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Hunt did not go to Oregon to write about Nike. He went as a freelance reporter for The New York Times, looking into an allegation that three University of Oregon basketball players had raped a fellow student, and stayed because he could not work out why the university's handling of it had been so thoroughly buried. Administrators declined to speak to him and occasionally locked their office doors; the records office sent back pages that were mostly redaction. Four years, well over a hundred interviews and thousands of pages of financial and archival documents later, he had University of Nike (Melville House, October 2018), reissued in paperback as The Nike Effect. The argument runs from Ballot Measure 5 in 1990, which gutted Oregon's funding for public education, through a university president turning to his wealthiest alumnus, to a campus where the sportswear company's founder had donated more than half a billion dollars and the university had become, in Hunt's phrase, a giant commercial. He is a former Reuters correspondent in Tokyo who has reported from Japan, Korea, India, Kenya and Tanzania, and has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The Atavist. There is only the one book so far, which is exactly why a page like this exists.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Investigative non-fiction · Corporate power · One book, 2018 · Updated September 2026
Quick answer
If you love Joshua Hunt, the closest match is Christopher Leonard: one company, followed across decades, reported from inside the documents. David Enrich does the same for banks and law firms. For the money behind institutions rather than the institution itself, read Jane Mayer or Anand Giridharadas, who is very good on what a large donation buys. Joe Nocera covers the college sports economy directly. And the honest counterweight is Phil Knight's own memoir, Shoe Dog, which is the same story told by the man at the centre of it.
10 authors like Joshua Hunt
Where to start if you loved Joshua Hunt
If you want the closest match, read Christopher Leonard.
Kochland. One private company, six years of reporting, seven hundred pages.
If you want the money behind institutions, read Jane Mayer.
Dark Money. Forty years of donations with expectations nobody wrote down.
If you want the college sports system, read Joe Nocera.
Indentured. The long legal war over paying the athletes who generate the money.
If you want the reporting from inside, read John Feinstein.
A Season on the Brink. Total access to a coach who never forgave him for it.
If you want the other side, read Phil Knight.
Shoe Dog. The same story, told by the man Hunt is writing about.
If you want more non-fiction of this kind
My shelf has the rest.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Joshua Hunt
Who should I read if I love Joshua Hunt?
Christopher Leonard is the closest — one company reconstructed from documents and former employees, done three times over. David Enrich covers the banks and law firms that make such arrangements possible, Jane Mayer the donor networks behind institutions, and Anand Giridharadas the philanthropy question directly. Joe Nocera explains the college sports economy Hunt's book sits inside, and John Feinstein shows what the same story looks like with full access instead of locked doors. Nick Davies is the British reporter on what an adversarial investigation actually costs, Eric Schlosser the template for the corporate exposé, and Michael Lewis the most readable and least cautious. Phil Knight's Shoe Dog is the other side.
Has Joshua Hunt written more than one book?
No. University of Nike: How Corporate Cash Bought American Higher Education was published by Melville House in October 2018 and reissued in paperback as The Nike Effect: One Company's War on Higher Education, Organized Labor, and Clean Competition. Same book, different title and subtitle, so check before buying both. No second book has been announced as of September 2026. His journalism continues to appear in magazines including The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The Atavist.
What is University of Nike about?
How the University of Oregon came to depend on Nike and its co-founder Phil Knight, who has given the school more than half a billion dollars in exchange for extensive branding. Hunt traces it to 1990, when Oregon voters passed Ballot Measure 5 and slashed state funding for public education, leaving the university looking for money. The book covers the athletics building programme, corporate reach into academic and campus life, difficulty obtaining public records, and the handling of sexual assault allegations against athletes.
Does the University of Oregon dispute the book?
Yes. In a statement to the student newspaper when the book appeared, the university said the Knights are unquestionably the most generous philanthropists in the state's history and that their support for both academic and athletic programmes comes without strings attached, and that it has transformed the campus. That is the central disagreement: Hunt does not claim the donations came with a written contract of influence, he argues that influence follows dependence. Readers can weigh both, which is a good reason to read Shoe Dog alongside it.
How did Joshua Hunt come to write the book?
By accident, while working on something else. He was in Portland on a freelance assignment for The New York Times about a University of Oregon student who reported being raped by three basketball players, and became preoccupied with why the university's handling of the case had been so effectively concealed. Pursuing that led him into the school's records and finances and into the Nike relationship. The investigation took four years and more than a hundred interviews, many with current and former employees who spoke only anonymously.
What is the difference between University of Nike and The Nike Effect?
Nothing but the packaging. The Nike Effect is the paperback reissue of the 2018 hardback University of Nike, with a new title and a broader subtitle that foregrounds labour and competition alongside higher education. The text is the same book. If you already own one, you do not need the other.
Is Joshua Hunt an American journalist?
Yes, though most of his career has been spent abroad. He was a foreign correspondent for Reuters based in Tokyo and has reported from Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, India, Kenya, Tanzania and the Americas. He studied at Waseda University in Tokyo and Portland State University in Oregon before Columbia Journalism School, where he was a fellow at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. Having previously lived in Oregon is part of why the Eugene reporting works.
What should I read after University of Nike if I want more about sport?
Joe Nocera and Ben Strauss's Indentured for the legal fight over college athlete pay, and John Feinstein's A Season on the Brink for what a college programme looks like from inside the locker room rather than from the records office. If what interested you was the corporation rather than the sport, go to Christopher Leonard's Kochland or Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation instead.
Sources
- University of Nike — Penguin Random House
- The Nike Effect, paperback reissue with author biography — Barnes & Noble
- Author of controversial University of Nike book visits Eugene bookstore, with the university's response — Daily Emerald
- Joshua Hunt discusses Phil Knight's influence over the University of Oregon — Her Campus
- Author reveals University of Oregon Nike cover-up claims — The Corvallis Advocate
List last reviewed 9 September 2026.
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“Turning your campus into a giant commercial.”
— Joshua Hunt, on Nike at the University of Oregon.
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