Great ideas often come to us at the most unusual times, and for Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, it was during breakfast with his wife in 1971.
As the University of Oregon track coach and owner of Blue Ribbon Sports sneaker company, Bowerman had watched the school's track get slowly destroyed by his runner's metal cleats. He soon decided that the answer to his woes was a spike-less running shoe that still provided the necessary traction to run on slick, wet surfaces, but that was easier said than done.
Shortly thereafter, Bowerman and his wife were eating waffles for breakfast when he took notice of their unique pattern. Just like that, he began toying with ways to implement the waffle design into his sneaker's outsole, and after some trial and error came up with a way to mimic the pattern with molded urethane.
The waffle sole was a hit with runners in Oregon, and in 1973, it was officially released in the form of the Oregon Runner. Just five years later, Phil Knight came on board and the duo ditched the Blue Ribbon Sports name for something more simple — Nike.
Head over to CNN to watch an animated clip of this piece of sneaker history.
