The 1960's
In 1964 Phil Knight opened Blue Ribbon Sports. He had run at the University of Oregon graduated and gone on to graduate school. He saw a need for his beloved sport that was growing exponentially. Runners needed running shoes. He partnered with Onitsuka Tiger (Asics) to be their west coast distributor. You can read the entire story in his book Shoe Dog. Eventually Blue Ribbon Sports would open the entire country for Tiger. As you can see in the flyer above they had offices in Portland, Santa Monica and in Wellesley, MA. He and the team would set up at track meets selling running shoes out of the back of their car.
In the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City adidas was solidifying their love and grip on the Olympics. adidas shoes were far and away the #1 shoes worn during those olympics. The other big advancement for sport was t.v. During the Olympics, households around the world were tuned in. They witnessed one of the greatest world records ever when Bob Beamon of the USA broke the world record in the long jump jumping 8.9 meters. That record stood for 23 years. Today runners and jumpers seemingly break world records daily. With one jump and the help of t.v., Bob Beamon became a household name.
Also in 1968 A.R. Hyde and Sons purchased Saucony. This would become important in the world of running shoes down the road.
IAAF World Championships 2025
There have been some great races at the Track and Field World Championships this year. Too many to talk about but this photo tells a shoe story. A.F. Simbu out sprinted A. Petros for victory in the Men's Marathon. They came into the stadium together and it took a photo finish to determine. Simbu is wearing the adidas adios Pro Evo 2. Petros is wearing the Puma Fast R Nitro Elite 3. Believe me when I tell you this was not lost in Herzogenaurach Germany where adidas and Puma sit accross the street from each other. These two companies compete on the track, on the pictch and in the arenas. They also compete against each other in the center of town in Herzo. For this one race over 2 hours and 9 minutes both companies were on the edge of their seats. One of them was going to win and one of them was going to finish 2nd. It would not surprise me if adidas has a billboard already up on the drive into their small home town.
Ironman World Championships - Nice France
The race this past Sunday in France has been described as iconic, the best ever. The best description I heard was on a podcast when one of the commentators said "When they got to the run it was like a cross country race" It is said, the Ironman is a swim and bike for show with a marathon for all the dough. Sunday sure looked that way. Of course all of the pro men had a shot to win at the start of the day. Once the leaders hit the run course there were 5 athletes with a shot at victory. Sam Laidlow who had won this same race two years ago, Martin VanRiel who is a pure talent in the sport but came into the race with a nagging foot problem. And then there were the three training partners from Norway; Casper Stornes (racing in his first World Championship), Gustav Iden (Former Ironman World Champion) and Kristian Blummenfeld (Olympic Champion and Former Ironman World Champion). Over the first 10K the 5 runners were basically running together. Then the fireworks started. Over the next 32 K, Martin would crack first, then it was Sam. Casper would put in a surge and start to build a heathy gap. Gustav would surge then he would puke letting Kristian pass him, then he would surge past him again. Behind them Martin would find his legs and overtake Sam. Over the final 10K it looked like Gustav was building up to make a hard push for Casper. We are talking about 3 guys who know each others strength and weakness. Casper knew it was coming so he tightened the screws just a bit. Casper won running 2:29:25. Gustav finished 2nd running 2:32:16. Kristian would cramp. At one point he stopped cold with his leg fully extended in cramp. He would limp his way to the finish line in 3rd place running 2:34:38. The Norwegian sweep of the podium was complete. It's also the first time the entire podium was made up of current and past world champions.
