owned retail stores also grew
strongly reflecting the addition of new factory outlet stores in the
region.

Gross margins in Europe expanded 4.8 points for the quarter, accounting
for 150 basis points of our consolidated margin improvement. Improved
foreign exchange rates were the main driver of gross margin improvement
in Europe, partially offset by lower in-line product margins and
increased less profitable footwear and apparel closeouts.

Reported third quarter pretax income for the European region increased
28 percent to $219 million, reflecting growth in revenues and gross
margins, partially offset by increased spending on SG&A.

In the Asia-Pacific region, revenues increased 18 percent in the third
quarter. About 5 points of the increase came from stronger currencies
in the region. In constant dollars, footwear grew 7 percent, while
apparel grew 21 percent, and equipment advanced 18 percent. The
principle driver of the growth was China, which more than doubled
revenues in Q3. Revenues in Japan were slightly below the prior year in
constant dollars, but grew on a reported basis due to the stronger yen.

For the quarter, Asia-Pacific gross margin fell 110 basis points,
driving a 20-basis point decline in consolidated gross margin. The
decline was mainly due to lower in-line product margins. Reported
pretax income for the quarter grew 16 percent to $100 million.

The Americas region delivered another strong quarter, as revenues grew
10 percent and reported pretax income grew 49 percent. Stronger
currencies accounted for about 3 points of revenue growth. In constant
dollars, footwear grew 11 percent, while apparel declined 7 percent,
and equipment grew 31 percent. Gross margin improved 3.4 points in the
quarter, accounting for about a tenth of a point of the consolidated
gross margin improvement for Nike Inc. Improved foreign exchange rates,
lower discounts and fewer closeouts were the main drivers. SG&A grew
mid single digits as demand creation spending declined following the
heavy investments in the first quarter of the fiscal year.

The South American markets continued to drive our growth, as constant
dollar revenues in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, each grew over 25
percent in the quarter. This growth was partially offset by weaker
results in Canada and Mexico.

Our U.S. region delivered an outstanding third quarter, as revenues
advanced 9 percent and reported pretax income grew 10 percent. Revenue
growth was broad-based as key athletic specialty, department store, and
sporting goods accounts all advanced strongly. Nike retail also posted
a strong quarter, as overall revenues advanced 15 percent and comp
sales for Nike Town stores grew 11 percent in the third quarter.

Footwear revenue for the U.S. region grew 10 percent in the third
quarter, driven by high single digit growth in unit sales, and a higher
average price per pair as unit sales of sport performance models
continued to grow faster than active life models. Footwear gross
margins were flat in the quarter. Better regular price sell-throughs
reduced closeout volumes, improving gross margin. But offsetting this
benefit were higher discounts due to more business with high volume
customers, and increased product and transportation costs needed to
meet the strong demand for the marketplace.

Apparel sales in the U.S. grew 5 percent, as high-teens growth in
branded apparel more than offset continued weakness in licensed apparel.

U.S. futures orders scheduled for delivery from March through July rose
about 9 percent versus the year ago period. As we've discussed before,
revenue growth for a given period may not track precisely in line with
futures growth due to timing of shipments and differential growth rates
for portions of the business not included in futures. Examples of
businesses not included in futures are licensed apparel, equipment,
footwear and apparel, at once sales, closeouts, and retail. For the
fourth quarter, we continue to expect U.S. revenue growth in the low
single digits, primarily due to shipment timing and lower revenues from
these non-futures sources.

Gross margins in the U.S. advanced 20 basis points for the quarter,
driving 10 basis points of our consolidated gross margin improvement.
Demand creation spending grew faster than revenue, but the region
continued to grow operating overhead at a slower rate. Overall, the
growth in revenues and gross margins drove management pretax income to
$260 million, up 10 percent versus last year's third quarter.

For the third quarter, revenues from our other businesses grew 20
percent to $390 million, driven by balanced revenue growth rates at
Nike Golf, Converse, Cole Haan, and Hurley. Our other businesses earned
$24 million of pretax profit, as profitability improved in each one of
these businesses.

Demand creation spending increased 21 percent overall, with 4 points of
the growth driven by stronger foreign currencies. The most significant
investments related to sports marketing in Europe, the U.S., Asia
Pacific and Golf; advertising behind the Women's fitness campaign in
Europe; and Retail development around the world.

Operating Overhead increased 14 percent, with 3 points of the growth
coming from stronger foreign currencies. Key components of the increase
were higher personnel costs due to higher wages, benefits, and
incentive-based compensation, new Nike-owned retail stores, and
infrastructure to support the growth of emerging markets such as Russia
and China, and non-Nike brands such as Cole Haan and Starter.

Other expense in the third quarter includes foreign currency losses,
primarily from hedging. These losses were slightly lower than for the
third quarter last year. The net effect of these foreign currency
losses and the favorable translation of foreign currency-denominated
profits was $20 million of additional pretax income for the quarter.

Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 33.9 percent, bringing our
year to date rate to 34.8 percent, our current estimate for the full
year.

Our balance sheet continues to be an area of financial strength for the
Company. Cash and short-term investments totaled $1.6 billion at the
end of the quarter; our interest bearing debt was about half that
amount as of the same date.

