10 Ways Bo Jackson Changed Sneakers

Image via Complex Original

With Crossfit being all the rage today amongst exercise enthusiasts, Bo Jackson was already performing at high athletic level in multiple sports in the late 80s. Bo's signature sneaker line was designed to handle multiple athletic feats with one shoe. By the end of the decade, Nike positioned itself as the industry leader in cross-training, through a little help from Bo, and never looked back.

Up until the "Bo Knows" campaign, Nike trailed Reebok as the leader of sportswear and sneakers. Once the first commercial famously aired during the 1989 MLB All Star game it was no longer a question about who was king. That year alone, Nike's cross-training sales increased sales by 1,000 percent. With the powerful combination of Nike's basketball being represented by "the greatest basketball alive" and Bo being hailed as "the greatest athlete alive", Nike soared to the top of the sneaker industry where they would remain for years to come.

While we can all love and appreciate the memories MJ gave us while wearing his signature Air Jordans, you have to give it to Bo, whose sneaker line is still huge today despite them not being in-game shoes for baseball or football. Not only is that remarkable, but in many ways a precursor to athletes having alternate versions of signature shoes that we see today.

The legendary Tinker Hatfield designed the first Bo Jackson signature shoe, The Nike Air Trainer 1, specifically around Bo's athleticism. The shoes had curvy grooves that resembled muscles and were designed to support a massive athlete that many had never seen the likes of before. This line was part of an early a design trend at Nike where player input and personality was incorporated in all signature lines.

An argument could be of course made that the Air Jordan was the first shoe to really bring sneakers into popular culture, but despite MJ's first shoes creating many fans and causing news stories galore about expensive basketball sneakers, they were seen as just that, basketball sneakers. It was Bo Jackson that made average non-sports fans want a pair of Nikes. It was the the "Medicine Ball" Version of the Nike Air Trainer 3 that Spike Lee's character Mookie wears in "Do The Right Thing" (Despite The Jordan 4's being the shoes mostly remembered from the film) and even on a 1991 episode of The Simpsons, where Ned Flanders expensive "Assassin" shoes Bo's trainers.

The Legend of Bo Jackson will forever be cemented in two words, "Bo Knows". Nike's campaign touting the two-sport athlete changed sneaker advertising, and marketing in general, forever. It sold the athlete's name first and Nike's product second. The ads are so engrained into pop culture, people of all ages respect and recognize the knowledge of Bo Jackson

Over the past few years we've seen a flood of retro releases from past athletes like Grant Hill, Penny Hardaway, Deion Sanders, Allen Iverson, Shaq, and so on. Each and every one of these superstars can give a little thanks to Bo, who's shoe line has never gone out of style and is still sought after whenever they're re-released.

Air trainers have been re-released and retro'd numerous times and there've been some classic colorways and collaborations over the years. From the original Auburn and Raiders versions, to Supreme exclusives, and even Megatron versions that dropped this week, Bo's shoes have constantly been created with respect for the classics and given colorways that represent what's hot right now. It's rare to find a pair that even the most scrutinizing sneakerhead wouldn't look at as pure heat.

Long before Madden was the be all and end all of football video game franchises, there was Tecmo Bowl. Anyone familiar with the game will know exactly why Bo Jackson was virtually unstoppable in that game. His influence far outreached Nintendo's in 1988 and could still be seen when Nike released a line of "Tecmo Bo" sneakers and apparel for the 20th anniversary of the "Bo Knows" campaign. We now get to see partnerships with EA Sports and Nike and fantastic features like the ability to create your own signature sneaker in games like NBA 2K14. It's a fair argument that none of this would have happened if it weren't for a certain #34 running up and down the field in Tecmo Bowl.

For athletes in following eras, Bo Jackson and his classic line of trainers have impacted their sneaker styles for over two decades. Darrelle Revis, Manny Pacquiao, Calvin Johnson, Albert Pujols and numerous others have all worked, in some capacity, on special versions Bo's trainers.