Puma Rocket Vintage 70s 80s Yellow & Blue Running Shoes Sneakers
Howdy Y’all,
Just putting up a quick post that we just posted this cool old school pair of bright yellow and blue vintage Puma Rocket running shoes over at our RewindRunning.com web store. If you want to learn more about these old school runners check out this 1979 vintage Puma ad here.
This is for anyone interested in some proper old school 1970s and 80s low profile lifestyle runners here is the latest Deffest retro sneaker buying guide. If you like retro basketball high tops we just posted the Top 10 Retro Basketball sneakers and Top 10 Luxury High Tops as well. Please note the sneakers below contain product affiliate links. You can read our affiliate policy in the footer of this blog post.
NIKE WAFFLE TRAINER 2
Nike has come out strong with some great 1970s and 80s throwbacks recently including the Challenger OG, Internationalist, Air Tailwind 79 and the Air Pegasus 83 (also at SSENSE.) Our pick for this list are the Nike Waffle Trainer 2 runners. The original waffle runners were introduced by Nike in the 1970s and this classic retro running silhouette has the old school Nike waffle iron sole.
Nike Waffle Trainer 2. Image credit to Nike.com.
ADIDAS RACING 1 RETRO RUNNING SHOES
We’re always a fan of seeing OG sneakers make a comeback and adidas takes us back to the old school with these low profile retro inspired running shoes. These throwback sneakers have an authentic '70s style and vibe.
VEJA RIO BRANCO
Veja was founded in 2004 in France and has been making noise over the past few years for eco-conscious footwear. We dig the old school stylings of the retro Rio Branco runners and these are available over at SSENSE.
Veja Rio Branco retro sneakers
NEW BALANCE 327 SNEAKERS
These retro sneakers are not a reissue but are a brand new model that were inspired by some of the older New Balance designs from the 1970s. I posted about the history of these sneakers and the models that they are based upon here. These sneakers are available in a bunch of different colors over at Dick’s Sporting Goods.
New Balance 327 vintage inspired sneakers
PUMA EASY RIDER
Harkening back to the 1970s this classic retro running silhouette has an old school vibe. If you want to check out an some history on the Puma Easy Rider runners we have posted some vintage Puma ads for them here and here. These sneakers have mostly sold out but you can still scoop up a pair of the Easy Rider II’s over at End. Another similar retro style option is the revived Puma Rocket at Puma.com.
Puma Easy Rider retro sneakers
SAUCONY SHADOW ORIGINAL
Way back in 1985 the Shadow was introduced as a performance running shoe. Today it’s kept the same retro-inspired low-top styling but with the added comfort to enable it to be a lifestyle trainer. These low profile sneakers are available over at saucony.com.
Saucony Shadow Original Retro Sneakers
WALSH VOYAGER
Norman Walsh was a Bolton-based cobbler who joined J.W Foster & Sons in 1945 and was notable for a lot of innovations that he made with the brand. J.W Foster & Sons later became Reebok and in 1961 Walsh left to begin his own brand. Norman Walsh’s namesake brand may not be well known in the United States but the brand has been putting out high quality runners made in the UK dating back to 1961. You can check out the Voyager and a bunch of other great retro sneakers over at Wolf & Badger.
Walsh Voyager retro sneakers
KARHU CHAMPIONAIR / MESTARI
Here’s another awesome retro sneaker set from Karhu. This model was part of Karhu’s lineup of models from 1977 through 1984 before bringing it back over the past few years. These are available over at TheDrop.com.
Karhu vintage inspired sneakers at TheDrop.com.
REEBOK AZ II
Here’s another great pair of retro runners that are throwbacks to the Reebok Aztec. These old school sneakers are mostly sold out but there are still a few pairs available over at amazon.com.
Reebok AZ II shoes
ONITSUKA TIGER MOAL 76
Here’s a great pair of throwback runners by always reliably retro Onitsuka Tiger. If you want to by these they’re are a few left available in black over at eBay and also in yellow and black.
Onitsuka Tiger MOAL 76 old school sneakers
Sup everyone and seasons greetings to you!🎅🎄 The blog has have been offline for awhile during the process of moving. This will likely be the last post of 2023 and I wanted to use it to send a shout out to Minh Vuong, Woody and the team over at the mighty Sneaker Freaker magazine. SF issue #49 is out now and has a ton of great articles, including a write up on the rare Nike 'The One Line' bootleg sneakers. Y'all should check it out if you get a chance and you can pick it up here.
Lastly, The Deffest blog has a lot of good stuff we're working on for 2024. Thanks to everyone shopping over at RewindRunning.com and who picked up some old school runners in the eBay auctions this year. Hope everyone has Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. See you all in the two-fo. Cheers.