Worldwide inventories continue to be fairly lean overall. As of
February 28, worldwide inventories were 4 percent higher than a year
ago, with currency changes accounting for about 3 points of growth.

At the end of the quarter, accounts receivable were 14 percent higher
than the prior year, in line with revenue growth for the quarter.
Stronger foreign currencies accounted for about 3 points of the growth.

As you would expect, we're very encouraged by the performance of our
portfolio businesses so far this year, and expect solid financial
performance for the final quarter of fiscal 2005.

For the fourth quarter, we expect revenues to grow mid-single digit,
somewhat slower than the trend of recent quarters and the growth in
futures we reported today. In the U.S., we expect low single-digit
revenue growth as shipment timing and lower sales of licensed apparel,
close-outs and at once products partially offset the growth in futures.
In Europe, revenues will be essentially flat as we compare against
strong sales in Q4 of fiscal 2004, related to the European football
championships. However, we expect continued double-digit growth from
Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and Nike Golf.

Fourth quarter gross margins should be a bit stronger than in the third
quarter, reflecting a normal seasonal pattern. Versus the third quarter,
we also expect some improvement in SG&A spending relative to revenue.

As we usually do at this time, we are also now firming up plans for our
next fiscal year. We start with our long-term financial goals: high
single-digit revenue growth; mid-teens earnings per share growth driven
by expanding profit margins; and increased capital productivity and
cash flow. Assuming stable foreign exchange rates, we believe we can
grow fiscal 2006 revenues in the high-single digits. Better foreign
exchange rates should enable us to absorb anticipated increases in
commodity costs and discounts, and still grow our overall gross margin.
In addition, we're working to hold the rate of SG&A growth in fiscal
2006 below the rate of revenue growth.

We do have a bit more visibility for the first quarter. We expect high
single-digit revenue growth, reflecting continued strength in our
global portfolio of brands and slightly better foreign exchange rates.
First quarter gross margins should also benefit from foreign exchange,
as our first half hedges are at more favorable rates than the prior
year. Finally, we expect greater SG&A leverage in the first quarter
than for the full year, since our fiscal 2006 demand creation spending
will be focused on the buildup to the 2006 Soccer World Cup in the
second half of the fiscal year.

In summary, we're very pleased with our results so far this year and we
feel we're in a great position to continue to deliver strong profit
growth over the balance of fiscal 2005 and into 2006. With that, I'll
turn the floor over to Bill Perez, President and CEO of Nike, Inc.


WILLIAM D. PEREZ
President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Don, and good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasant, yet
somewhat ironic privilege for me to be here today. As you know, I spent
the past 34 years of my career working for a very private, privately
held company. The idea of sharing detailed financial information and
plans is quite a shift for me. As a matter of fact, I used to enjoy
listening to you grill our competitors.

So now I'm here to be grilled, but please understand I've only been
here 8 weeks, I'm operating with impressions and I always like to
augment impression with facts before sharing thoughts or taking action.
With that said, I know that Mark, Charlie, and Don are eagerly awaiting
your questions, particularly Charlie, with whom I've spent more time
the past 8 weeks than with my own wife.

Today I'd like to spend a few minutes talking about why I'm here, my
initial impressions, my priorities, and what you should expect from me
and this management team. So first, why Nike? Since I began to work on
Nike on January 24, I've enjoyed perhaps the most intense and
professionally energizing 8 weeks of my career. My reasons for coming
here were quite simple, and there were four of them. First, I've always
admired the brand. Nike's ability to perpetually renew and evolve to
stay contemporary and relevant to consumers is nothing short of
remarkable. As you know, it's one of the most recognized brands in the
world. Second, to put it simply, I love sports. The opportunity to
align my personal and professional passions was a chance of a lifetime.
Third, Nike operates in a team environment. That's the environment from
which I came and it's the one I believe that is most effective. Where
all players are aligned and all contribute to the success of the
enterprise. Finally, I genuinely believed there were growth
opportunities for Nike across geographies, sports categories, and the
acquired brands. And I've got to tell you that after 8 weeks, that
impression has not been dispelled.

My time so far has been about listening and learning. The biggest
surprise to me is how much greater the opportunity is than I initially
thought. I visited 3 of our largest customers, conducted business
reviews in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and across our subsidiary brands and
global functions, such as footwear, apparel, equipment, finance, and
human resources.

The talent level within this Company is even higher than I expected and
my expectations coming in were very high. The level of confidence,
energy, and commitment I've encountered throughout the organization is
truly exceptional.

Along with our people, Nike's capabilities in marketing and product
development are our competitive strength. And we have scale leverage in
both areas. During my time in the footwear advance research and
development area, I was struck by the richness and depth of our new
product pipeline. I know Mark has expressed his confidence in Nike's
innovation agenda. I can assure you that he has not overstated either
the quality, or the depth of the new product opportunities in our
arsenal.

