Checking Out Bill Dellinger's Spikes
One of the absolute coolest parts of being a professional Nike athlete is that I get to play a small part in determining how next year’s running shoes are made. Their shoe designers come to athletes like me for advice on making world class sneaks…can you imagine?! (Its even cooler than you are imagining. Really.)
Three Nike shoe designers invited me to join them at the legendary Bill Dellinger’s home in Eugene for an afternoon of feedback on various sample products. A humongous roller bag full of shoes was unzipped, and a waterfall of shoes cascaded onto the floor. And like a bunch of kids huddled over a new lego set, we inspected each piece, turning them over in our hands.
Pretty sure Dellinger won bronze in these bad boys in '64
“What are your favorite running shoes for training?” asks a totally hip runner girl/designer. “What do you like about them? What would you change?”
“uh…I….um…me likee how they feel on my footsie. err…yeah,” I bumble to the group of expectant employees.
I felt totally intimidated at first. I mean, here I was a moment earlier holding the spikes that Bill Dellinger wore during the 1956 games in Melbourne, feeling the Kangaroo leather under my fingertips while he determinedly explained bits and pieces of his race experience to me (which is no easy task after a stroke affects the language center of the brain). This man was not only a great athlete and coach, but a designer of shoes himself back in the day, and now here I am sitting in his living room in front of a pile of shoes surrounded by their modern creators.
What the hell, they asked me to come, I reminded myself. Might as well tell them what you think.
Some parts of the discussion were easy for me, like talking about why I have a nearly-romantic relationship with my Lunarglide trainers. But when they started handing me individual unreleased designs and saying, “What do you think of this one?” things got a little tougher.
If I think it looks like a baby threw up on a basketball, do I tell them? Would this make me cruel like Simon on American Idol? I mean, someone in this room made that. I couldn’t help thinking about what the Idol judges would say in my position. “Dude, check it out, dude, the color is a little splotchy here, but you’re HOT man, HOT!!!” (Randy). Kara might say “I just don’t think you know what kind of artist you are yet.” I started imagining myself telling an Ellen joke by placing the right shoe on my left foot and with a puzzled expression say, “well…if the shoe were on the other foot…”
In the end I decided to employ respectful honesty. I tried them on with and without socks. I walked around, hopped, and ran in them. I took them in my hands and flexed them every which way they could bend. Every contour was felt by my fingertips, inside and out. I even smelled them. And then I told them what I thought. Some of them you guys are going to absolutely go ape-shiz over. A few of them will be good for a laugh.
Standing next to a legend, (and a really cool guy.)
The thing that stuck with me most is the necessity of innovation. Before today, it drove me crazy that right when I found a shoe I loved, they changed it. Footwear is intimate. You just spent 400 miles making your shoe a perfect mold of your foot, so replacing that is a grumpy experience to begin with, and changes in design make you involuntarily release anger pheromones. But after holding all those shoes in my hand, I could finally see how a simple tweak in the construction of a heal cup, a new combo of foam densities or a change in fabrics can revolutionize the way a shoe performs.
The result of changes like this are what allows me to run 80 miles a week on concrete, rocks, and trails without getting hurt, all in a pair of cute shoes that I can wipe clean in less than 30 seconds so I can wear them out with jeans. And until this tomboy learns to walk in heals without looking like a cross-dresser, those will remain the qualities I push for in the evolution of Nike running shoes.
I’ve done a fair amount of wear-testing for Nike, and I bet your experience was every bit as cool as you describe–I’m sooo jealous!!
ooooh running shoes. As a person who recently considered giving her running shoes their own facebook page, consider me officially very very jealous!! I love Lunarglides too.
I remember back in hs, they had a pair called Nike Dualist, it was light, extremely light for racing road or track..I wish they would bring those back into production!!!! It must have been very exciting for u!! Happy to get a great opinion on shoes!! 🙂
David
Wow, I’m sure the Nike designers were happy to hear honest, thoughtful feedback from the prettiest and smartest. Maybe shoe engineering would be a good post-running career for you (ya know,decades off). By the way, I have some Lunarglides I’d loved to have signed by you. I’m gonna keep an eye out for the baby barf shoes.
I’m glad I bought that pair of Lunarglides after asking you for advice. I’m about to retire them though, so I will be sad to say goodbye to this pair. They’ve been so good to me!
Love my pegasus still. 🙂 Are we still the same size?? Is that still your trainer of choice??
Hey Linds! I’m still a 9, are you? I wear the Lunarglide now for 90% of my runs. The peg is a great shoe, but I can feel the ground a bit better with the Lunars.
Very cool… as a current shoe tester I know that my input is valuable, and it’s also important when perception testing to be brutally honest with the quality of the shoe and how it works for you. What’s even more exciting is seeing that shoe hit the retail space and know that you had a hand in the testing of that shoe.
never read your stuff before but you are hilarious. i love your writing. and it sounds like a wonderful experience. i wish i could help create the next javelin boots. keep up the good running
Uh… 100% positive Lauren DOES NOT look like a cross-dresser when she puts on a pair of heals. Just to clarify for anyone who was worried about that.
I’m confused. I thought it was “heels” not “heals.”
oh my goosie bumps this website is great. The loopy artwork at the top appears to illustrate the personality so well too. USATF posted this blog article on their Facebook page, so that’s how I found it. I like the Vomero for LSD runs on road. Forefoot runner. Ditto Josie. Lauren, you are one energetic girl. Oh, and I’m not saying that you necessarily seem “loopy”… Fun, yes. Thank you for the pick-me-up today! I really needed it. Back to number crunching for the running research study…
Blake, I heard that “medicinal marijuana” contributes to “high heals”.
Cool the lunarglide sounds neat. Does is wear out fast? Or about the same as the pegasus? I’ll have to give it a try on my next pair.
Thank you for your input. Your knowledge and experience not only help college and professional athletes – it helps to make better running shoes for old jogging ladies like me. How lucky you were able to spend time with Bill Dellinger. A true Oregon legend.
Ha, this post is great. Your sense of humor is cool, but it’s definitely just the garnish on your plate of insight.
This is awesome: “And until this tomboy learns to walk in heals without looking like a cross-dresser, those will remain the qualities I push for in the evolution of Nike running shoes.”
I find myself here because I thought I had gone crazy in my old age. During the 5000 Lewis had you running at every place but Stanford, so I had to check to verify that I had not gone daft.
I love your blog. I hate when my favorite shoe is discontinued and/or tweaked. Why, for whom? Your shoe fit me perfectly. I love my Zoom Elite – I drove to 5 different places only to find the last pair in my size in Menlo Park. The Elites and I are making a farewell tour to some of my favorite running grounds. Nike, I hate you 🙂 But they say I will like the Lunarglide. So, like I have done so many times before I will adjust, but it doesn’t mean I will be happy about it.
Hey, I’ve seen some crossdresser do very well in heels 🙂
and i suppose congrats are in order
Do not usually post on blogs, but I would like to post it really forced me to not be so! very nice post.
If you designed shoes that looked like a baby barfed on a Lunarglide, could we call them a”Ralph Lauren” design?
Yes. I would accept that. Just got to get it past the brand crew at Nike! 🙂