Putting up a quick post is to see if anyone reading this knows anyone who worked at Nike and was involved in the decision making process in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The more specific range would be around 1977 - 1983ish. I'm trying to track down information on a really rare piece of Nike history and might need an assist. If you do and can share their contact information please drop me a line over on the contact page. Thanks.
Ultra Rare Nike Air Jordan Auction fetches $615,000 at Christie's
From BBC News
“A pair of trainers worn by basketball legend Michael Jordan fetched $615,000 (£460,000) at an online auction on Thursday. The Nike Air Jordan 1 High sneakers, described as the "rarest of the rare", were used by the Chicago Bulls star in an exhibition game in 1985. “
Well done Christie’s.
Four Stripe Legends: Neil Young
I saw a conversation on twitter discussing what model of sneakers Neil Young is wearing on the back cover of the "Rust Never Sleeps" album art. It's hard to tell what brand this is because of the photography and surplus of 4 stripe sneaker brands from around that time. Some of the 4 stripe sneaker brands included Kinney NBA, Sears The Winner, Kmart Trax, Lacrosse, Jet brand, Bob Wolf and many, many more.
Vintage sneaker brand logos, Volume 1 + 1
Vintage sneaker logos + 1, Volume 1. Shout out to thepassionhifi for the free soundcloud beats. We missed a whole lotta brands but were trying to keep this under a minute. Stay tuned for Volume II.
Supreme
We usually stick with sneakers but we’re going off script with this one... check out this awesome little old lady on the news rocking her supreme hat and face mask. 👵 😷 👊 Glad to see streetwear embraced by the elders.
Shout out to Shelly for passing this photo along and asefacevintage for ID’ing the woman in the photo as Lili Hayes!
UPDATE:
Our original post on Instagram got re-grammed a bunch of times which then spurred this awesome artwork by the folks bringing you #Brightmares over @alexpardee. Check it out!
Artwork image credit to AlexPardee.com
New Balance MS327LAA retro runners
A couple of days ago we posted a 1982 ad for NB. Today I wanted to share a post that our buddy @trainer.spotting spotted out in the wild and passed along recently. Thanks man.
New Balance sneaker designer @charlottealee found design inspiration based on some of the NB models in the vintage 355 and SuperComp ads we've posted here on the blog to come up with a whole new hybrid model of New Balance runner called the MS327LAA. Check em out 👇
BEST OF THE WORST SNEAKER BOOTLEGS: DY BRAND 70s 80s FAKE VINTAGE NIKE
OCTOBER 2021 UPDATE: We had a tip come in on Instagram about these sneakers and they said that these are DY brand, not DJ brand so I am updating this blog post title. The 登云 characters on the label translate to deng-yun and apparently Dengyun brand is the number one leather shoe factory in Shanghai.
The last time we did a 'Best of the Bootlegs' post we were looking at the strange case of 'abibas' brand sneakers. Today we've got a great pair of bootleg 1970s or early 80s fake vintage Nike sneakers by a Chinese brand called DJ. These one of a kind old school gems with swoosh and stripe are over at @suitezero.archive who let us know about them over on Instagram.
All image credits above to @suitezero.archive on Instagram.
Jox runs again - vintage sneaker repair and restoration
This post is long overdue... we tried an experiment a few months ago to bring one of these vintage runners back to life with the help of our buddy across the pond @vintage_trainer_repairs68. These old school 40-something year old Jox sneakers seemed like a good candidate because the midsole foam was getting a little crispy and brittle on them. Thanks again to @vintage_trainer_repairs68 who did an awesome job bringing them back. I've included some photos of the process and they came out great. Thom McAn is no longer here, but Jox still lives on...
Before & After: Vintage sneaker restoration by @vintage_trainer_repairs68
Here’s a photo montage of the process below….
Kinney NBA Nike Le Village vintage sneakers
One of the things we dig about running the blog is hearing about the random vintage finds from all corners of the world. We recently heard from @cmmayse in Ohio about some new old stock vintage Kinney NBA Nike Le Village bootlegs that feature the original box, tissue paper and the upside down swoosh logo. The last I heard these sneakers had been sold but you can check them out below.
Sotheby's & Stadium Goods auction 100 of the World's Rarest Sneakers
UPDATE 7/23/2019: These vintage Nike waffle sneakers sold for $437,500 today.
If anyone has $80,000 - $160,000 laying around Stadium Goods just posted the 100 'Worlds Most Rarest' sneakers up for auction at Sotheby's. Part of this auction is the 1972 Olympic trials handmade Nike waffle racing flat moon shoes.
Stripe game strong 💪
We posted some 4 stripe Bob Wolf Super Pro sneakers the other day and were trying to figure out how many stripes are too many stripes so we did an art project to find out. This post is for some friends over at the ‘gram. It turns out that you can only fit 9 stripes on the side of a sneaker with adidas spacing.