How do I see my priorities? Well, I like to focus on clearly defined
priorities and go after them with a high sense of urgency. I anticipate
the team will have those priorities in place when we kickoff the
upcoming fiscal year. Without a doubt our first focal point will be on
people. I place the highest value on people and am committed to
elevating our overall ability to recruit, develop, and retain talent. I
believe that people make things happen, and the results Don just
reviewed are clear evidence of that. Processes can facilitate but the
name of the game is having the right people, in the right places, at
the right time. That's what I believe. That's what Phil believes and
this is what the leadership team believes. I view this as my personal
responsibility to make sure we develop the next generation of
management at Nike.

Given my background, it won't surprise you to know that I place the
consumer at the center of all activities. The Nike Brand's relationship
with consumers is unmatched. We have to make sure that our portfolio of
brands is accessible to consumers and all channels of distribution, in
all geographies and is appropriately targeted at the most attractive
demographic groups. That's certainly one of the reasons why I'm here.

What should you expect from this team and me? The next few months are
going to be incredibly challenging and invigorating. As I deepen my
understanding of Nike's business, I look forward to sharing my
perspective with you. The Company has extraordinary momentum, so I
would not expect a dramatic change in strategic direction.

As the past many quarters indicate, Mark, Charlie and the team have
done a great job. Our duty is to keep it that way as we pursue
opportunities to grow, to better leverage our scale, and to deliver
value to our shareowners. I look forward to meeting and working with
all of you. Thank you.


MARK PARKER
President of the Nike Brand

Okay. This is Mark Parker speaking now. Thanks, Bill. Good afternoon
everyone. As the numbers Don has just reported to you indicate, our
strong product and brand momentum is carried into the second half of
our fiscal year. Today I'm going to spend some time calling out a few
places that have really helped generate those results and where we plan
to focus going forward.

One of the aspects of today's results, which I find especially
gratifying, is that they span the Nike, Inc. portfolio with the Nike
brand leading the way. As we discussed last quarter, we're very focused
on growing our core business. The opportunities we see within our core
Nike brand business are as rich as ever and today's results certainly
help validate that point of view.

From a regional perspective, our U.S. business has been particularly
robust, delivering its seventh consecutive quarter footwear futures
growth, a trend that points directly to the momentum and strength of
our brand in our largest region. You've seen today in our futures
orders, how strong demand is. More importantly, sell-thrus across our
U.S. footwear performance categories and technology platforms have been
as healthy as we've seen them in years. Equally significant for the
seventh consecutive quarter on a year-over-year basis, average selling
prices for footwear futures again trended up. Charlie will present a
more detailed regional review, but I wanted to point out our success in
the U.S. region as an example of how our core growth strategy is
generating strong results.

From a category perspective, one of our core performance areas that
always receives a lot of attention during our third quarter is
obviously Basketball, and this past quarter did not disappoint. Last
month, the NBA All Star game came to Denver, and Nike athletes like
Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Vince Carter and Amare
Stoudemire dazzled the crowd, but Nike's reach extended well beyond the
game itself as we sponsored numerous consumer events, featuring
athletes and entertainers at various locations around Denver. The
energy generated over the course of the weekend was clearly visible and
measurable, as the Denver Nike Town recorded its highest single day
sales in the store's history, and Nike basketball.com had over 160,000
visitors to the site. It was a perfect setting to debut a milestone
shoe in the history of Nike and the sport of basketball: The Air Jordan
20. Customers lined up outside retail stores and around the country to
get the 20, and it's incredibly strong sell-through made it it one of
our most successful game shoe launches in several years. I should also
add that sell-thru on the broader Jordan product line are the best
we've seen in years.

On the apparel side of the business, our performance strategy has taken
hold and has put us in a stronger position from which to grow. During
the third quarter we launched a major integrated campaign around the
newest generation of our performance first layer Nike Pro Apparel,
featuring some of the greatest players in football and baseball. The
reaction by athletes at all levels has been very positive and sell-thru
is very strong. Nike Pro is just one segment of our rapidly growing
performance apparel business, a business in which we believe we've only
just scratched the surface. We see opportunities to improve our go-to-
market performance here, and we are very much committed and focused on
doing just that.

We're also very bullish about our opportunities in the active life side
of the business. The active business requires a very different skill
set than performance sport, and we've addressed this need by aligning
apparel, footwear and equipment teams to focus directly on the active
life opportunities. As a result, we've been improving our competency in
merchandising, telling more compelling stories and approaching our
target active life consumers in more effective and relevant ways from
product creation all the way out to retail. For instance, our focus on
our urban apparel collection has been making strong connections with
the tastes of this very hip, very fashion conscious consumer group,
with products like our Pulse Boots line which has been generating great
consumer response at urban retailers across the country. Looking ahead,
we're very excited about our BRS and Sports Heritage apparel lines that
we'll be launching for Fall and Holiday '05. Dynamic and edgy active
wear that really draws on Nike's deep sports heritage.

Another area that continues to drive financial results and business
energy is in the women's fitness category. One of the primary ways
we're connecting with this consumer is through dance. During the third
quarter, we launched the sustained integrated fitness dance campaigns
in the U.S., Europe, and Asia in support of a full line of performance
and active footwear, apparel and equipment. These campaigns involve
grassroots events where consumers have the opportunity to experience
products firsthand while training and testing their skills along with
some of the world's most prominent dancers and choreographers. Early
results of these efforts are impressive as product sell-thrus were
strong, and our women's footwear and apparel business together grew
over 20 percent during the quarter.

