Thread had to be created sorry! I'm officially obsessed with vintage Nike running shoes. I hate modern futuristic looking sneakers with those giant orthopedic soles. Look like moon boots. Nike ruined it this year by releasing all the old lines like Waffle Racer, Elite, Daybreak with that awful Roshe sole, so dumb! Was looking to find something similar to those 'Oregon Waffle' sneaks I got a few years back and won two pairs of Nike Pre Montreal's on ebay.- pretty cheap also, the green/yellow were only $50 brand new for a hard to find 2012 reissue. This opened the can of worms for me and now I'm looking for oldskool (or reissued from a few years ago) Elites, Waffle Racers, etc etc. My sister got me going on kicks again because she is obsessed with oldskool Adidas sneaks now. Anyhow anyone else obsessed? Now I find myself looking for these on YJA instead of kaiju! Please post pics of Oregon Waffles, Waffle Racers, Daybreaks ,Elites, LDVs, LD1000, Internationals anything along these old Nike Running Shoe style. Love the colors and designs.
Hahahaha @Joe Bunny ! @Lalo they are Oregon Waffles. Not to be confused with the vintage Waffle Racer (which you could buy via J Crew a few years back in blue, red or green) or Waffle Trainers. Here's a pic from 4 years back when I got them: The main difference is the soles cut inward on the arch I assume for track racing: http://www.theworldsbestever.com/2012/01/04/1973-nike-oregon-waffle-trainers-the-first-waffle-sole/ But out of all the old Nike running shoes the Oregon Waffle look the best IMO. I have never seen a pair of these particular colors since, and I'm starting to think (since I won them on ebay from a person in Oregon near Nike's homebase) that they were a SMU (Special Make Up) by Nike. I'll never part with them and I'm happy now I have a few more pairs so I don't continually wear them down as my go to kicks.
The only Nike's I've really been consistent with(rather than obsessed) is Nike Cortez. I've been wearin' 'em since grade school, and still do now. I found a pair of blue/yellow swoosh 80's Cortez in Tokyo, but they wanted $325 for 'em.
Nice @xSuicide Squadx. I like Cortez also. I see them regularly pop up on ebay (although only reissues are cheaper). Here's a bunch of pics I found online. Apparently much like Kaiju Mooks there are Vintage Nike Mooks (Lightning Chronicle). Japanese, I love em' they love to catalog things uniformly just like me:
Second row left is exactly what I saw in Harajuku! That's rad! I'm gonna look into Lightning Chronicle, too. Thank you! If you haven't already, there's a pretty cool doc on Netflix called Sneakerheadz. I'm not into collecting shoes, but a lot of aspects in that hobby are shared in this one.
Cool those are the same Cortez you saw! Yeah I think much like japanese toys, the 70's sneakers harken back to my childhood/youth and I'm so happy others out there are still into them or else Nike would never reissue any and I'd never find them lol. I'm wary of pre-owned sneaks (germ phobe in me) but one of the pairs I got just were worn once so I'm pushing back that fear. There are two of those Lightning chronicle books. One is the magazine issue but the other one is called Nike Chronicle Deluxe- you can see the cover in the 3rd pic and it has the green Pre Montreal I just got on it.
Okay, those are killer images. Thank you for that! Much appreciated! From what I was told, Nike did a 'classic' release of the Cortez called the Shark Low(I think). I haven't seen any in stores yet, but the name and description are enticing me to break away from the Cortez I've been wearing for goddamn ever. Oddly enough, my first pair of Cortez were handed down to me from a friend in sixth grade! I'm not a germaphobe, and they were way cooler ham what I was wearing at the time, so I took 'em and ran.
@xSuicide Squadx lol at the germaphobe comment. My mother often tells me and my sister : "I don't know where I got you two with all your hang ups!" I don't own that Chronicle book yet but those were some images i found online. I'm a bit nuts collecting images of all the sneakers in different colors that I have a folder on my desktop just like I do with kaiju lol!
@Lixx Ha ha. No hang ups! Just lots of variables to keep life in the household interesting. That's actually pretty rad that you keep a visual record of favorites like that. Images such as the ones you provided would make great coffee table books and/or moderately sized wall prints!
