Late 60s, Early 70s Training Flats of Elite Runners?

JonDCH wrote:

Not sure if this has been covered, but whenever I read about the greats of that era (i.e. Clark, Hill, Shorter, Keino, Ryun, etc.) I wonder what kind of shoes they wore for training. We all know what they raced in as we can see the photos and sometimes racing flats are mentioned in books and articles (e.g. Shorter, Rodgers in Tiger Obori's). As I understand it, up to the early and mid 60s a lot of athletes trained in plimsolls, which were basically a flat, canvas, Keds-like shoe. But, what about the period from the mid 60s to the advent of the Nike (and the like) training shoes (e.g. The Cortez)?

Most of the elites during that era were wearing Adidas trainers. Adidas pretty much reigned supreme until the advent of Nike and Tiger.

Adidas Rom leather

There wasn't really any difference between what elites wore then and what everyone else did. To some extent it depended on where you lived, not all shoes were available everywhere, and what years you're asking about.

When I started running in central western Pennsylvania in 1967 there were no road shoes available. Most of what we did was on the track and in spikes. If we ran off of the track we just ran in "tennis" shoes, Keds, PF Flyers, Chuck Taylors, etc.

If I'd been in a more running savvy locale in those years I could have run is a a few shoes from addidas, the leather Rom chgray mentioned was common. That was my second running shoe. Before that the first real running shoe I had was a black canvas shoe from Converse with a thin and very firm sole called the Roadrunner (I think.) Puma had a shoe that was similar to the Rom but I can't recall the name. It too had a leather upper. Addidas also made the Olympia. I think it was more expensive than the Rom. The Cortez was there before Nike was. Tiger made it and had to change its name to Corsair when Nike got the rights to the "Cortez" name. They also had a canvas shoe called the Cub, the Marathon which was a racing shoe but I knew some people who trained in them, and the Marathon which was sort of a hybrid racer/trainer.

Below are pictures of old Adidas Rom shoes. It's interesting to note they are still relatively built up in the heel relative to the toe. That is, they are not really flat. There is a general impression that Bill Bowerman/Nike created the template for today's elevated heel running shoes. Running in Keds, Chucks and the like was a different thing - almost even heel to toe heights.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28267471@N06/2875919055/

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OtehtJL9IOM/S5Vt2RhNdaI/AAAAAAAAA2c/cixv0l2MUDQ/s1600-h/DSC02060.JPG

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OtehtJL9IOM/S5VskDhIFNI/AAAAAAAAA1c/qLWhJ9VsO9k/s1600-h/DSC02058.JPG

Google:

http://runningtimes.com/Print.aspx?articleID=16929

I ran hundreds of miles in a pair of vintage Nike Waffle Racers back a few years ago. Running close to 100 a week at the time, changed shoes about every month or two. Never had any problems.

The human foot is an amazing piece of machinery that doesn't need to be babied. The running shoe industry exists for one reason and one reason only, the same reason all for profit businesses exist: to make money. The industry has created and solved it's own problems with countless "modern" advances in show technology.

Alan

The second photo to me looks like the heel is less built up than in the first photo. The second photo is what I recall the Rom looking like more so than the first one.

They were heavy and hard. The Cortez/Corsair was much bouncier and a bit lighter.