Howdy y’all. Just putting up a quick post that we have a second round of eBay auctions up now until 6/19/2023 and this lot includes some really rare pairs of 1970’s and 80 sneakers. If you’re interested in buying any pairs you can check out the auction at our eBay shop! Good luck!
The Deffest vintage sneaker eBay auctions.
Special thanks and shout out to Sneaker Freaker for posting about the current eBay auctions! Thanks to everyone else who has been posting to their IG stories, too. Really appreciate it y'all!
The next set of auctions end on 6/19/2023 00 if you’re interested in bidding we have over 60 pairs of 70s and 80s vintage sneakers here.
Thanks to everyone who picked up some vintage sneakers from the recent eBay auctions. It was cool to see that they landed with some legit collectors who will appreciate them.
We’ve just cleared out an old storage space and will be putting up more pairs in the next week or two. Some of the sneakers in the next set are the vintage 70s Nike Waffle Trainers, Saucony Grippers, Pro-Wings runners and many more. Please keep an eye out for the announcement on our Instagram account. The eBay shop is here and will be updated soon.
🚨 Attention 🚨 We're stoked to announce that our eBay auctions are live and we're selling some rare vintage kicks this week! Starting bids are just 99 cents with no reserve, so you might just snag a steal. Plus, we offer worldwide shipping! Don't miss out on the chance to add some one-of-a-kind sneakers to your collection. Head over to our eBay auctions here!
The Deffest vintage sneaker auctions at eBay.
Check out ‘Five Little Known Sneaker Brands’ over at GEM.app
Just putting up a quick post to share a write up for our vintage friends over at GEM.app called ‘Five Little Known Sneaker Brands.’ While many of the brands from the article have gone away, there are still a lot of very cool one-of-a-kind vintage sneakers out there that can be found on GEM app, which brings all the best vintage products to one place. For those of you that are fellow vintage gear hunters we love this app and highly recommend it. If you’re interested in the sneakers featured in the post most of them are for sale at our vintage shops RewindRunning.com and DeffestShop.com.
DeffestShop.com vintage sneaker logo
Hey Everyone,
It’s been a minute since we’ve posted a real update but we’re happy to share a little news today. For a long time we’ve received inquiries about the various sneakers and print ads on the site but were hanging onto them to open a storefront / sneaker museum in LA. The pandemic and disruption of the past few years has changed that thinking and due to evolving priorities we will be selling most of the vintage sneakers on the site. It took awhile but we have finally launched a couple of new vintage shops to sell the sneakers and other various vintage items over at rewindrunning.com and deffestshop.com. Rewind Running™ is more vintage running themed with bigger brands that emerged out of ‘The Running Boom’ of the 1970’s like Nike and adidas. DeffestShop is vintage obscure, deep cuts and bootleg sneakers. Due to their age all sneakers are being sold as vintage collectibles. Outside of that special thanks to everyone who has supported this website and IG account throughout the years.
If you thought ChatGPT was awesome then check out Artificial Intelligence computer generated 1980s basketball style high tops with a retrofuturistic vibe over at Ranks Sneakers instagram. 🤖👟
This blog has been dedicated to mostly old school runners but we still love retro basketball high top sneakers from back in the day so we wanted to put up a post about the Ranks Sneakers account which features AI-designed 80s basketball sneakers on Instagram. The account is dedicated to showcasing the best and latest in AI-designed sneakers, inspired by the bold and stylish kicks of the 80s. From intricate patterns to asymmetrical designs, the account features sneakers that are completely new and different than anything we’ve ever seen before. It also has some totally fun, interesting and strange stuff too, like a computer generated fake Michael Jordan with a weird futuristic basketball.
It appears that in addition to ChatGPT revolutionizing the world of chat that AI is also bringing a new level of creativity in sneaker design and creating designs never seen before. With so many derivatives out there today maybe this will help sneakers break outside the status quo of overly referenced designs of the past. If you have a minute you should check out Ranks Sneakers on IG.
Rewind Running™ retro digital 80s running stopwatch cartoon logo
Belated Happy New Year Y’all! We’ve been out of pocket for a minute and wanted to put up a quick post to announce that our new RewindRunning.com web shop is online. The concept for the store is built on The Running Boom movement of the 1970s and 80s and the brands, people, products and races that were part of that era.
The new store will feature rare vintage products from Nike, adidas, New Balance, Puma, Brooks, Converse, Reebok, Asics Tiger and more. Also, many of the sneakers that have been posted on this blog site so far will be going up for sale soon at Rewind Running and over at DeffestShop.com once that site is completed. Thanks to everyone who stops by this blog every day. Stay tuned for more info coming soon.
Things are getting weird out there…
Raff’s vintage sneakers compared with Maden ‘Fake Series’ retro upside down swoosh sneakers.
