At the meet, University of Oregon distance runner and future Olympic marathoner Kenny Moore moved wide in an meter race, into the path of a passing teammate. The misstep resulted in a spike-inflicted gash on the outside of his foot. They had spongy cushioning in the heel and forefoot but zero arch support.
To correct the TG, Bowerman fashioned a running shoe with a cushiony innersole, soft sponge rubber in the forefoot and top of the heel, hard sponge rubber in the middle of the heel and a firm rubber outsole. In June of , he sent Onitsuka instructions and samples for the shoe. A month later, Morimoto responded, confirming that he was producing a training shoe to the specifications. Early Onitsuka prototypes featured two distinct pads in the heel and ball of foot, and a narrow heel.
This eventually morphed into the full-length midsole Bowerman had originally conceived, a feature that ultimately became a major selling point for the shoe. Consequently, Onitsuka introduced the Bowerman-engineered Tiger Cortez, which an early catalog explained as: Designed to be the finest long distance shoe in the world.
Soft sponge midsole through ball and heel absorbs road shock; high-density outer sole for extra miles of wear. Consumers loved it. The Cortez was the first stable, comfortable shoe for the roads. It also earned Bowerman a patent for its innovative continuously cushioned midsole. It was also just the first success in his enduring quest to create the lightest running shoe possible. Bowerman next sought to manifest a shoe with excellent traction on multiple surfaces, without metal spikes.
The solve came over breakfast in , as he contemplated the syrup-cradling depressions of the waffle on his plate. He subsequently commandeered the family waffle iron and substituted melted urethane for batter. Unfortunately, Bowerman initially forgot to grease the iron with an anti-stick agent and it glued shut. At first, Knight and Bowerman sold their shoes in person, at track meets across the Western U.
Their company thrived through a classic combination of entrepreneurship and innovation. Bowerman's most memorable technical breakthrough was the optimal traction of the waffle soles that he invented by shaping rubber in the waffle iron in his kitchen in Other essential innovations were the wedged heel, the cushioned mid-sole, and nylon uppers. Knight's first great marketing ploy was announcing that "four of the top seven finishers" in the marathon at the Olympic Trials had worn NIKEs.
Normally at church on Sundays, Barbara decided to stay home that particular day to help Bill find an answer to this perplexing question. So she started making breakfast on an old waffle iron that was a wedding gift back in , distinctive for its old-fashioned Art Deco design. The epiphany came as Barbara was serving her husband breakfast. Unable to open the waffle iron back up, Bowerman abandoned it and went into town to fetch new waffle irons for his experiment. Barbara, meanwhile, threw out the now-ruined wedding gift.
Nike's Waffle Trainer debuted in The rubber spikes didn't tear up the track, and the shoe worked for every type of surface. Bill Bowerman became a shoe legend; Knight pronounced him in his memoir "the Daedalus of sneakers. As for the original waffle iron, Barbara Bowerman would always say she simply threw it away. And for decades, that's how the story ended. In August , Reames received a stunning email from the Bowerman family.
It never occurred to me that they lived in a very rural area, so when she said threw it away Many years had passed since the Bowermans moved out of the house where the waffle story happened. Located in the western Oregon town of Coburg population: 1, , the house was remote, up on a hill and only accessible by a thin one-lane road. There was no way a garbage truck could reach the property, so they often just buried trash in a pit out back. The long-married couple eventually moved away to Fossil, where Bill died in and Barbara in But their son, Tom, lived on the family property in Coburg and decided to expand the carport.
Digging alongside the house, he came across a treasure trove of Nike history buried alongside the house. There were crudely cobbled-together shoes, old prototype metal plates, cracking rubber soles, peeling molds, and a rusty old waffle iron. Thanks to the distinctive s design, Reames knew this was the appliance that created the Nike we know today. H M S In the news. Hayley Peterson. Sign up for notifications from Insider!
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