“In febuary 1981 Phil Knight sent Rob Strasser to Holland with the instruction “Sell shoes”. When Strasser arrived at his Amsterdamn base he quickly found that Nike had a bad quality reputation amongst european consumers due specifically its production in Korea, image suffered. In America, Nike’s Volume came from people wearing athletic shoes to supermarkets and bars. In Europe, life was more formal and sneakers weren’t street fashion. Adidas owned the soccer market, their quality was perceived as better and the product was cheaper. To combat the Adidas market Strasser tried to sell the American dream to Europe through running, Nike’s heartbeat. He targeted the largest frontline populated country the U.K, 55 million and made Britian’s premier distance runner of the 70’s and later BBC athletics TV commentator Brendon Foster head of the U.K operations. Foster and Strasser soon realised that to beat Adidas it would have to be football, they signed a deal with English football club Aston Villa and built a soccer boot in Nike’s British factory, Barwen. Villa made it to the final in 1982 against Bayern Munich, it was Nike Vs Adidas. Peter Withe scored Villa’s winning goal and Nike a name from nowhere held a loft the European Cup.
During Strasser’s first year in Europe he purchased blank Dutch wooden clogs and had them sprayed and stencilled at the U.K factory with the Nike logo and matchstick heel company name. Strasser shipped 30 pairs to the most important Nike people of the time. The clogs were presented at a meeting in Beaverton, each pair had a specific employees name and shoe size written in pencil on the soles. The blue and white shoes pictured above owned by Trainerspotter belonged originally to Lisa Mckillips who joined the company in its BRS early days, 10 months before Steve Prefontain’s fatal car accident in 1975. Lisa was and still is a 10k runner, Mckillips is currently Phil’s secretary.
Trainerspotter thanks Lisa Mckillips and Nike archive’s for their help in uncovering the story behind the unofficial Nike wooden shoes.”
Via trainspotter