As Olympic season opens in London, Nike celebrates the 40th anniversary of its first running or track shoe that helped build the brand by being the first to carry Nike’s iconic swoosh symbol like an Olympic torch: the Cortez.
Nike marked this feat by recently collaborating with 40 artists across Southeast Asia to give the Cortez a modern edge. The collaboration is a first for the Cortez, said Nike Philippines country marketing manager Mae Dichupa. “Cortez is a classic design. That makes it the right canvas for creativity. It’s perfectly customizable,” she told this writer.
“Nike has always embraced its history and prides itself as a trailblazer in product innovation as evidenced by the Nike Cortez, the shoe that put us on the radar of the best athletes in the world,” she explained in a statement. “This year marks the celebration of the first shoe worthy of a swoosh and we’re happy to share and celebrate this as we pay tribute to the Bowerman-inspired piece.”
Eight artists from the Philippines were chosen to rethink the shoe that Nike says “started it all.” Artists Eunice Alera, Laureen Uy, JP Cuison, AJ Dimarucot, Nelz Yumul, Anton Lopez, Ron Poe in collaboration with Myke Sambajon, and Miggy Chavez were given the free hand to express their own renditions on the classic icon. They represent different artistic backgrounds such as music, fashion and graphic design to echo the diversity and versatility of the Cortez, explains Dichupa.
Glamor meets street in interior and furniture designer Eunice Alera’s design, which features her favorite colors black and gold. “Gold adds glamor into anything,” she said, adding that she adorned her design with removable accessories that can be used as a necklace or bracelet.
Chavez, front man of rock band Chicosci, drew from comic books and horror movies for inspiration. “My design looks like a zombie. I balanced out the gore with pink,” he shared.
Graphic artists Cuison, Dimarucot and Yumul were respectively inspired by personal gig posters, Forrest Gump and random shapes, while Lopez, a photographer, traveled from north to south of the Philippines and took pictures of the shoe as if traveling in those places.
Uy, a blogger and fashion designer, wanted her design to be “very girly” so she played with neons and studs and came up with something music- and color-inspired. Poe and Sambajon, among the pioneers of modern tattooing in the country, envisioned a “skull candy” design that has been seemingly rendered by a disk jockey and a tattoo artist. “It took us two days for the concept, three days for design, and we used real tattoo needles and tattooed the design like a real skin,” the pair divulged.
According to Dichupa, these artists’ designs are not for sale, but will be exhibited in Nike’s outlet store in Quezon City for the whole month. The brand is also planning to do more collaboration “because there are so many talents in the Philippines.”
The brand’s statement says that since its inception, the Cortez has paved the way towards several milestones in Nike’s rich heritage. In 1972, Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman managed to strike a balance between design and functionality in coming up with the Cortez, allegedly named after Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortez.
Bowerman was persistent in his desire to deliver the best possible shoe for running for his athletes and thus, the first Cortez model came to life. The first model was made with leather, but he figured out how to reduce the weight by using the lightweight and quick-drying material of nylon on the shoes’ upper part, and suede to hold the form of the toe without restricting the foot. The shoe was first introduced at the peak of the 1972 Olympics and was allegedly described by one of the world’s leading marathoners as “the most comfortable shoe ever.”