As we focus on the core growth opportunities for the Nike brand it, all
starts with Innovation. Our relentless focus on bringing meaningful
innovation to the market is the foundation for Nike's success. The
trend towards performance has become an increasingly more common topic
of discussion throughout our industry, but this is really nothing new
to Nike. We've been driving this trend because everything we do is
rooted in performance. Frequently we're asked if we're concerned about
one competitor or another's push in various categories. The answer is
simply yes. But more importantly, we're energized. Nike's at its best
when we have s clear competitive pressures, which is the source of
Nike's past success and the opportunity for this Company to grow in the
future.

Last month we held our Global Leadership Summit, where 650 of our top
leaders from around the world came together at our world headquarters
to share their success stories, their ideas around future opportunities,
and their competitive drive. The message of the summit was clear: Nike
is a growth Company and for all brands to grow, we need to focus on the
core. Including those businesses where we have strong leadership
positions. Bill, Charlie, and I found the energy generated at this
event truly inspiring and the experiences has me more confident than
ever about this team's commitment and ability to move the Nike brand
and business to new levels.

Another factor that makes me very confident about our growth prospects
over the long-term are the numerous opportunities to leverage parts of
our existing asset base. I know when you hear the word leverage you
often think about operational results. We're seeing some great results
here. Consolidating sourcing, as well as suppliers of key materials
and components, production initiatives that are driving the cost of
quality down, lowering defect rates, more effectively leveraging our
product tooling investments across more styles, and better claims
management, just to name a few. All really helping to drive improved
profitability.

But to us, leverage is a much broader concept than just cost savings.
We also think about the open opportunities to leverage our existing
product and brand-related asset base to drive revenue growth over the
long-term. Vast Nike assets like our sports marketing relationships,
our design competencies, franchise products, and new technologies are
just a few examples of what I mean. These are assets we've developed
and nurtured over the years that have tremendous potential to be
utilized in a variety of new and different ways within the Nike brand
and in some cases across the broader Nike portfolio of brands. We're
continually analyzing and evaluating where these opportunities lie to
expand the footprints of our existing investments. There's a lot of ROI
upside here. I look forward to sharing the results of these efforts
with you in the quarters and years to come.

As you know, our ability to grow our business is based on many factors,
not the least of which is the strength of the relationship we have with
our consumers through our brand and the products that we create.
There's a lot of healthy pressure on our various advanced R&D groups to
deliver the innovative and compelling product concepts that excite
consumers and reinforce Nike's premium brand position. I've spent a lot
of time in this part of the Company over the last few months and I'm
pleased to say that in my 25 years at Nike, I've never been as excited
about the quality, the depth, and the commercial potential of what's in
the Nike product innovation pipeline. For footwear, apparel, and
equipment and both the performance, sport and active life-style sides
of our business. Ultimately, this gives me more confidence in our
potential in the seasons and years ahead than anything else I might add.
With that, I'll pass you over to Charlie Denson.


CHARLIE DENSON
President of the Nike Brand

Thanks, Mark. Thank you, all, for joining us today and a happy St.
Patties day to all. We're very pleased to report another solid quarter
of revenue and earnings growth. Today I'll do a quick run through of
what we're seeing from our business and the markets around the world. I
plan to focus my comments in the same areas I have for the past several
quarters, looking at where we've improved and calling out some
additional opportunities we see from each of the geographies.

Let's start in Europe where we've talked a lot about the softness in
the market over the past year. I've had the opportunity to spend time
in 3 of the 4 regions over the last 2 months and the one I'm most
genuinely excited about is Europe. As you have seen by today's results,
Europe was up 18 percent and 9 percent in constant dollars. We're very
pleased with the progress we've made in both Italy and the UK, with
Italy posting a 25 percent gain and a 10 percent gain coming out of the
UK in constant dollars. Central Europe and Russia continue to be strong
performers and our results in football and performance footwear give us
confidence that we're on the right track. With that said, we're still
very optimistic about some of the other opportunities where we are not
performing up to our own expectations, and that means additional growth.

While Germany and France are not at the level we believe they can
ultimately be, we have recently implemented some management changes,
putting experienced Nike leaders in both countries and are looking for
stronger results over the next year in both of these important Western
European markets. Other areas that offer great growth potential are
European apparel, the active life segments that Mark referred to in the
business, as well as our overall operational efficiency in inventory
management and SG&A spending. As someone who has been around for a
while, I can say that things are starting to feel much better with our
overall European team and their business. With the world cup coming
into focus in Germany in '06, we should be in great position to take
full advantage of both the event and the energy it will bring to that
marketplace and continue to grow our European business at a very
profitable rate. I'm looking forward to it.