Here at the Deffest blog we’re all about a groundbreaking post and we think this might be a new milestone in sneaker history - the first time we’ve ever seen a bootleg of a bootleg. This post was brought to you by the power of Google’s Lens tool. We recently picked up and reviewed the vintage sneaker book by Mikiji Nagai’s called ‘C-Class sneaker collection. The joy of collecting.’ While we were researching that book we used Google Lens to find more information on it we came across this link to a brand called ‘Maden Wear’ series of sneakers called the ‘Fake Series’ and donning another upside down Nike swoosh. See photos below:
As best as we can tell what happened here is that a factory purchased the Mikiji Nagai book then went rogue and began making knock offs of the sneakers in the book, shockingly including a copy of Raff’s brand 1970’s upside down swoosh Nike bootleg. There is no tongue or heel label on these shoes outside of the footbed which says Maden C-CLASS sneaker. Just to be clear we are not promoting these sneakers but merely reporting on it. The sneakers in the photos above are low quality construction and an overall poor design. We’d much rather have the OG Raff’s or some proper 1970’s old school Nike runners. One last note - we reached out to Mikiji Nagai for a comment but did not hear back.
Today we’re looking at the excellent Japanese sneaker collector book ‘‘C-Class sneaker collection. The joy of collecting” by Mikiji Nagai. We picked up this book because we’ve been continuing to research the strange case of the vintage Kinney NBA Le Village upside down swoosh sneakers to either confirm or disprove that they may have been manufactured by Nike. We’re still digging into that post and will hopefully have some kind of update down the line. This C-Class sneaker collecting book was published by Graphic-sha in 2021 and features 160 pages of 1970s and 80s deep cuts from the vintage sneaker market in Japan.
C-Class sneaker collection. The joy of collecting. Vintage sneaker book by Mikiji Nagai. Published by Graphic-Sha.
Cobra, Osaga, Jets and Cedar Crest 1970s and 80s vintage sneakers.
The book features some great photos of vintage runners and and other old school sneakers from a long list of brands including Airwalk, Asahi, Asics, Avia, Baliston, Bata, Bauer, Bravas, Brooks, Butting, Buster Brown, Cedar Crest, Cobra, Etonic, Jets, Jox, Kaepa, Karhu, KangaROOS, Keds, K-Swiss, Mizuno, Moonstar, Osaga, Romika, Saucony, Spot-Bilt, Vans, Wilson and more. The upside down swoosh sneakers on the cover were made by a brand call Raff’s shoes.
Raff’s brand 1970’s / 80’s upside down swoosh bootleg Nike sneakers.
If anyone is in the market for a holiday gift for the sneakerhead in your life this would be a cool item to give and we’ve included the book information below:
Author: Mikiji Nagai
Title: ‘C-Class sneaker collection’
ISBN: 978-4-7661-3489-6
Publisher: Graphic-sha
We’ll be posting articles a couple of more articles that reference this book over the next couple of days so stay tuned.
A couple of weeks ago to celebrate the return of the NBA season we posted our first old school high top basketball sneaker buyer’s guide. Over the past few years we’ve notice a lot of the creative energy with retro 1980’s style high tops is coming out of the luxury space so we wanted to put up a post with our top 10 favorite high-end hoops sneakers as well. You can check out the sneaker buying guide list below. Please note the sneakers below contain product affiliate links. You can read our affiliate policy in the footer of this blog post. Thanks for your support.
OFF-WHITE BLUE HIGH OFF-COURT 3.0 SNEAKERS
Kicking this list off strong with the Off-White Men's 3.0 Off Court Supreme Lace Up Sneakers. You can check them out over at SSENSE or at Bloomingdales.
Rhude Rhecess Hi sneakers over a SSENSE.
AMIRI SKEL HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS
These Amiri Skel High-Top sneakers in the ‘Chicago’ colorway are over at Farfetch and Cettire.
CELINE CT-03 LEATHER HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS
Celine’s Bred retro high top is available over at Mr. Porter.
Celine CT-03 at Mr. Porter.
SAINT LAURENT COURT CLASSIC LEATHER HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS
Here’s a pair of legit old school high tops in the Bred colorway from Saint Laurent. These retro high tops are available at Farfetch and over at Saks Fifth Avenue as well.
GUCCI BASKET HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS
Gucci’s ‘Basket’ high tops are throwbacks to the late 80’s early 90’s basketball sneaker styles and come in a few different colors. These are available at both SSENSE and Farfetch.
Gucci Basket High-Top Sneakers at SSENSE
PRADA NEW AVENUE HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS
The Prada ‘Avenue’ retro Prada high tops are available over at Neiman Marcus.
Here’s another great pair of retro high tops, this time from Lanvin. You can pickup these old school ‘Clay’ model high tops at Farfetch.
