What is an icon?
Something that I have seen first hand over my many years of sneakers as a consumer, working in the business (March 30, 2001 was my first day selling shoes at the mall), and even more when I started writing about them is that Nike loves and celebrates icons.
Bill Bowerman’s quote “If You Have A Body You Are An Athlete”Often times we blog about these icons being product based such as a specific model of shoes, but what I have learned over the years that it is everything about the product that makes it iconic is far more than you can capture in a photo. It is the history behind the inspiration the designer had when making the initial sketch, the technological breakthrough and innovation in the manufacturing of even components of the shoe, and of course the athletes who wear it. And by athletes, I am referring to Nike’s definition of an athlete by the famous words of Bill Bowerman, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” Everyone who wears that product has a hand in making it iconic.
To illustrate this, let us look at Nike’s first breakthrough basketball shoe – the Nike Air Force 1.
Nike poster featuring Moses Malone wearing Nike Air Force 1Great sports moments have happened in the shoe. Moses Malone lead the 76ers to an NBA Championship in the Nike Air Force 1 is documented in sports history, but leading his people of Philadelphia to the promise land of an NBA Championship alone didn’t make the Air Force 1 an icon. Bruce Kilgore’s design of the shoes, the technical innovation to create a breakthrough in basketball shoe cushioning, and Nike’s first full spread basketball shoe ads featuring the Original Six had a hand in it too, but even that doesn’t give it the iconic status.
Nike Air Force 1 Ad featuring the “Original Six” (1982)It was the people who bought the shoe, who played ball in them on the playground courts, who rocked them off the courts to live life in those shoes, and loved those shoes so much they requested the return of the shoes to their local retailer. Had it not been for the repeated requests by customers at these stores, do you think the “three amigos” would have gotten together to make the gigantic purchase order to get the AF1 reproduced? No.
Even after the shoe was brought back by the demands of the people, had it not been for the streets that bought the shoe color after color, month after month, and made the shoe part of their journey through life, it wouldn’t be where it is today.
It was the athlete’s, by Nike’s definition EVERYBODY’S, on and off court moments and memories associated with the shoe, the Nike Air Force 1 would not have become and icon. No brand nor marketing agency can make something an icon – the people have to decide that it is.
Original Nike Air Force 1 magazine ad + catalog sheet from 1982 (pic cred classickicks)