Moving on to Asia-Pacific, we posted another quarter of double-digit
growth in both revenue and pretax income, with China leading the way
once again. As we continue to work on building our distribution
infrastructure throughout the country, the level of interest in our
brand and our products continues to grow every day and we're coping
with the demand pretty well. As we have said many times, China is the
fastest growth market in the world right now and it's not very often
you get to literally create a new marketplace from scratch. We are
seeing world class retail being created overnight. Where just a couple
years ago, there was nothing. The challenges are numerous at this pace,
but incredibly rewarding for the team on the ground. It's all about
balancing growth with fundamental business sense and I'm pleased with
our progress so far.

Turning to Japan, we've talked about softness in the footwear market
there and we saw that continue in the third quarter. The overall market
has been tough and is getting even more competitive. But we're focusing
on the things that will keep this a viable, long-term growth business
for us. We have seen the footwear market polarize over the last year
with the high end continuing to experience strong momentum, but the
rest of the market is becoming very price sensitive. It is starting to
feel a little like the U.S. in '00 as the consumer is becoming very
sensitive to the price value proposition. We feel like there is still a
big opportunity in balancing our product lines and creating a new
paradigm in the price value equation. Our apparel business has never
been stronger and the brand is in good shape and as with Europe, we see
the active life category as a source of major opportunity.

In the Americas, we're on pace to report a record year. I continue to
be very impressed by the way our Americas team has been finding ways to
be successful in one of the most culturally and economically diverse
and dynamic regions in the world. Solid revenue growth has been driven
by our football and running categories, and led by strength in both
Brazil and Argentina. Along with growth in the more traditional sport
categories, the Americas team has been very successful at evolving the
brand into newer areas, such as Beach and Skate, through a combination
of great sport and active product and focused brand messaging targeted
at the most influential consumers in these rapidly growing areas. And
our progress isn't just a product and marketing story. We continue to
focus on marketplace management in our Latin America countries,
resulting in improved gross margins, lower levels of closeouts and
reduced customer discounts. As you can probably tell, we're really
proud of what our people have been able to accomplish in this region
and we think we've got the right formula to continue to grow this
business going forward.

And finally, here in the U.S., we continue to be pleased with the
sustained and improving health of the industry overall and our business
here has been both a beneficiary and a source of that health. The
consistent approach of releasing great product into the marketplace,
supporting it with brand messaging, and managing product flow and
inventory management has been driving results for the U.S. and more
importantly driving futures numbers like the 9 percent growth that we
reported today. And while this is our largest and most developed market,
I still feel like there is no shortage of growth opportunities. Our
strategy of focusing on our core categories of basketball, cross
training, and running is driving our growth and success. But our
improving performance in technical apparel and focused effort on the
women's fitness areas are starting to make an impact and each of these
areas will provide us with substantial growth in the future.

From an operational perspective, it's great to be able to say that
we're making improving progress with our supply chain. While we're not
ready to declare victory, the work we've done to upgrade our systems
and processes and developed our distribution infrastructure has been
delivering measurable benefits. Two areas where the results are very
apparent are in return on invested capital and inventory. We've
improved our ROIC by 260 basis points over the last 4 quarters and
significantly exceeded our original goal of 20 percent by 2005. Also,
our days in inventory decreased over the period versus the prior year
and both these metrics translate into improved profitability. Year to
date we've expanded our gross margins by 170 basis points. While we
don't expect the benefits of currency to continue forever, we do expect
margins to continue to expand into the next fiscal year as a result of
our continually improving operational efficiency.

I'll wrap things up today by, again, expressing the fact that over the
last couple of months I have spent time in each region except the
Americas and I'm heading there soon. Bill's accompanied me on each of
these trips. And as you've heard from him as well, our enthusiasm for
the potential of this business has never been greater. We have visited
key countries as well as our regional offices and the energy and focus
that the teams displayed were incredibly upbeat. He's had a chance to
experience some of the Nike business and more importantly, some of the
people. It's been a great couple of months and he's getting a good
chance to see our strengths and call out areas where we can do things
better. Now we'll open it up for questions. Thanks.



QUESTION AND ANSWER


Robbie Ohmes, Bank of America Securities: Thanks. Just a few quick
questions. I was hoping you could give us a little more help with your
other businesses in terms of how you think they are going to play out
over the next four quarters, give a little bit more outlook on Cole
Haan coming up against tough comparisons and since you've had four
quarters now, really strong profit swings overall in those businesses,
so how we should be thinking about that would be great. And then just
my second question would be, you mentioned that the average selling
prices continued to trend up. I was hoping you would be gracious enough
to give us a sense, are they mid single digit, trending up more than
they were? You know, what's going on there? Thanks.

Blair: Well, Robbie, it's Don. With respect to the other business, you
know we don't talk about them in a quantitative sense, but we still
think there is enormous upside in all of those businesses. We called
out Cole Haan first. Cole Haan has been a great story in terms of the
repositioning of that brand. That business has a tremendous amount of
momentum, both on the top line and the bottom line. We continue we're
going to continue to grow profitability and revenues in that business
at a rapid pace. Converse, we've talked about on these calls. We're
very pleased with the performance of Converse, both the domestic
business here in the U.S., as well as the international business and
they are both growing very rapidly, and certainly we're very pleased
with the top line growth at Hurley. We do think that we're continuing
to work our way through some of the sourcing issues and feel great
about where that business is headed. Then finally, Nike Golf has a lot
of operating momentum as well. As you probably recognize, the fourth
quarter is where most of our business is done, just based upon the
seasonality of the golf business and we think we're going have a
terrific fourth quarter. So, again, don't want to give you too much
quantitative information based on our past practice, but we feel great
about those businesses. With respect to average selling price, we are
still seeing growth in average selling prices more in the low single
digits versus more in the mid to high single digit numbers we saw last
few quarters.