Adidas let us know when you’re ready to bring out the Deffest 'Super stripe sport ultra max pro 9 stripe' edition, we’re ready to answer the 📞
The factory error upside down swoosh Air Jordans
I was searching around on the upside down swoosh AAU sneakers the other day and came across a Sneakers by Vice video on Andrea Canziani’s Nike factory error upside down swoosh Air Jordans. Those sneakers are now valued at around $143,000 which is nearly enough to buy a Maserati GranTurismo. 🤑
April Fools
APRIL FOOLS. (We got’cha)
Thanks to everyone who dropped by to check out Jordanified.com. 🔥👟👀 For those that missed it yesterday the April fools day prank concept was simple.... to turn every pair of available of Nike sneakers into "Jordans" for the 35th anniversary of Michael Jordan’s signing. The site is meant to be a satire on the never ending Jordan / Kobe / LeBron G.O.A.T. debate and we had a lot of fun making it.
To make it work we painstakingly re-colored every shoe in the Air Jordan 1 retro colorways using the NIKEiD tool, including LeBron, Kobe, Kyrie, Paul George and Kevin Durant's shoes, numbering them all 23 and renaming them as "Air." If you want to see our handy work the link above will take you there and as a side note if any of you want to buy the Jordanified "AIR" sneakers they are for sale at Nike's website. Shout out to Nike for the NikeID tool - this is a really awesome resource. No sneakers were harmed during the making of this prank and there can only be one G.O.A.T. 🐐
UPDATE: Jordanified.com no longer exists but you can still see the collection here on Pinterest.
Sears the Winner retro sneakers by Warehouse Company (Japan)
A couple of weeks ago I posted the Adidas and Converse side by side of the Sears the Winner kicks and mentioned the original sneakers from the early 70s sell for between $1500 - $2800 now. It turns out that a company in Japan called "Warehouse Company" is still putting the 4 strips Converse version of these out and they sell for about $100. This images are from a Rakuten store called "CLEVER WEB SHOP" but unfortunately their inventory is currently sold out. Shout out to @secondhand_nate for this passing along the info on Warehouse Company.
The ultimate St. Patrick's Day sneakers - Saucony Shamrock Jazz Low Pro
Top of the mornin' to y'all! I saw that Saucony just brought back one of our favorites - The Jazz Low Pro Shamrock runner. If you order these within 9 hours they'll arrive in time for St. Patrick’s day festivities. Well done Saucony. 👟☘️💚
Sears the Winner 1974 vintage shoes by Converse AND Adidas
Another sneaker mystery... one of the readers of the blog emailed this over (thanks to Susan S for the photo) so I wanted to post it. The left image is from the 1974 Sears Fall catalog for Simpsons-Sears in Canada. What's odd is that these Sears the Winner shoes there were made by Adidas while the identical shoe model from the same year in the right side of the image was made by Converse for the US market. What’s odd is that the Adidas Canadian version have 3 stripes and the Converse have 4. Either way, I've seen these sneakers for sale online for between $1500 - $2800 so if anyone spots a pair at your local thrift shop you should probably scoop them up.
Here’s another catalog image from Sears in 1976 where the adidas Winner line is featured.
Retro 80s style commercial for the Saucony Azura
Here's a great retro 80s style commercial for Saucony Azura runners. Well played Saucony.
A timeline of sneaker brands: 1876 - 1980
Here's a graphic timeline of the founding dates for most of the major sneaker and running shoe brands. A couple of notes on this post.
1. A lot of the brands didn't start out immediately making athletic footwear until much later. In Etonic's case it took them until 1945 to start making golf shoes.
2. The line height levels were only to make enough real estate to fit all of the information since a lot of the dates were clustered closely together.
3. If you’re interested in vintage products for the brands in this list check out our vintage shop over at RewindRunning.com.
Here’s the list from oldest to newest…
1876
Etonic - In 1876, the man who inspired the Etonic name, Charles A. Eaton, opened his first shoe factory in Brockton, MA. To put in perspective how old this is… Rutherford B. Hayes won the election of 1876 taking over as President of the United States from Ulysses S. Grant.
1882
Le Coq Sportif - Founded by Émile Camuset in Entzheim, France.
1891
Tretorn - Founded by Johan Dunker in Helsingborg, Sweden.
1894
Bata - Founded by Tomáš Baťa in Zlín.
1898
Saucony - first factory was founded in 1898 at Kutztown, Pennsylvania, on the high banks of the Saucony Creek. The brand was founded by four partners named William Donnoyer, Thomas Levan, Walter Snyder and Benjamin Reider. More Saucony history at Wikipedia.
1905
Gola - founded on 22 May 1905. It used to be known as the Bozeat Boot Company, and was based in the Northamptonshire village of Bozeat, England.
