Naming Shoes

• During the 1950s, Phil Knight attended the University of Oregon where he was a runner on Coach Bill Bowerman’s track team. Bowerman often expressed his dismay in the modern running shoe, wishing he had a sturdier and more comfortable model that would help his runners improve their performance.

• When Phil later attended Stanford University studying marketing, he was asked to draw up a business plan as a class assignment. He dreamed up a plan for producing shoes in Japan and selling them in the U.S. The idea fascinated him and he remembered it after graduating.

• Later when visiting Japan on vacation, Phil stopped in at the Tiger shoe company which manufactured quality running shoes. He pre-sented himself as a buyer for an American sports company which he dubbed Blue Ribbon Sports, and managed to secure the rights to distribute Tiger’s shoes in the U.S. He sent some samples to Coach Bowerman, hoping for an order. Bowerman not only placed an order, but also agreed to buy in as his partner. Phil sold $8,000 worth Tiger shoes out of the back of his car at track meets in 1964.

• Bowerman helped Phil re-design the shoe, adding traction to the soles. A salesman for their firm suggested re-naming the company after the Greek goddess of victory: Nike. The company’s name was changed in 1971 and a graphic designer was paid $35 to create a simple yet catchy new logo design. Today Nike sells about $18 billion worth of athletic gear annually.

GONE TO THE DOGS

• A company named Wolverine World Wide started making shoes in 1903. During World War II, the Army asked them if they could design a practical method of tanning pigskin, which is one of the most durable of leathers, because soldiers needed high-quality gloves and gear. As a result, company researchers discovered how to make suede out of pig skin.

• In 1957 the company designed a new type of shoe: suede lace-up shoes with crepe soles. It was a casual shoe, and the company was the first to focus on comfort rather than style. The new line was to be introduced at the National Shoe Fair in Chicago -- but they needed a name.

• Then national sales manager Jim Muir had dinner with a regional sales manager. They were having fried fish, and the meal included deep-fried balls of corn meal. The regional sales manager mentioned that people often tossed these fried mush balls to their dogs to quiet them, and this is how they came by their colloquial name of hush puppies. That got Jim Muir thinking.

• People often referred to their feet as “dogs” and, when their feet were tired, they’d say, “My dogs are barking.” Muir decided to name the new shoe after the term for deep-fried cornmeal balls, so people would know that these comfortable shoes would “quiet their barking dogs.”

• The shoes were a hit. More than a million pairs sold in the next three years. By 1963 one in ten Americans owned a pair. Sales slumped in later years but they gained renewed popularity after Tom Hanks’ character wore Hush Puppies in the “Forrest Gump” film.

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• Skechers were named for a slang term denoting someone with so much energy that they can’t sit still (usually because they’re on drugs).

• Klaus Märtens was a doctor in the German army during World War II. He injured an ankle skiing and found that army boots exacerbated the injury. When the war ended, he designed better, more comfortable boots: Doc Martens.

• Crocs were given their name because they are amphibious in nature.

• The Australian “Ugg” boots were so-named because many considered them to be ugly. □