Nike Honors Kenny Moore, The Oregon Runner Partly Responsible For The Design Of The Cortez

The Nike Cortez has been back in a big way in 2017, with everything from the return of OG colors, to the Jewel Swoosh edition, to a special edition collaboration with Mister Cartoon paying homage to the shoe’s Los Angeles streetwear roots. Now the Cortez’s big year continues with a special collection that goes back even further in history to how and why the shoe was ever even designed in the first place.

Back when Bill Bowerman was coaching track at Oregon, one of his star distance runners named Kenny Moore received a stress fracture in his foot while training and racing in the Tiger TG-22, a shoe that was actually designed for the high-jump. After Bowerman realized how poor the shoe performed, he went to work cobbling up a better distance running shoe with more foam cushioning and arch support, which Kenny Moore wore as a prototype. The shoe would eventually become the Tiger Cortez, and when Nike was founded, the Nike Cortez. It was then quickly embraced by consumers, and as they say, the rest is history.

Now Nike honors this distinct history of one of their most popular models of all time with a special collection paying homage to Kenny Moore, with three new colorways of the Cortez in OG-inspired nylon and suede constructions, as well as a white leather edition with a handwritten “MOORE” graphic on the side modeled after the original prototype he wore that would later birth the Cortez (see it in this Nike News story).