GOLDEN GOOSE WHITE SKY STAR SNEAKERS
The Golden Goose ‘Sky Star’ sneakers look like they could have come straight off of the Sotheby’s ‘Signed and Game Worn’ page. You can also check out the ‘Bred’ colorway at Neiman Marcus.
COACH BLACK CITYSOLE HIGH SNEAKERS
The Coach Citysole is a retro-inspired high-top equipped with a chunky street-ready sole.
OVERTIME: BONUS SNEAKS
Honorable mention to the following high tops.
Valentino Garavani Men's High Top Sneakers at Bloomingdales.
Happy Halloween y’all. 🎃 For those of you who have not seen it yet we highly recommend checking out the campy 1983 horror film ‘Sleepaway Camp.’ This is one of the strangest horror movies from the 80s and has an insane mind-blowing final sequence. (Don’t google it before you watch it because there are tons of spoilers online.) Regarding the movie poster… odd choice of adidas because most of the characters in this movie are rocking old school Nike sneakers.👟🔪
Sleepaway Camp poster image credit: IMDB
We’re stoked for the coming NBA season to get going and will be posting some vintage basketball sneaker ads over the next couple of weeks. If you’re interested in old school basketball sneaker history you can check them out under the ‘Hoop Stars’ tag here on the blog.
Up until now this blog has mostly been geared towards old school runner style sneakers but the NBA season is about to tip off and we wanted to note the occasion with our first Top 10 men's retro basketball high top sneakers list. Anyone interested in some proper old school 80s style high tops check out the sneaker buying guide list below. If you’re interested in retro runners we recently update our buyers guide. Please note the sneakers below contain product affiliate links. You can read our affiliate policy in the footer of this blog post. Thanks for your support.
NIKE AIR JORDAN 1 MID in Black / White/ Fire Red
Kicking this list off with the most classic basketball sneaker of all time - the iconic Nike Air Jordan 1. Originally released to the public way back on April 1, 1985 these sneakers have disrupted the industry nearly 40 years later. You can buy these over at Nike.com or Shiehk and Nike also has a high version of the AJ1 in the red and white colorway.
Nike Air Jordan 1 Mid. Image credit to Nike.com
ADIDAS TOP 10 RETRO BASKETBALL SHOES
adidas takes us back to the old school with these reissues of a 1970’s basketball classic. This sneaker model is a throwback to 1979 and was one of the first high tops to provide ankle support. If you want to learn more about their history you can see the original vintage ad here. These high tops are for sale over at adidas right now.
NEW BALANCE 480 'BLACK' BB480HD
New Balance is at it with another homage to old school b-ball sneakers. These retro high top sneakers inspired by heritage basketball shoes and can hold their own on any court. These sneakers are available over Kicks Crew.
New Balance 480 'Black' BB480HD retro sneakers. Image credit KICKS CREW.
DIADORA MI BASKET USED SNEAKERS
These retro sneakers a reissue of a model designed specially for Diadora’s sponsorship of the Italian Milano Basketball team in 1984. These throwback men’s sneakers are available over at Madewell. These are also available in green at Banana Republic.
Diadora MI Basket vintage inspired sneakers
NIKE DUNK HIGH RETRO
Nike is back with another iconic high top harkening back to the 1980s. The Dunk classic retro basketball silhouette has an old school vibe and is popping off in the Los Angeles Lakers purple and gold colorway. These sneakers are available over at Nike.com.
Nike Dunk Retro High LA Lakers Purple and Gold colorway sneakers
ADIDAS FORUM 84 HI SHOES
adidas is back with another classic old school basketball silhouette with the Forum 84 Hi Shoes. The sneakers are based on the Forum B-ball shoes from the adidas archive. These sneakers are available over at adidas.com.
adidas Forum 84 Hi-Top Sneakers Retro Basketball Shoes
SAUCONY JAZZ COURT HIGH PREMIUM
The Saucony Jazz sneaker gets re-imagined as a 1980’s style basketball high top. Saucony used higher quality materials in the crafting of these throwback high tops and you can pick up these sneakers over at Saucony.com.
Saucony Jazz Court High Premium retro sneakers
CONVERSE ERX 260 ARCHIVAL LEATHER HI 165909C
Here’s another awesome retro b-ball sneaker from Converse. This model was part of Converse’s lineup from 1987 and was worn by both Karl Malone and Magic Johnson. These sneakers are available over at Kicks Crew.
Converse ERX 260 Archival Leather Hi 165909C vintage inspired sneakers at Kicks Crew.
PUMA PALACE GUARD RETRO HIGH TOP SNEAKERS
We love an old school chunky high top. Here’s another great pair of retro hoops shoes by Puma called the Palace Guard. Another retro pair of high tops sporting the LA Lakers purple and gold colorway. These old school sneakers are available over at eBay and amazon.