Ohmes: Great. Thank you very much.

Virginia Genereux, Merill Lynch: Thank you, all, and nice to hear from
you, Mr. Perez. Two questions quickly. Don, can you just elaborate on
your remark on shipment timing and U.S. footwear. Is that stuff falling
into August? And then the revenue outlook that you discussed for sort
of the next quarter and the next year, is that constant dollar, may I
ask? That's one.

Catlett: That's two.

Blair: -- Real dollar growth, and the shipment timing really is just
when we expect the futures orders to hit the marketplace. And a lot of
that is dependent upon where we see our supply chain delivering the
product and when the customers are going to demand it. We're just
basing our estimates on what we see at this point in the marketplace.
So it's really just a May versus June estimate.

Genereux: That's great, Don, that it was pushed out. I was asking if it
wasn't pulled forward. Then secondly, can you explain, Don, how the
currency benefit falls it to the pretax income line? I listened to our
comments on gross margins, which sounded like, I think you said you got
2.4 percent gross margin expansion from currencies, which is like 80
million, but then 20 million dropped to the bottom-- dropped to the
pretax income line.

Blair: No, they're two different aspects to foreign exchange, Virginia.
The first part is the piece that hits gross margin. The gross margin
impact was 240 basis points gross, and what that showed through to the
P&L was 2 full points of gross margin improvement. Okay? So that's one
piece of the equation. The second piece of the equation, which is a $20
million item that we quoted, and that relates to translation, so that
is purely the translation of euros and yen and so forth, profitability
into dollars. So they are two separate items.

Genereux: Great. That's very helpful. Thank you, all.


Margaret Mager, Goldman Sachs: Hi, it's Margaret. I have like six
questions, but I'll limit myself. Let's see, can you talk about the
inventory by region? I know it was actually down in the U.S. in the
last quarter. How is inventory looking by region? And in that context,
if you could, give us some perspective on Japan. How concerned are you
about the outlook there comparing it to the U.S. in 2000 is a bit
alarming, and also I would note that we saw some really spectacular
numbers from Adidas coming out of Japan in their earnings report this
month. So if you could give us some better context of what is going on
in Japan and then also comment about inventory by region that would be
helpful. Thank you.

Blair: Well, let me take the inventory question, Margaret. You know,
we've talked about inventory in terms of where we feel that we can do
better. You know, we generally feel very good about our inventory
levels overall. The places where we think we can do better, we would
call out European apparel. We've talked a little bit about our
inventories in Korea and Japan on previous calls. Those are places that
we think we have opportunity. We're doing better in all of those places.
We're working our way through in the inventory levels we have and to
date, as you can see from the results we reported in the third quarter,
they haven't had a material impact on our business overall, but we're
going to keep working in those areas. Balancing that, in the rest of
the markets, we've had some really good success and particularly I
would call out the U.S., both the footwear and apparel side have done
an absolutely terrific job of keeping inventories tight and that's
reflected in our gross margins.

Mager: Are they still down, Don?

Blair: The U.S. inventories are down.

Mager: Okay. Thank you.

Denson: Margaret this, is Charlie. I'll take a crack at this and Mark,
I think has got comments too. Actually we just got back from Japan last
week. I would not say that we're alarmed about the Japanese market by
any means. Actually as I said in my prepared remarks, I think we're
still very bullish especially on a long-term basis. It's one of the
most influential marketplaces in the world, as you know. Where we are
seeing some softness again in this polarization. We're still seeing a
lot of positive brand strength at the high end, but it's getting a
little bit more price competitive and I think right now we've got to
address some of that in some of our pricing and looking at what we're
doing. One of the things that we talked a lot about several years ago
when we were addressing the U.S. market was this thing that Mark kept
referring to as a total game plan, and the complete offense, so to
speak, and looking at the overall product lines and I'm speaking
primarily in footwear right now. The other thing that gives us some
pretty good confidence is the strength that we're continuing to see
both from a brand standpoint and an apparel standpoint. These are some
things that I think we'll go to work on specifically in the footwear
area and we feel pretty confident that we know what we have to do and
we can get a hold of it.

Parker: This is Mark. I would just add, to echo Charlie's comments
about the split in the market in Japan, the luxury high end has been
very strong and then it seems like there's more action down below at
the lower price point levels as well and the value zone. So what we're
trying to do there and actually are working on doing right now is-
Charlie's comments around complete offense, is really build more
strength and price the value in that middle zone with some compelling
con sevenths and feel good about what we have in the pipeline to
address that situation. The market's gotten fairly promotional and
we've been reluctant to drop down into that.

Mager: Okay. Thank you.


