Osaga Shoes

am I the only person who liked osaga shoes. had the white with green swoosh. looked great. sold a ton of these at my store in Athens ga (UGA). wished I still had them. did not use for running and lasted for ever.love to have them back

The Running Company of Eugene was a marvel of spirit, motivation, and integrity. Flags from various nations adorned the walls and visual spot lighting of the product offerings were a tribute to Bill Toney's background in commercial lighting. The store looked rather ordinary from the outside, but once inside, the magic began!

Bill named a few of the employees that graced the Running Company stage, and I recall a few more names of the cast. Those are; Mick Balin (a mid to long distance runner who also started a VERY informal track club known as "El Loafo Track Club"), Jim Peterson ( a lanky1500 meter specialist from the east coast Ivy league schools), and Thomas Breedlove (the guy who was the tennis specialist for the store. Yes, the Running Company was also a tennis specialty store! His running was focused on short, quick sprints).

It was an interesting cast living in wondrous times! Visiting there was a treat for any person regardless of their level of performance. This place started the "true running specialty store concept" that so many stores now emulate.

Cheers.

"The original idea of the company was that the shoes would be world class running and athletic shoes but not be sold in sporting goods stores and would be made available only to family shoe stores"

This strikes me as an incredibly awful strategy.

"The original idea of the company was that the shoes would be world class running and athletic shoes but not be sold in sporting goods stores and would be made available only to family shoe stores"

This strikes me as an incredibly awful strategy.

I played semi-pro soccer for Osaga in the late '70's. An attempt was made to start a pro league here in the USA, but it folded as Americans were not quite ready for soccer to join the ranks of American football and baseball. There was quite a semi=pro league though, consisting of company teams like Pepsi, Coke, and my team Osaga.

There is a shop in the Netherlands www.scapino.nl which sells osaga shoes

Lawrence Fisherman wrote:

There is a shop in the Netherlands

www.scapino.nl

which sells osaga shoes

No. No. These Osagas may as well have "Pro Wings" logo on them they're totally irrelevant to Original. The original are now owned by Dunlop and known as "Dunlop KT-26" but you must be able to distinguish some of Dunlops other styles...

Had a pair of KT-26 in the 70's. Not a runner, but they were SUPER for volleyball with that sole!

Anyone have a nice pair size 13? Would love to get another pair

TonyK, great write up on Osaga's history. I posted a link to an old 1979 Osaga KT-26 vintage sneaker ad here:

https://www.thefreakinekin.com/vintage-ads/#/osaga-kt26-revolution-vintage-sneaker-ad/

I played goalkeeper with the Osaga local amateur team just before that- maybe '77-78 when they were also sponsored by a local eatery, maybe Paisan's. Nike also sponsored a team in the area, and they also had an eatery co-sponsor, Nike-Mazzi maybe? (Do we know each other stratbastard?). All the British U of O grad students played with Nike (Mike Davis, John Elkins, Chris Hopper, Trudo (not English, Dutch), Brian Bell). The leftovers played with Osaga (me). I remember stopping a John Elkins shot with my thigh and having the backwards Adidas logo from the ball as a bruise.

I also worked swing shift in the shipping warehouse out west of Eugene, but they had some trouble getting inventory. I remember one shoe place ordered 12 men's shoes from 6 - 12. We only had one of those in stock so I only shipped that one pair. I was called for that the next day and told it is better to ship none than only one.

They gave me a pair of really nice soccer shoes to test that I loved. I think they just went to a manufacturer and had them make their best pair with the Osaga stripe as a test pair. Luckily, I was the one that fit, so I got them. They decided the costs weren't right. We often played at Autzen Stadium so I tested some flats for using on turf.

We needed to order socks for the team (I think we were light and dark blue) and when I gave them the bill they were shocked. The name that sticks in mind is Bob Newell, a former football star, I think. Nothing comes up on Google which is definitely a glitch in the matrix. Everything comes up on Google.

Just as I quit working at the warehouse two other shippers were arrested for filling their van up with shoes and heading for Mexico. I had to give one person a ride to a lie-detector test to see if he knew anything about it or if he'd stolen anything. The tester asked if I was supposed to take it too but I was greatly relieved to tell him no.

I went to a party in Springfield (the first place I ever had homebrewed beer) and some guy claimed he designed the Osaga stripes and I thought "Really? What'd that take? Thirty seconds?"

I wore a pair of the green and white Cochises when I road my bike out to Newport, up the coast and into Portland (over two days), whereupon I developed chondramalacia in my knee. When working at Osaga I met Phil Samuels, a local bicycle racer, and soon after that started racing myself, and soon after that quit soccer. Two jazz bass players also worked there, but they were so boring because that is all they ever talked about.

Hello. I’m interested in the shoes you mentioned, Cochises. Is that this shoes??

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www.pictadesk.com/post/BdKMyuOFbo4

I recall a shoe rating on Runners World magazine where a shoe called the Osaga Eliminator had top ratings on motion control (stability). I needed a shoe that prevented pronation. I already had a suitable shoe at the time, probably a New Balance that worked well. Was this the K-76?