Puma Palace Guard retro basketball shoes
AVIA 830 OLD SCHOOL BASKETBALL SNEAKERS
Here’s a great pair of throwback basketball high tops by the now back-in-the-game brand Avia. If you want to by these they’re available over at Dr. Jays or amazon.
Avia 830 old school basketball sneakers
Also wanted to include an honorary mention to the Jaclar Intimidator retro high tops below. Shout out to team Jaclar and we recently posted about these sneakers here.
Last, but not least, shout out the the original ‘Dunkers Delight’ - Mr. Obi Toppin Sr. We’re going to close out this post with a video of all 102 of Obi Toppin Jr’s dunks from last season. Let’s Go Knicks. 👊
The 2022-2023 NBA season is right around the corner so we’re going to be posting some basketball sneaker content over the next few days. Today we’ve got some retro Basketball high tops from Jaclar. These Intimidator 8192 model sneakers in red and white colorway are some old school throwbacks. If you want to pick up a pair you can check them out over at Jaclar’s website here.
We’re going to open up this blog post by asking a simple question:
Was Kinney’s NBA brand of sneakers actually made by Nike?
Kinney NBA Nike “Le Village” style sneakers
Image credit: Nike Le Village brown leather vintage sneakers over at GOAT.com
Part II - Kinney Shoe Store NBA brand sneakers
A few days ago we posted about Nordstrom’s Norsport brand of sneakers and today we’re back and looking at another brand that Phil Knight mentioned working with on the Nike ‘Futures’ program. In his book Shoe Dog Kinney was named as one of Nike’s biggest retailers so we thought it was worth checking out. Before we get going we want to note that this blog post is just a speculative theory based on a some observations and a lot of reading on Nike’s history.
From Shoe Dog:
“I had an idea. Why not go to all of our biggest retailers and tell them that if they’d sign ironclad commitments, if they’d give us large and nonrefundable orders, six months in advance, we’d give them hefty discounts, up to 7 percent?
This way we’d have longer lead times, and fewer shipments, and more certainty, and therefore a better chance of keeping cash balances in the bank. Also, we could use these long-term commitments from heavyweights like Nordstrom, Kinney, Athlete’s Foot, United Sporting Goods, and others, to squeeze more credit out of Nissho and the Bank of California… I told them that this program, which we were calling “Futures.””
Which brings us to the Kinney NBA sneakers and their flipped swoosh logo.
Kinney NBA 1977 vintage sneaker ad
Was Kinney’s NBA brand of shoes made by Nike? The idea of this might seem absurd but after looking into it we think… maybe, yes. Kinney NBA sneakers were infamous for their short lived upside down Nike swoosh and 4 stripe logos that were used in the late 1970’s. The Kinney NBA line of sneakers was mentioned at the bottom of this Sneaker Freaker article last year titled “10 More Of The Most Stupidly Expensive Sneakers Ever” and the article hits on some popular notions about these NBA branded sneakers. The main idea is that Nike must have hated the theft and flipping of their swoosh logo. From the Sneaker Freaker article:
During the 1980s, the NBA ‘Choice of the Pros’ sneaker brand just went for broke and ripped everyone else off. As you’d expect they didn’t stick around for too long. I don’t think Nike appreciated the flipped Swoosh, nor adidas the Four Stripe. As blatantly tacky as they are, if you want a pair of these vintage lookalikes you're going to have to part with a few grand.
The quote above seems to summarize the conventional thinking on the NBA brand of sneakers. But what if the conventional thinking is wrong? Could these sneakers have been made by Nike? It’s possible and we get into why and how below.
Kinney was a kind of shoe store that does not exist anymore. These ‘family shoe’ stores were along the lines of other now-defunct mall shoe outlets like Thom McAn or Fayva and in the late 70’s and 80’s almost exclusively carried their own in-house brand of shoes. To understand why Nike would be in an arrangement to make private label sneakers for Kinney we took a look at who Kinney was and what was going on at the time.
Kinney Shoes founded Foot Locker.
Kinney Shoe stores was owned by the large department store called Woolworth. Woolworth was a chain similar to a modern day Target or Walmart. Kinney Shoes also founded Foot Locker in 1974. Why does this matter? Nike was founded in 1972 and as a new brand probably wanted to forge a solid relationship with Foot Locker as an athletic shoe outlet that could offer Nike larger distribution.
More on Nike’s relationship with Kinney from Swoosh:
One of the first dealers Moodhe tried Futures on was Ted Bertrand of Foot Locker. Foot Locker was a division of Kinney Shoes, the family chain that was part of the Woolworth empire. From its very first day, Foot Locker had smart merchandising, ready money, and commitment from the top.
Based on everything we’ve read it sounds like Kinney Shoes was seen as an ally and business partner to Nike.
