Shane Parrish
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Knight returns to Oregon in 1963 and waits and waits.
The shoes don't arrive for a year.
During that time, he gets a job as an accountant.
So to the outside world, his crazy idea looks like it's gone nowhere.
He's living with his parents still.
When the samples finally arrive, he does something clever.
He sends two pairs to Bill Bowerman, his old track coach at Oregon.
It's important to understand who Bowerman was at the time.
He was the Yoda of running.
He was one of the most respected coaches in the country, in the world even.
He trained Olympic athletes.
But what made him different was an obsession.
He couldn't stop tinkering with shoes.
He'd cut them apart, shave off weight, add foam, try anything to give his runners an edge.
He made shoes out of fish skin.
He experimented with kangaroo leather.
The man was basically a mad scientist who happened to coach track.
So Knight sends him tigers, hoping that Bowerman might like them and maybe recommend them to a few athletes.
But he doesn't just like them.
He wants in.