Nike held a warrant for more than 4.1 million Fogdog shares, a sign of how badly old-line brands wanted a foothold online in 1999. Fogdog said it had the largest selection of sporting goods on the web: up to 60,000 items from over 500 brands. The Redwood City company ran specialty shops for soccer, baseball, golf, the outdoors and fan memorabilia. It had a deal with America Online to reach shoppers, and it was losing money fast.

From Cedro to Fogdog

The company started in October 1994 in California as Cedro Group. It took the name Fogdog in November 1998. Fogdog bet that shoppers would choose the web for gear they could not find in a local store. It wrote buying guides and product advice to win over serious athletes and weekend players. Keystone Fulfillment handled shipping. Its net loss for the first nine months of 1999 was $15.1 million.

A Year on Nasdaq

Fogdog sold 6 million shares at $11 in December 1999, raising $66 million, and listed on Nasdaq as FOGD. The dot-com crash arrived three months later, and online retailers lost their access to new money. In late 2000 Global Sports, a Pennsylvania company that ran online stores for sporting goods retailers, agreed to buy Fogdog. Fogdog deregistered its stock on December 28, 2000, about a year after its IPO.

Cover: Mishima: Morning Mist (Mishima, asagiri), from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido Road (Tokaido gojusan tsugi no uchi)," also known as the Hoeido Tokaido, Utagawa Hiroshige. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for travelers in morning mist (fog).