THE VINTAGE NIKE LE VILLAGE MODEL SNEAKERS
Image credit: Vintage Nike Le Village Brown and White sneakers at GOAT
The vintage Nike Le Village line of brown leather shoes was a very specific model of sneaker. It was basically an upscaled leather Cortez meant for leisure and not really for sports. Outside of the Kinney NBA shoes there was no other brand at the time that made a shoe that looked like the Le Village. Below we posted some photos of the Kinney NBA Le Village shoes. There are subtle differences with the Nike version but similar to what we saw in the Norsport waffle trainer styled shoes these look like a more ‘basic’ version of the Nike shoe with the side stitching in slightly different locations.
We’ve heard that these sneakers were merely ‘copycat’ designs ripping off Nike’s sneakers but the thing that doesn't add up with the 'copycat' idea is that Kinney and Nike were working closely together during this time through the 'Futures' program. It would seem to be a bad business strategy if Kinney was both working with Nike on one side of the equation and knocking Nike off at the same time. If Nike was willing to make Norsport shoes for Nordstrom then maybe Kinney NBA was a similar arrangement. Nike would have wanted to maintain a solid relationship with Kinney Shoe Stores knowing that they were about to open up the Foot Locker line of stores. This is speculation but you can imagine two brands who were closely connected might have found the incentive to work out a deal.
Policing the Swoosh image credit: Print Mag
Phil Knight famously liked to hire lawyers and accountants during the early years of Nike. For all of the passages dedicated to lawsuits and big fights with Tiger and the US Government in his book Shoe Dog the book is also suspiciously quiet on the topic of Kinney NBA and brands that ripped off the Nike swoosh logo. There is no mention of a battle with Kinney in the book Swoosh either. You can spend awhile Googling around to try to find a lawsuit or settlement between the two brands and you won’t find anything. Based on the ‘Futures’ quote from Phil Knight above it does not sound like Phil Knight was bitter towards Kinney. Instead he describes Kinney as a business partner.
COMPARISONS TO ANOTHER VINTAGE NIKE SHOE: THE ALL COURT BLAZER CANVAS COPY
The Sneaker Freaker article that we linked to above has an image in it that shows what appears to be another familiar vintage Nike silhouette, the vintage All Court Blazer Low Canvas. There are differences in photography but check out the side by side below. The toe cap is a little different but the metal eyelets and side stripes stitching are very similar.
Image credit to Sneaker Freaker and this eBay listing.
CONCLUSION
We can’t say for sure, but based on the designs and relationship between Nike and Kinney Shoes it is possible that some of the Kinney NBA line of sneakers might have been manufactured by Nike. Beyond the obvious similarities in appearance we have a hard time believing that Phil Knight would let one of Nike’s main retailers directly knockoff their own shoe models without Nike being involved in the production.
Lastly, if this post is correct then this would be the first time that Nike flipped their swoosh logo, pre-dating the factory error Air Jordan 1 “Reverse Shattered Backboard” by almost 40 years. If there are any old Nike staff from around this time who are familiar with the relationship between the two brands please send us a note at the contact page. We’ll update this post if we are able to find more information on it.
We’re going to open up this blog post by asking a simple question:
Was Nordstrom’s Norsport brand of sneakers actually Nike?
UPDATE: We have confirmed that these sneakers were produced by Nike. Info added to the end of this article.
Was Nordstrom’s Norsport brand waffle trainer made by Nike?
Nike and Nordstrom Norsport vintage sneakers compared
NIKE PRIVATE LABEL:
The last time we went down the rabbit hole of some old school Nike we ended up unearthing one of the strangest chapters in the storied brands’ history, the Nike One Line knockoff shoes. In that instance Nike created an unknown-to-most sub-brand in order to fight the US Government’s tariffs and won. Today’s post is like the prequel to the One Line story and along the same lines. Before we get going we want to note that this blog post is just a speculative theory based on a some observations and a lot of reading on Nike’s history. None of the information below is conclusive but we figured it was worth asking some open-ended questions to see if the power of the internet can help us find the answers. If any of the late 70’s / early 80’s Nike team reads this post and has more information please contact us on the contact page.
What is Private Labeling?
Let's start by defining what private labeling means. For those of you not familiar with the concept, private labeling is when a manufacturer creates a product for another retailer under a brand name that is not their own. In most cases the final product on the store shelf does not feature any indication of its origins or the manufacturer behind it. Private labeling still happens all the time. For modern examples I’ll point to this article on who supplies Trader Joe’s private labeled products behind the scenes. Those Pita chips are really Stacy’s brand in a Trader Joe’s bag at a lower price.
Back in the 1970s and early 1980s a common practice was that sporting goods and large department stores outsourced their private labeled in-house generic shoe brands manufacturing to major footwear retailers like Converse and adidas. Many of the sneakers that they produced had 4 stripes or logos that looked similar to real sporting goods brands. One example that we can point to is Sears who worked with both Converse and adidas throughout the 1970s to manufacture their ‘The Winner’ model sneakers. See the Sears catalog pages below from 1974 with both 3 stripe and 4 stripe winner sneakers. One catalog was from the United States and was manufactured by Converse and the other from Simpson-Sears Canadian catalog and manufactured by adidas.