Bob Drbul, Lehman Brothers: Hi, good afternoon. Bill, I guess one easy
question for you, and one tough question for you. The first one is I
heard that you are a runner and I was just curious if Pam can keep up
with you on the track.

Perez: That's a tough question, Bob.

Drubl: Exactly.

Perez: What's the easy one?

Drbul: The easy one is, well, I'm not completely familiar with the
breadth of your portfolio at our old company. I know you're still
learning a new organization and you don't want to throw out any
concrete initiatives just yet, but I wondered if you could share with
us a few of the major differences, maybe some positives or negatives
that you see in the portfolio you've been running versus the once that
you are now in charge of running.

Perez: I think there are a number of differences. I think the SC
Johnson portfolio went through almost identical channels of
distribution, was largely based on the same technologies, whether it
was packaging or chemistry or mechanical action. Nike products are
distributed in multiple channels of distribution, very diverse ones.
The technologies between, you know, the relationships of the
technologies that drive footwear and those that drive apparel and
equipment are quite distinct. I think those are probably the two main
differences in the portfolio. I come-- I came from a world where
managing multiple brands was a way of life and we're just getting into
it here at Nike with the subsidiaries and the businesses we've acquired.

Drbul: Great, and if I could squeeze one more in.

Catlett: Okay. I do want to have the record reflect that Bill's best
marathon time is one minute faster than mine, and I intend to correct
that.

Drbul: Well, best of luck with that.

Catlett: Thank you, Bob.

Drbul: You're welcome. And for Charlie and Mark, I guess when you look
over the next 12 months, you guys have had some really great successes
with Air Force One and some of the Shox products that are out there.
Does that at all bother you or concern you as you look to comp against
these numbers over the next 12 months, per se?

Parker: Yeah, this is Mark. Let me take that. Actually, I feel very
good about the success we've had in Shoxs and Air Force Ones from a
looking forward standpoint. I feel like we've got some very compelling
things in the works right now around trying to keep those franchises,
both from a technology and in the case of Air Force One, that style,
very fresh and compelling. So I'm feeling good about-- I don't think
we've reached the limitations on those. We're trying to manage those
businesses very smartly, and make sure that we're not over-saturating
the marketplace. There's quite a bit more demand than what we're
actually selling right now, I think, and particularly in the case of
the Air Force One and also in the case of Shoxs for that matter. But
beyond that, I think when he made my comments about how excited I am
about what's in the innovation pipeline, it really has a lot to do with
the diversification of the product and the technology on the premium
side, particularly beyond Shox, and beyond any one particular
technology. In saying that, I'm still very bullish on the Shox
franchise and where that's going government you'll see some things in
the next six to twelve months that will take us well beyond our
dependence on any one specific technology or franchise.

Drbul: Great. Thanks.

Denson: Bob, I'll just chime in a couple other points there. On the
franchise thing, I think one of the things that we're really confident
in and feel pretty good about is Mark's point, management of these
franchises that we have, and right now it's Air Force Ones and to some
degree Dunks, but there's some other pieces of the product arsenal that
are already starting to take the place of that, whether it's the Shox
piece, we've got the introduction of the new Free technology now out in
the marketplace and it has received very strong responses to that. I
think the key thing here is that we're not going to try and necessarily
anniversary comp those numbers on a style-by-style basis. I think it's
keeping this stuff fresh and moving it in and out of the marketplace at
the appropriate level is something we've demonstrated in the past and
we're going to stick to that too. We've already started to pull back a
little bit on the Air Force One in a couple of different markets.

Drbul: Great. Thank you very much. Good luck, Bill.


John Shanley, Susquehanna International Group: Good afternoon.

Shanley: Charlie, maybe, and maybe Don if you could chime in on this,
I'm a little confused about the U.S. marketplace. Obviously the company
had a really dynamite third quarter in terms of sales increases and a
nice forward order level, but the guidance that Don gave us in terms of
low singl- digit sales forecast and also the comment about the higher
discounts, can you kind of give a little bit more color in terms of
what's happening? Are you changing your channel of distribution for the
product that is causing a little bit of a change in terms of the
guidance you're giving us going forward?

Blair: Well, let me start with that, John, and then Charlie's going to
chime in here, but this is really not reflective of a major change in
the structure of distribution in the U.S., so that's not where I would
look. As I mentioned earlier in my prepared remarks one of the things
we had last year was quite a bit of at once business last year, both
closeouts and props business and we also had a very early shipment
pattern last year compared to what we see this year. So combination of
the fact that we've got a strong futures trend, which means we have
less closeouts, we have less prop business, and also as we've talked
about many times, we also have the NBA expiration also down. So a
combination of all of those things means that you're going to see less
revenue growth in the fourth quarter than what you see in our
futures order book.

Shanley: Okay.

Blair: The point about discounts really is a mix change. We've had a
lot of growth in our larger customers, as you know, there's been some
trade consolidation in the U.S., and one of the impacts of that is that
it's going to the high volume customers, which generally tends to raise
the discounts from the standpoint of mix.

Shanley: Okay. I understand. That's very helpful. Charlie, on Europe,
the very solid quarter also with a 9 percent constant sales increase.
One of your competitors just recently said that they were gaining
market share. I'm wondering if you can kind of summarize what you feel
your market share position is in western Europe in athletic footwear
and whether or not you see an opportunity to also gain market share.

