Contradictory footwear
These are some shoes I made for a project that was posted on CRAFT last week. They’re based on a combination of the homemade huarache sandals that the Tarahumara wear when they run and the original Nikes that Bill Bowerman made for Steve Prefontaine back when Nike was called Blue Ribbon Sports. Plus they are made from practically all found materials.
I realized when I was making these that the original Nikes were called “Cortez,” like the Spanish conquistador who colonized the indigenous people of what is now Mexico. I think this is quite interesting because the Tarahumara escaped colonization by retreating deep into the canyons of Northern Mexico and became the famous distance runners that they are today because they had to travel so far to keep themselves out of the reach of Spanish conquistadors.
Nike “Cortez” are still very popular in latino culture, check it out:
This song makes me kind of nostalgic for Southern California. I used to see a lot of people wearing Nike “Cortez” shoes when I was growing up.