Sears ‘The Winner’ sneakers made by both Converse & adidas in 1974.
Outsourced private labeling in practice
Why would sporting goods and large department stores like Sears outsource their sports shoe manufacturing to other brands? In a word… expertise. Sears, JC Penney, Nordstrom and others may not have had the inhouse skills required to set up their own sneaker line so instead they outsourced it to brands like adidas and Converse that were already successful in footwear. These department stores wanted to give their customers similar styles sneakers at a lower cost and it makes sense that they would not want to spend the time or money to design their own shoes and set up an entire manufacturing supply chain. With the private label setup they just had to come up with their own brand name, make minor changes to a product that already existed and then slap some branded labels on it. It was easier to outsource it.
It might seem counterintuitive to create a brand for other companies but from the sneaker manufacturer’s side of this deal they also must have benefited from this arrangement as well. Some of the ways that we can think of this being beneficial for them are the following:
A larger footprint for consumer reach - having products stocked in a department store like Sears gave them national distribution within the Sears network without having to open their own stores across the country.
Premium shelf space within the department store.
Valuable shelf space taken away from their competitors in America’s largest retailers.
Another revenue stream.
On the factory manufacturing side there were also probably benefits including:
Reaching factory order minimums
Testing out new factories capabilities without using their own branded product
Testing possible new designs under another brand name
A big part of this arrangement is that it was usually not brand damaging because in some cases it was hidden from the consumer. Also department stores were not seen as competitors to sporting good brands like Nike and adidas but instead seen as allies. Sears and Nordstrom’s customers would probably be shopping for leisure footwear while Nike and adidas were trying to dominate in the arena of competitive athletic footwear. For a long time we've wondered that if this was such a common practice then was Nike involved in it too? It turns out that they were. The quote below is from the book Swoosh by J.B. Strasser and Laurie Becklund:
“(Jeff) Johnson's duties read like a list of everything Knight wished for and couldn't afford: R&D, inventory control, advertising, promotions, exports, private label sales to other wholesalers, and company newsletters.”
Jeff Johnson was Nike’s first employee. Private label sales to other wholesalers?
Interesting.
Who is J.B. Strasser and Laurie Becklund?
The articles over the next few days are based on the description above from the book Swoosh by J.B. Strasser and Laurie Becklund and Nike co-founder Phil Knight’s book ‘Shoe Dog’ so it’s probably important to understand who the authors are and what their relationship to Nike was.
J.B. Strasser, now Julie Dixon, was a Nike’s first advertising manager. If the name Strasser looks familiar it is because she was married to Rob Strasser, the man who was a pivotal early leader in Nike’s history and brought Michael Jordan into the fold at Nike. Laurie Becklund was J.B. Strasser’s sister and an award-winning former staff writer at the Los Angeles Times.
‘Swoosh: Unauthorized Story of Nike and the Men Who Played There’ is an insider account of early Nike and was verified by multiple sources and early Nike employees. The contents of the book hit so close to home that Nike co-founder Phil Knight threatened to sue J.B. Strasser. From the Seatle Times:
Author Julie Strasser was the Beaverton, Ore.-based company's first advertising manager. Her husband, Rob Strasser, was part of the core management team and a close friend of Nike founder Philip "Buck" Knight. Rob Strasser, who had been associated with the company since the early 1970s, resigned in 1987. Laurie Becklund, co-author, is Strasser's sister and a Los Angeles Times reporter.
Despite Strasser's connections, or perhaps because of them, Knight never agreed to cooperate with her on the book. In fact, he opposed the project and threatened to sue, Strasser says.
Together Strasser and Becklund plowed through 30 years of Nike files and lawsuits, and interviewed most people associated with the company. Despite the lack of written documentation from the early years, Strasser insists "Swoosh" is accurate. In most cases, she says, two or three different sources corroborated information about particular scenes described in the book.
For those of you who have not read Swoosh yet I highly recommend this book if you want to learn about early Nike history. The book was reviewed in the New York Times as 'Chariots of Fire' meets 'Animal House.' It’s a great book and a bummer that it never made it to Kindle.
Sifting through the possibilities
One way to start to figure out which brands Nike made private labeled sneakers for seemed to be to look at the brands that Phil Knight worked closely with in his book Shoe Dog on the Nike ‘Futures’ program. The assumption here is that he’d want to keep these kinds of deals with brands that he had pre-existing business relationships with and trusted. From Shoe Dog:
“I had an idea. Why not go to all of our biggest retailers and tell them that if they’d sign ironclad commitments, if they’d give us large and nonrefundable orders, six months in advance, we’d give them hefty discounts, up to 7 percent?
