Biggest Running Shoe technology flubs of all time

Nike shox

Don't believe me? Take a look

http://amzn.to/zyPA5b

I had the original Nike Tailwinds which had this silver mesh upper that disintegrated. I then got a pair with nylon uppers that were better but they went flat. I loved the Nike LDV's. Did some of my best training in about 4 different pairs of them. Remember in the 70's that' s all we had. Probably why I now ride my bike instead of run as my knees are pretty much done. I did have the Sock Racer which I loved, but the Sock Trainer was junk. I raced in the Mariahs for 25 years in various colors and incarnations. My first trainers were the SL72's which were hard as rocks, but just about all that was out there. We háve so many choices now no one should complain about their shoes. For the little running I do I love the Lunar Glide

Nike Fruitfly. Pure garbage.

http://www.nikefreerunningshoes.com/images/dvd/NIKE%20MAYFLY%2001_5.jpg

Yeah the colors are sometime ugly, but Nike Mayflys are amazing flats. Have you actually run in them? My daughter kicks ass in the British flag version of the Mayfly. And they last longer than Nike claims (100K).

towhee26 wrote:

I saw a couple of girls running in these at the park several weeks ago.

http://www.kangoojumps.ch/

The stiff boot design allows zero ankle motion, so the the spring effectively acts as a substitute for a functioning calf-achilles complex. This is like the modern high-heeled running shoe concept carried to it's frightening conclusion.

Three others. Brooks circa 1978 with the varus wedge. Did wonders for my knees. Nike Equator 1980-81, ran a mile down the road and back and ditched. Supposedly a stability shoe. The first pair of Nike Shox also killed my knees. Another gimmick.

Does anyone remember the name of the New Balance racing flat from the late 70s. that was some orange and red combo and had a kind of pebbly outsole? (If I'm recalling correctly)

Adidas Springblade

http://www.adidas.com/us/springblade/_/N-1z120ix

Reebok ATV19+

https://shop.reebok.com/us/product/men-atv19+-shoes/ER997?cid=V54817

All ON shoes

http://www.runningwarehouse.com/ON_Cloudsurfer/descpageMRS-ONCSFM2.html

The worst shoes I remember owning were the wide heeled Nikes, the early Nikes with the visible air bag in the heel that were so unstable (leading to the term Nike Knee), and the Nike model that was a sock on top with plasic straps that came over the sides with eyelets to be laced. Those things seriously bruised the tops of my feet.

OTOH, the ON Cloudsurfer is a pretty good shoe. I obtained three demo pairs for a shoe store and everyone who wore them loved them. They do require a couple of miles to get used to the different feel, plus they felt squishy when just jogging in the store, but at faster than a jog... say sub 8 min/mile... they're pretty good down to 6 min/mile. After that, they start to feel too heavy.

Five Fingers

Nike LDV 1000s

My favorite Nike "ride" of all time:

http://www.arkamix.com/vintage-nike/running/nike-tailwind-1979

Followed closely by a version of the Air Structure.

I believe Avia got the "cantilever" "technology" when they bought out Osaga. The idea, and the Osaga shoe was a great idea, realized in crap materials, and crap workmanship...and the little problem where the -levers picked up and carried pepples really easily.

I still think the idea//concept was/is solid and that someone could use it and revise it to work.

Not that many Ducks had them that I know of. Budgets were SLIM right after title 9, and so the only Ducks who got them got them from Hollister and Nike...so they had to be pretty elite, or Geoff was in a generous mood that day.

They were around for a very short period.

I think I saw Centro Sr. in them, a few of Pre's final teammates, and that was about it.

No memory of knee problems, but it is possible.

What's really amazing, is that we had Pre's trail by summer 75, I think, and we had a dirt track...that we really should have done more (long) intervals on -- instead we ran on the very fast, but very hard and potentially slippery old yellow-gold track that Bowerman helped design of poly something.