Fun thread! I collected shoes before toys so I can definitely appreciate this. I've always wanted to wear the cortez, but always felt like they look best with long white socks and some dickies shorts, which is a look I cannot pull off whatsoever.
I collected shoes for a long time. On a trip to NYC I decided to look for some sneaker boutiques that catered to sneaker collectors in the early/mid 2000 and stumbled upon KidRobot. thats when it snowballed for me (toys). A couple of years before that, while in KicksHI in Honolulu I bought my first Star Wars Kubricks and after I posted a pic of my pick-ups in a shoe forum I was surprised to find out that a lot sneaker heads collected toys. Its always fun to reminisce- enjoying this thread.
I hope you don't mind a side-discussion about Nike... I recently saw a trailer for a design series Netflix is releasing soon. I'm looking forward to checking it out, but noticed that Nike/Tinker Hatfield is one of the featured designers. Personally, I mostly think "modern" Nike design aesthetics SUCK. Their vintage shoes are cool looking, but I feel that once Michael Jordan made Nike a global juggernaut their design mostly jumped the shark. I know that that's blasphemy to any sneakerhead, as Jordans seem to be the most collected shoe. But does being hugely influential and popular mean that it was good design? Personally I don't think so. Check out some of Tinker's monstrosities: http://www.kicksonfire.com/10-of-the-best-tinker-hatfield-non-jordan-designs/ http://www.complex.com/sneakers/201...king-tinker-hatfields-best-sneaker-designs/18 Anything in the Huarache line is an abomination. The Oscillate looks like an orthopedic shoe for 80 year olds. The AirRaid is U.G.L.Y. The Air Trainer 1's velcro strap looks like a tacked-on afterthought to make the shoe more "tech". I can't even come up with words to describe how I feel about the Jordan XIIs and XIIIs. And the Jordan XV is a very poor rip-off of Kobe's first (?) adidas shoe. Anyway, living in Sneakerland USA I've been surrounded by people who either think Nike is god or hate them for their business practices. I don't fully belong to either camp - I have a couple pair of Nikes that I love, I don't like them as a business (either locally or globally), and hate that their lazy and ugly design is worshiped. Oh, and here's a link to the Abstract trailer:
@---NT--- No man I 100% completely agree with you on every point you made. The Nike aesthetic (IMO also) was way better pre Air Jordan before the mid -80's. When they were primarily a running shoe company. I mean I think the only Nikes I've ever gotten into beyond the 70's/early 80's was when the Air Max 95's came out because the gradient look of the gray on the sneaker was interesting. Other than that I'll totally take all those colorful, simple -yet innovative in comfort an support running sneakers they did early on. Nike really really dropped the ball recently because everyone wants those old styles like Waffle Racer, LDV, Elite, Daybreak etc etc. but they re-issued all of them with the Roshe sole which looks like old man orthopedic shoes. Sometimes less is more and Nike forgot that a long time ago.
Kobes first shoe -Crazy 8s Kobes second shoe -Crazy II Jordan XV -first shoe released when he retired- inspired by 50/60's space program and maybe a Prada shoe if you believe the rumors If you hate those shoes thats fine- but there is no way that the XVs are copies of any early Kobe shoe
I still have my KB8's. I think they're pretty comfy but the treads are pretty low and feel like I'm going to slip on a slick surface now. One of my favorite Nike models is the Court Force. For some reason, that model fits me best other than something like the Flyknit or Janoski Max or similar style but not Nike. I love those Flyknit type of sneakers cause it's like wearing your socks but with a rubber sole, although not great for wet weather. What am I talking about. I hate sneakers! This thread is terrible!
Yeah i started this thread to see if anyone else liked 'vintage Nike running shoes' from the 70's and early 80's NOT these futuristic orthopedic looking monstrosities or a generalized Nike thread. As usual I guess I'm alone and everything I hate about Nike is going to get posted now....
I didn't realize Kobe had earlier signature shoes. I thought these were his first: Regardless of whether they're a ripoff, those Jordan XVs might be the ugliest shoe I've ever seen.
