Brendan Dunne 
One sure way to spot out a vintage Nike silo is the Swoosh shape, with some of the earliest runners not yet uniform in their treatment of that ubiquitous emblem. Even the retros recreations have stayed pretty true to that, with the bellied version spotted on the regular via the various Blazer releases. This ancient Nike running design sports quite the opposite of the bellied look, what appears to be a hand drawn scrunched up Swoosh (along with hand drawn Nike branding on the back). The 1984 prototype has a neoprene build, coming as the spiritual predecessor to the likes of later hits like the Nike Air Huarache and the Nike Air Flow that actually made it to retail. Click through to peep this piece of Beaverton history and let us know in the comments what your favorite neoprene Nike runner is.
Photo: Gary Warnett
