A few months ago, we saw here on STREETOPIA super special themes about the celebration of the Air Max Day, a milestone date for the arrival of the well-known and revolutionary cushioning technology. We also saw that the Nike Tailwind 79, was the first shoe to incorporate the air cushion, but little has been said about its sole, considering the fact it is the most important part of a shoe, because together with the cushioning system, it provides protection and comfort to the feet.
After the already consolidated Nike Cortez, a model developed to be the lightest running shoe of that time, Bill Bowerman, one of the brand's founders and athletic trainer at the time, felt the need to offer the market a shoe that would provide even more traction, but without the latches on the sole, and that also maintained the same comfort, lightness and flexibility.
The solution came over breakfast with his wife in the early 1970s, when he realized that the depressions in the form of iron used to make waffles, if inverted, could be an excellent mold for his new running shoe. The shape of the ingredients used to make waffles has been replaced by melted urethane, a compound used to produce floors and soles that offer high performance and that would give Bowerman an idea of what the project and its final product would look like.
After several tests, a flexible, elastic and light rubber material was finally born with a raised grid pattern that proved what Bowerman had expected, the Waffle sole through the Nike Waffle Trainner, a successful invention that even after more than 40 years continues to serve as a platform for known silhouettes:
NIKE CHALLENGER
NIKE DAYBREAK
NIKE WAFFLE SACAI
NIKE SACAI VAPOR WAFFLE
