
Nike Orienteer
In the early 1980’s Nike was looking to expand its reach into Europe. As a running company, they of course,

In the early 1980’s Nike was looking to expand its reach into Europe. As a running company, they of course,

When roaming the aisles at trade shows, it has been on a number of occasions that my paths have crossed

Shoe names come from all kinds of places, some named for famous events, some for geographic locations, and some like

Onitsuka Tiger introduced the Spartan B spike just in time for Ben Jipcho to beat, then shatter the steeplechase World

The Olympic Games first graced the capitol of Japan in October of 1964. As was often the case, a new

The Nike Elite Waffle (Elite for short) joined the Waffle family that Nike had established with the introductions of the

The Tiger Ohbori, introduced in 1975, did not join my collection until three years later when I was looking for

The Roadrunner joined Nike’s lineup as a reasonably priced model that could get the job done. My collection ended up

Tiger featured several iterations of track spikes which filtered into the the footwear ecosystem of the 1970’s. Built on the

The track and field line from Nike was not always what we’ve come to expect from the brand today. One

The Runner followed in the footsteps of the SL-72/76 as a high mileage daily trainer with a breathable synthetic upper.

As the name suggests, this was a sprint shoe. For my purpose they were entirely used for hurdle races sans

The German word Spezial is translated to English as (wait for it) Special (surprise). The Marathon has special demands, between

The Bangkok was a beefier version of the Tiger Marathon, as a training shoe or long racer. Similar geometry to

The Lydiard shoes were a collaboration between German shoemaker Eugen Brütting and the legendary New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard. Beginning

Introduced as a versatile light trainer/long racer named for the KU Jayhawks, Tiger continued to differentiate itself from the folks

The Steeplechase offers a number of obstacles to efficient running. It is the only event on the track which features

The collaboration between Eugen Brütting and Arthur Lydiard was a brilliant partnership. Each bringing value to the running world. The

The Karhu brand from Finland, has been around more than 100 years. I spent a summer there traveling, running, shopping,

The ban of the Puma Brush spike and subsequent 200 meter world record being disallowed, caused the engineers, technicians, cobblers,

The Nylon Cortez was Nike’s first departure from the Onitsuka line, offering a nylon version of the leather standby –

The Country was introduced in 1973 as an all around running shoe, more attuned to the changing ideas about Running

The Onitsuka Tiger track and field offerings trickled into the US running shoe market, following the surge of shoes brought

The Obori was a new shoe for Nike that saw its debut at the Boston Marathon, where Jon Anderson won
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