Denson: I mean we feel, like I said, this is as good as I've felt about
Europe in over a year, year and a half. And I think the idea that we
will continue to gain market share is something that we-- I'm not going
to sit here and predict it, but I like our angle of approach and I
think that's-- I'm excited about Europe, I mean overall. We can go
category by category or country by country, but we're starting to build
a little bit of positive momentum there, and I really one of the things
that we've been talking about over the last year is specifically in
countries of, in Italy and the UK where we were-- well in Italy we
actually struggled, in the UK we got a little bit stagnant. Getting
these things pointed in the right direction, France is still a pretty
challenging environment from a retail standpoint, as is Germany, but we
think we've got some things in the pipeline, even for those two markets
that put us in a great place going into '06 and the World Cup year. And
World Cup in Europe is going to be a big deal, and obviously in Germany
it will be a big deal for us as well.

Shanley: Are you going to ramp up your advertising spend in Germany
since that's the host country?

Denson: You might see a few things go on there.

Shanley: Great. Okay. Thanks a lot, guys.


Noelle Grainger with J.P. Morgan: Hi, good afternoon.

Grainger: Okay. Two things for me, I guess. One long-term, Don, on
gross margins-
One gross margin question, Don, for you, you've had some outstanding
expansion over the past couple years, continued in the quarter. As you
look long-term, where do you think that number can go and kind of-
obviously you've indicated you think it continues in '06 and what type
of pace do you expect? And then my second question, I was really hoping
you can elaborate a little bit for us on the Starter business, and talk
about your plans or where you're tracking relative to your plans for
footwear rollout and signing, what you plan to do with how you're going
to incorporate Brett Favre, I believe you've signed for that brand.

Blair: Okay. Let me talk about gross margin and once again, know
Noelle, I think you're going leave dissatisfied with that-- but our
story that we've been telling you consistently is that we think there
are lots of levers for us to pull on gross margin. We work the product
side of the equation both in terms of how it's manufactured and how we
buy raw materials. We've been working the gross to net equation, which
is things like discounts and claims, and tightening our supply chain.
So as Charlie said, we feel great about the progress we've made and we
think we can continue to raise gross margins through some of those
vehicles and also in '06, we do expect to see some continued benefit
from foreign exchange. So a combination of all of those things, we
still believe we can continue to grow gross margins. Where the absolute
limit is of the really might be, wouldn't want to say at this junction
tour, but we're still optimistic that we can continue to grow it. I'm
going to give Mark the Starter question.

Parker: Yeah, actually, as you hopefully know, we have actually a
healthy business with Starter at Walt mart. This launch that we're in
the midst of right now is really the beginning of sort of a new venture
for Starter and obviously Nike in taking Wal-Mart, I think, to a
different level in terms of footwear, higher priced footwear
specifically is what I mean. And we feel like the product line that
we've got coming to the Wal-Mart locations, the bulk testify being next
week, is really a whole new level of product for Wal-Mart, and Brett
Favre's involvement we think will actually help boost the attention
around the product. He will be involved with marketing support, in-
store advertising-type support to help pull that product through. Like
I said, this is a new venture for Nike and for, I'm sorry for Starter
and Wal-Mart in the sense that we're going to new places in terms of
the product quality, the technology that's represented and the product
and the pricing. So we're optimistic about where this may go, but, you
know this, is a starting point for us. So I don't want to say much more
than that, other than there's a fairly healthy degree of optimism about
where this may lead.

Grainger: Good luck.

Jeff Edelman with UBS: Thank you. I'll try to be quick. One, Charlie,
with the average selling price growth tapering off, is this largely due
to more product going to Footlocker, or is it still broad based?

Denson: No, I think it's still pretty much broad based, Jeff. I don't
think-- I mean we've had a nice acceleration of this number over the
past, you know, 12 months, I think it is. I would have to go back and
look at it specifically. As I think Don alluded to in his prepared
remarks, I think we still are looking to see it climb. I just think the
rate of that climb is going to start to ease up a little bit. It varies
around the world too. I think you're going to see the U.S. continue to
be pretty healthy. I think as we talked about before, Japan, places
like Japan, it's going to get a little bit tougher as it gets a little
promotional over there. Europe has really been driving a pretty strong
increase in average selling price, a lot based on currency. So, you
know, how some of that starts to work itself out in that marketplace
over the next 6 to 18 months is something we'll keep an eye on. As a
general statement, we would expect it see it decline just to this lower
rate.

Edelman: Okay. Then secondly, the strengths you saw in Italy and the UK,
did this reflect increased distribution or increased penetration within
the existing accounts there?

I'm sorry, where is that again, Jeff?

Edelman: The, the sales strength that you had in the UK and Italy, was
this a function of increasing distribution or more increased
penetration with your existing account base?

Denson: That's easy. Penetration.

Edelman: Okay.

Denson: No expansion in distribution whatsoever.

Edelman: Okay. Thank you.

Catlett: Okay. I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today. We look
forward to speaking with you soon.