Name…That…Shooooe!

After coming clean on my shoe addiction, I’m ripping off a page from everybody’s favorite Catfish Queen reject Nancy French and having my first contest at Ocular Fusion.

(Cue the audience to shout) Name…That…Shooooe! (cue wild, audience applause and generic game show music)

That’s right, the first person to correctly ID the following shoe will receive, courtesy of yours truly, a signed copy of Doug Mendenhall’s new book, How Jesus Ended Up in the Food Court: Seventy-Seven Devotional Thoughts You Never Thought About Before.

Here’s the picture. Remember, I’m looking for the exact name of this Nike classic:

nikeoregonwaffle-01 2.jpg

It’s really not that hard; there are sufficient clues scattered here and there that should lead you toward the correct answer.

Got “sole?” We shall see.

23 Comments

  1. Jeff Slater

    Is that the Nike Oregon Waffle Trainer?

  2. Karen

    Aw, Jeff beat me to it… Nike Oregon Waffle Sneaker for soccer.

  3. Mike the Eyeguy

    DING, DING, DING, we have a winner! (and it’s only 8:30am?)

    Jeff, yes that is the Oregon Waffle. Now to be technical (in the way that only a shoe nerd can), it’s not really a trainer, but a racing flat. If you look up the Sports Illustrated cover of Steve Prefontaine from 6/15/70 on the web, you can catch a glimpse of him wearing an early prototype. I actually have that cover, but it has one ink mark (dang!), otherwise it would fetch over $100.

    We used them in cross country in HS, and I suppose back when I weighed only 135 lbs, I could have used them for training on XC trails, but even then it would have been hard on the shins to wear them on asphalt.

    But I digress. Nice job. Are you a shoe nerd too? The clues were of course, the waffle sole, along with the colors green and gold (University of Oregon).

    Send your address to miketheeyeguy@comcast.net and I’ll ship that book out to you.

    Jeff Slater, “Sole Man.”

  4. Mike the Eyeguy

    Karen,

    You were only a step behind Jeff. Did you recognize the shoe outright or piece it together from clues? Did your West Coast location help you out?

  5. Jeff Slater

    Yes! I don’t usually win things like this. I will e-mail my address to you right away.

    I am a shoe guy. I currently run in a pair of Nike Shox (which I’m not crazy about). As I said yesterday, I am forever in search of the perfect running shoe.

  6. Mike the Eyeguy

    Jeff,

    I’ll be looking for it and get that out to you in the next couple of days.

    Lately, I’ve had some luck with the Nike Structure Triax, a good all around shoe and reasonably priced. I’ve never tried the Shox. I had a pair of Air Max ’96s that I ran my first and only marathon in back in ’97. I kept them for years for sentimental value, but in a recent cleaning frenzy, I threw them out.

    Now I’m having second thoughts. I wonder if it’s too late to go the landfill and try to dig them out?

  7. Donna

    I was going to say is it the Ugliest Shoe Nike ever made???

  8. Mike the Eyeguy

    Donna,

    Heh, that’s funny. Of course, you have to remember this was the 70s after all. I’m betting that at some point you lived in a house that had green and gold shag carpeting. Come on, fess up!

  9. brady

    Donna gave my answer. And my wife says she thinks she had a pair of those too.
    I’m pretty pleased with my asics and may go that route again.

  10. DAVID u

    I was going to guess something that had the name “Prefontaine” or at least “Pre” in it………but I was late.
    Plus I would have been wrong!

    Hey, I already won a couple of contests……….if I had won this one, people might accuse me of cheating or something! 🙂

    PUMA RULES!

    DU

  11. Mike the Eyeguy

    Brady–

    If you would have seen your wife-to-be wearing those Oregon Waffles back in the 70s, would you have still married her? If not, I would have!

    DU–

    If you would have won, everyone would have known the fix was on. BTW, Puma is Adidas’ red-haired stepbrother.

    DU, you’re my witness on this. I was on the Harding campus recently wearing my new Cortezes and my green and gold “Pre Lives” t-shirt. I had several students give me the thumbs up, a couple of “Cool Shirt!”s and even one “Go Pre!”

    Yes, Pre does live–just not in this body.

  12. DAVID u

    yeah, I remember Sports Illustrated running a feature article back in the late 60’s or early 70’s about the two brothers or relatives that started Puma and Adidas. The shoes were on the cover, and that was one of favorite SI issues EVER! 🙂

    Bama wore Puma for astro turf a BUNCH during the seventies.

    I’m sure that influences my prejudice. 🙂

    Later,
    DU

    P.S. Yes, I confirm you “Pre” t-shirt……and Nike shoes. The rainbow afro wig was a little much though.

  13. Mike the Eyeguy

    Ooh, ooh, I wish I had that SI Cover (sans ink mark)!

    Nike’s got Shula firmly in their fold for now, but you never know when that might change.

    My most vivid 1970s memory of the Crimson Tide was when Bear and boys beat Virginia Tech 77-0 in Blacksburg. I think the Hokies eventually avenged that loss in the Music City Bowl in Nashville a few years back, but I don’t think they got 77 points worth of revenge.

    Hey, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Roll Tide.

  14. Mike the Eyeguy

    DU–

    I just read that part about the Afro wig. That’s very funny. We were quite a pair, me with the wig and you with the psychedelic bell bottoms and love beads.

  15. DAVID u

    It actually was in Tuscaloosa, and you did better than you thought….it was 77-6. Bear put in the band to let you all score!

    ROLL TIDE ROLL!

    DU

  16. Mike the Eyeguy

    Oh, I almost forgot this Nike Oregon Waffle story.

    I was captain of the cross country team in HS. One day our coach decided that the team needed to ditch their Chuck Taylor high tops for some real running shoes. He handed me a blank check from the athletic department and told me to go to the Athletic Attic in Roanoke, Virginia and buy shoes for the team.

    A short time later, I walked out of the store with twenty pairs of Oregon Waffles!

    Excuse me, but is this heaven?

  17. Mike the Eyeguy

    Oh, good so we did score. I recall that the Bear put in the 3rd string early in the 2nd half and apologized to Charlie Coffey profusely after the game.

  18. Nancy

    This was the most anti-climatic contest I’ve ever seen. But, with my lame contests, the winner (that’s you, DU) doesn’t even care enough to check back in…

    🙂

    Just kidding. I wouldnt have known anyway.

    Y’all are way cooler than I.

  19. Mike the Eyeguy

    Nancy–

    You’re a little late to the party–Jeff was up at the crack of dawn ready to pounce on that one like a cat on a junebug. Just your luck that another former XC shoe nerd was lurking about.

    DU and I talk a good game, but neither of us is the one with a book on Amazon and a blurb from Mary Matalin!

    Cool is as cool does.

  20. Donna

    You got me…first home after getting married…green carpet, green appliances and even a green velvet headboard (of course it was a mobile home…I live in Alabama)

  21. Nancy

    green velvet headboard?

    THAT’s cool.

  22. Mike the Eyeguy

    Green velvet–Austin Powers would approve.

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