track team at the 1972 Munich Olympics, nodded as he listened. Bowerman, who had just been picked to be the head coach of the U.S. Knight said that while there were breakthroughs in the cushioning and nylon of a shoe's upper construction, there hadn't been single innovation in outer soles since before the Great Depression. One day, Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman were discussing sneaker improvements. He always had a new plan, or a new scheme to make sneakers better. Bowerman was determined to find new ways to bolster the instep of a shoe, cushion the insole and make more room for the forefoot. Knight wasn't the best runner, so any improvement would be instantly noticeable. Phil Knight was his favourite guinea pig. He would tear them apart, make a minor modification, stitch them back up, give them to his runners and observe the results. Bowerman was always tinkering with sneakers. He was the first person to make Knight think – really think – about what people put on their feet.īill Bowerman was a genius coach, a master motivator, a natural leader of young men, and there was one piece of gear he deemed crucial to their development: shoes.

Bowerman was Knight's track coach at college in Oregon.

He took on a partner named Bill Bowerman. Knight was a shoe dog who started a sneaker company. 'Shoe dog' is the name given to people who dedicate their obsessive careers to the shoe business. The founder of Nike, Phil Knight, wrote a book titled Shoe Dog in 2016.

Waffle nike shoes