“Smoke ‘Em”
This is a very simple but effective ad, showcasing Nike’s racing shoes.
The shoes featured are: Air Edge, Spiridon Gold, Axis, Pursuit, and the Sock Racer. The Sock Racer was a popular shoe at the time.
So if you had a pair of any of these, share your experiences in the comments section below.
“Pick up the Tempo.”
Designed with speed in mind, the Tempo was a lightweight shoe intended for speed work and faster moving runners.
So “Pick up the Brooks Tempo for men and women wherever better athletic footwear is sold.”
Brooks now has several lightweight trainers, including the Ravenna 2 and the Launch. The Ravenna is surprisingly comfortable for a lightweight!
Leave a comment!
“No artificial ingredients.”
A somewhat colorful ad from 1988. They even used Kevlar in the construction of this shoe!
I hadn’t heard of the Azura ST prior to finding this ad, but it looks like it was a nice performance trainer, in a similar category to the Asics DS trainer. Leave a comment after the jump.
“Profile of a winner.”
This is from the era when Asics merged with Onitsuka Tiger.
Asics still markets some vintage-style shoes under the Onitsuka Tiger name. People in the store still sometimes call our Asics shoes “Tiger’s”, showing the lasting image it has left in some minds. Did you ever have a pair of Tiger’s? Let us know in the comments!
“The NASA technology that walked on the moon now runs on Earth.”
This ad highlights the Dynacoil system of KangaROOS, made from a “3D synthetic monofilament”
This shoe had some great cushioning and control, according to the ad print. It states, “Dynacoil surpassed all the other training shoes. In peak force, impact value and medio-lateral control.”
Let us know if you had a pair, or just leave a comment if you enjoyed it!
“Can 2,000,000 feet be wrong?”
The Brooks Chariot was an extremely popular running shoe in the 80’s and is survived by the Brooks Addiction, which is still going strong today.
At the time that this ad was published, Brooks had sold over a million pairs of the Chariot, and a Runner’s World survey showed that more people ran in the Chariot than any other shoe! I know there must be some of you out there that have worn these, let us hear your story.
“No Other Running Shoe in the World Has Made an Impression Like This One.”
This ad is touting Nike’s patent on the Waffle sole, designed by Bill Bowerman.
According to the ad print, this sole came standard on the Waffle Trainer, Oregon Waffle, LD-1000, and The New Elite. Did you have a pair? Leave a comment!
This ad features the Saucony Freedom GT.
“The Freedom GT: Shoes for the Great American Athlete”
One of the more interesting things about looking at these old ads is the evolution that the companies logos have all gone through. Well, except for Nike and Asics, they have retained almost identical logos to their older models.
Anyway, enough of that, leave a comment!
“Why Beardsley, Benoit, Decker, Durden, Rodgers, Salazar, Scott, Shorter, or Virgin hasn’t yet endorsed SAKO running shoes”
Whilst perusing through a Running Times from October of 1984, I came upon this little gem.
It’s always interesting to see the brands that had failed as well as the familiar brands. This brand seems to be non-existent today, but if you know anything about them, share your info!
Say “SOCKO” in the comments if you enjoyed this obscure piece of running history.
“Why runners make lousy communists.”
Here’s a cold war era advertisement from New Balance highlighting the diversity of New Balance shoe models. The models highlighted in the ad include (From left to right) : 410, 460, 770, 990 (They still make this model!), The 700, A racing flat(unknown model), 565, 670, 850, and the 1300.
Leave a comment after the break.