I actually took some spikes down to the shoe guy at the Atrium, and had waffle sole added to the bottom of a pair of nike spikes, so I had more grip and cushioning on that ole track.

mwwwin wrote:

ashley madison wrote:

Nike LDV 1000

Nike waffle racers (I know, started the craze, but the little waffle nubs fell-off/didn't last).

Nike Cortez (Made hamburger out of the big toe).

Addias SL 72s and SL 76s (rock hard).

You youngsters don't know truly bad shoes . . .

???...the Nike Waffle Racer a flub??!?!...it has one of the longest tenures of any shoe ever made - they've been making them for what, 30+ years now?...really 40+ years if you look at previous versions with different names (ie Oregon Waffle) I never had problems with the the "nubs" (waffles) falling off. They're racing shoes, not meant to be a day to day shoe. They're awesome for when spikes can't be used. I used the same pair for several CC/track seasons.

The poster may have meant the little nipples that were on top of the individual waffles. They were there for a reason, it was determined that they helped with the traction with the shoe while the shoe was breaking in and beginning to get natural wear.

Probably what the poster meant was that those tips, or "nipples," which Bowerman called "tits," were what tore off. They did wear off fast, and some of them would tear off at certain parts of the soul depending on the surface you ran on and how fast. They were not intended to last, they were intended -in some way- to help the show have traction while it began to break in a natural wear pattern per each individual runner.

aloha warrior wrote:

[quote]old school steve wrote:

PUMA "

NIKE "Tailwind" 1st generation AIR shoe that would go flat if punctured and make squishing sounds

ADIDAS "WEB", and a shoe that you could customize the degree of cushion with "cassettes" inserted in midsole of different durometers

I left a pair of Tailwinds in a hot car and the midsole shrank to half it's size. I returned them to "The Athletic Dept." (the orig. Nike store) in Beaverton but they would not take them back because "they had never seen this problem before.)!

I got a replacement pair from Nike Running.

The web was supposed to be like a "safety-net" cushion, endorsed by Bill Dellinger (several of the Oregon guys trained in those crappy shoes.)

Some engineer brought the "web" to Dellinger to get Dellinger to hock it to Adidas since Dellinger was on the outs with Bowerman/Nike.

The concept, as Bill described it to me, was that the webbing would distribute the shock more evenly across the shoe and therefore transfer less shock up your leg.

Ahem.

I believe his cut was a nickle a shoe.

A Bowerman he wasn't. (As he admitted later in life "I wasn't a genius like Bowerman.")

The Tailwind had a problem with the glue and came apart in early iterations - that problem got fixed.

I don't know where anyone got the idea they were too stiff.

I had as many pairs as I could get, and after the glue problem went away, they always broke in well, and gave me, at least, a fantastic ride, they were great for my stride and bod, running lots of uphill and then downhill runs on mountain roads.

Nothing but great memories of that shoe!

HC wrote:

aloha warrior wrote:

The web was supposed to be like a "safety-net" cushion, endorsed by Bill Dellinger (several of the Oregon guys trained in those crappy shoes.)

The theory behind the Dellinger Web was not that it was a safety net but rather when pressure was applied at one point on top of the midsole the web would pull the other threads, thus compressing the midsole more uniformly to improve cushioning and improve shoe life. That from Dellinger's mouth itself.

Yep, that was the theory.

michael t. smith wrote:

Dellinger developed the web idea and tried to get Nike to buy it, but they weren't interested so he tried it out on adidas, and they bit,signing him to a personal services contract, which caused a problem since his program at the time had a deal with Nike. Bowerman was pissed, and I was called to recommend a close-to-the freeway restaurant in Salem where Dellinger could come up, and Nike execs could come down, meet in the middle and hash things out. Bill forgot to have a pistol stashed in the bathroom.

Good Stuff!

(obviously I shared my comments for reading the whole thread, thanks for your contribution!).

I had a pair of the road racing Lydiards, with the super creamy soft suede leather and cream gray color. They weren't bad.

I also took those in and had a waffle sole added to them for more cushioning. They felt really great on...until I made the mistake of running in them for an hour, and then I got a blister.