Nike Waffle Trainer

About

The Nike Waffle Trainer traces back to a breakfast table in Oregon, where co-founder Bill Bowerman studied his wife Barbara's waffle iron — a Bersted Manufacturing Model 251 the couple had received as a wedding gift in 1936 — and realized its grid pattern could solve a problem he'd been chasing: a shoe that could grip artificial turf without metal spikes. Bowerman poured liquid urethane directly into the appliance to test the idea, permanently ruining the 35-year-old heirloom in the process. He filed for a patent on the design in 1972, and it was granted on February 26, 1974, the same year Nike began producing waffle-soled trainers. The shoe was developed further with Nike's Geoff Hollister, along with orthopaedic surgeon Stan James and podiatrist Dennis Vixie, and built at the request of runner Jon Anderson, who wanted a sturdier training shoe. Bowerman and Phil Knight sold the earliest pairs directly to runners at West Coast track meets before the shoe expanded nationwide. In 2011, Bowerman's family unearthed the original waffle iron buried on their property in Fossil, Oregon; it now sits on display at Nike's headquarters.