This way we’d have longer lead times, and fewer shipments, and more certainty, and therefore a better chance of keeping cash balances in the bank. Also, we could use these long-term commitments from heavyweights like Nordstrom, Kinney, Athlete’s Foot, United Sporting Goods, and others, to squeeze more credit out of Nissho and the Bank of California… I told them that this program, which we were calling “Futures.””
This seems like a decent starting point.
Nordstrom seems to have been the main department store that stocked Nike products in the 1970s and 80s. Sears was a bigger department store than Nordstrom at that time but did not stock Nike sneakers in their U.S. catalogs between the mid 1970s and 80s. Both brands had in common that they hailed from the Pacific Northwest, with Nike based in Beaverton, OR and Nordstrom located in Seattle, WA. Here’s more on Nike’s relationship with Nordstrom from Swoosh:
Moodhe mentioned his idea to Knight and Hayes, and a program was developed called "Futures." The idea behind Futures was to offer major customers like Nordstrom an opportunity to place large orders six months in advance, and have them commit to that noncancellable order in writing. In exchange, customers would get a 5 to 7 percent discount and guaranteed delivery on 90 percent of their order within a two-week window of time. If retailers went for it, Blue Ribbon had a unique forecasting tool.
Also, since the shoes were presold, the retailer, not Blue Ribbon, took the risk. That brought up a good point: A big department store chain like Nordstrom had a better credit rating than Blue Ribbon. Shouldn't an order from a blue-chip company count as an asset?
Nordstrom and Nike were close enough to co-sponsor the annual ‘Beat the Bridge’ running event starting in 1982. In the early years of this event Nordstrom silk screened the shirts onto Nike blank ringer t-shirts. It seems like there was a level of coordination happening between the two brands.
Nordstrom vintage Nike 'Beat the Bridge' tshirt
DESIGN HALLMARKS OF VINTAGE NIKE RUNNING SHOES
Before we look at the Norsport sneakers below I wanted to point out some design attributes on many early Nike runners.
Image credit to Sotheby’s
Nike’s running shoes from the late 70’s and early 80's had some characteristics that set them apart including:
Exposed puffed foam tongue
Multiple ”support system” stitch lines on the side panels
Folder over tongue label with rear text
Stitch line on the top of the rear heel tab
Arrow Pointed stitching on the lace holder (on some not all models)
Outsole waffle patent stamp (on some not all models)
Outsole rectangular stamp (on some not all models)
This era of Nike was mostly manufactured in Korea or Taiwan
LOOKING AT NORDSTROM’S NORSPORT LINE OF SHOES
Based on Phil Knight’s quote from Shoe Dog calling out “Nordstrom, Kinney, Athlete’s Foot, United Sporting Goods, and others" we decided to look at Nordstrom’s in-house brand called Norsport. Below is an ad for Norsport and a comparison of Norsport’s shoes vs Nike silhouettes of around the same time.
Do any of these sneakers look familiar?
Norsport Cortez, Waffle trainer, and Wimbledon model vintage sneakers compared with similar Nike models.
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE VINTAGE NORSPORT “WAFFLE TRAINER”
These old school Norsport waffle trainer style runners share some of the distinct features of vintage Nike’s including:
Exposed puffed foam tongue
Multiple ”support system” stitch lines on the side panels (with slightly different spacing.)
Folder over tongue label with rear text
Stitch line on the top of the rear heel tab
Made in Taiwan.
The shoe below is a more ‘basic’ version of the waffle trainer without the Nike waffle sole.
…AND ALSO THE VINTAGE NORSPORT “WAFFLE TRAINER” ROLLER SKATES
This is from back in the day when they’d take a regular sneaker and anchor it to a roller skate platform with some screws.
CONCLUSION
We can’t say for sure but based on the sneaker designs and relationship between Nike and Nordstrom it seems possible that these sneakers might share a common manufacturer in Nike. Beyond the obvious similarities in appearance we have a hard time believing that for as much as Phil Knight liked to hire lawyers that Nike would let one of their main distributors directly knockoff one of their own shoe models without Nike being involved in it. From a strategy perspective if Nike occupied two shelf spaces in a store with both a real Cortez and a Norsport Cortez that shelf space for the Norsport sneaker is a space taken away from adidas, Brooks, Saucony, Etonic or other competitors. Nike would make money on the sale no matter if the real Cortez or fake Cortez sold. Seems like a solid enough strategy.
Questions or comments - please reach us on the contact page. If we find more information we will update this post.
UPDATE: Following up on the post from yesterday to confirm that the Norsport sneaker line was co-produced between Nike and Nordstrom. Big thank you to @goodbirger on Instagram for unearthing this vintage Norsport advertisement below.