For more info:
There’s a brief history on Gola at their site here.
Gola over at Wikipedia.
Here’s an interview with Gola VP of U.S. Operations Steven Weinreb from 2016 at Sourcing Journal.
1906
New Balance - In 1906, William J. Riley, British emigrant, founded the New Balance Arch Support Company in the Boston area, manufacturing arch supports and other accessories designed to improve shoe fit.
Mizuno - Founded by Rihachi Mizuno in Osaka.
1908
Converse - Marquis Mills Converse opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in February 1908 in Malden, MA. For more info there’s a pretty good history at The Idle Man and over at Heddels.
1911
Fila was founded by Giansevero Fila and his brothers in in Biella, Italy. More history at Fila’s website here.
1913
Wilson - Founded as Ashland Manufacturing Company in Chicago, IL.
1914
Brooks is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by John Brooks Goldenberg. Here’s another article at Funding Universe with a Brooks history up until around 1999.
1916
Karhu - founded as Ab Sport Artiklar formed and became Karhu in 1920.
1916
Keds - founded when U.S. Rubber consolidated 30 different shoe brands into one company. Originally named "Peds" it quickly turned into Keds due to trademark issues with the name Peds. More info at Popsugar.
1923
Hummel - Founded as Messmer & Company in Hamburg, Germany.
1924
Adidas and Puma - formed by Adolf Dassler in his mother's house; he was joined by his elder brother Rudolf in 1924 under the name Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory.
1937
P.F. Flyers - Founded by B.F. Goodrich in Akron, Ohio.
1948
Adidas and Puma - After some family acrimony the Dassler brothers split in 1948, forming separate brands Adidas and Puma.
Diadora - founded by Marcello Danieli, in Italy. More info at Diadora’s website here.
1949
Onitsuka Tiger - founded by 32-year-old former military officer Kihachiro Onitsuka in Kobe, Japan. Onitsuka Tiger eventually became ASICS in 1977. Here’s a pretty good history over at Barkers too.
Pro-Keds - Founded in 1949 by Keds as their athletic footwear line.. Sneaker Freaker has a great write up on Pro-Keds history here.
1958
Reebok - formed by Joe and Jeff Foster in Bolton, UK as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons. Here’s an excellent history over at Grailed. And another history over at RetailDive.
1964
Nike - BRS Blue Ribbon Sports (Nike) founded on January 25, 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, and officially became Nike, Inc. on May 30, 1971.
1966
Vans - March 16, 1966; Van formed as The Van Doren Rubber Company and was founded by Paul Van Doren, Serge D’Elia and Gordy Lee.
K-Swiss - Founded by Art & Ernie Brunner in Los Angeles, CA.
1972
PONY - founded in NYC by Roberto Muller with financing provided by Horst Dassler, the son of Adolf "Adi" Dassler who founded Adidas. A cliff notes version of PONY’s history is over here at Wikipedia.
1974
Hi-Tec - founded by Frank Van Wezel in Shoeburyness, England. More info at Wikipedia.
1975
Osaga - founded in Eugene, OR by Bill Combs.
Jaclar - founded in 1975 in Stoughton, MA.
1979
Avia - founded in Oregon by Jerry Stubblefield.
KangaROOS - Founded by Bob Gamm in St. Louis, MO.
National Track and Field Hall of Fame at the Armory NYC
I was back in NY for a minute recently and able to drop in and check out the National Track & Field Hall of Fame at the Armory in NYC. If you're interested in track and field history or want to check out some super old school running shoes I'd definitely recommend to check it out. It is at 216 Fort Washington Avenue, New York, NY 10032. Make sure you call ahead because they host events in the HoF which close it off to the public sometimes. Here's some more details on the photos below.
The orange velcro wing Puma shoes were worn by Jim Hines when he set a world record while winning the 100 meter race at the 1968 Olympics.
The red white and blue Gola(?) shoes in this post are Alice Coachman's from the 1948 Olympics. She wore them as the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
The black shoes in the last photos are Betty Robinson's from the 1928 Olympics. She wore them as the first women's Olympic medalist winning the 100m dash.
UPDATE: In the time since we first posted this we’ve connected with Betty Robinson’s granddaughter honoring Betty’s feats on Instagram. You can see her profile here @elizabethbaberobinson or at BettyRobinson.org.
Last FREAKIN' call! Bata x Wilson John Wooden sneaker giveaway!
Hey errrybody just a quick reminder that 8PM PST tonight is the cut off for the Bata x Wilson John Wooden Instagram sneaker giveaway! If you'd like to be entered all you have to do is like the original sneaker giveaway post from Monday and follow @bataheritage and our account here on Instagram. I found a site that will randomly pick the winning name out of a hat which I will do tonight at 8PM PST. I will announce the winner tomorrow morning. Good luck!
