The History of Steve Prefontaine’s "Signature" Track Spike
- September 19, 2025
On May 29, 1975, Steve Prefontaine crossed the finish line for what would be his final race. In a 5,000K victory where he was just a second and a half away from beating his own American record, Pre was wearing what would eventually be called his “signature” spike, in that it was created for Pre and applied his scrupulous product feedback: the Pre Montreal, a name inspired by the summer games happening in Canada the following year, in which Pre was scheduled to compete in the 5,000m.
Lore has it that prior to the Pre Montreal, Steve Prefontaine was reluctant to run in Nike track shoes because he couldn’t find a shoe that felt just right, including the prototypes created for him by Bill Bowerman. The Pre Montreal might have been the first Nike shoe Pre truly loved, and its history is grounded in equal parts innovation and somber memory for its legendary endorser.
Steve Prefontaine competes in the Nike Pre Montreal spike at Hayward Field during the 1974 Oregon Twilight Meet.
The Pre Montreal was the first competitive racing spike to have a toe box without seams or stitching. It went into production in 1973 but didn’t become available to the masses until the following year.
While visiting Japan with Phil Knight in 1971 to order a new batch of Nike samples, Jeff Johnson, one of Nike’s first and foundational employees, tinkered with spike plates he picked up from a distributor in Germany.
The Nike Pre Montreal was the creation of one of Nike's first employees, Jeff Johnson.
It took until 1973 to develop, but Johnson was looking for a way to combine a six-spike toe plate with a seamless toe piece upper. To do it, Johnson used reverse leather in the forefront of the shoe, a standard shoe seam in the back of the shoe and then joined by two pieces of nylon.
“The idea of getting rid of the seam was to reduce the risk of blisters, because some people have a long first toe and some people have a long second toe,” Johnson told Nike DNA historians. “So, where the toe is going to strike the stitching and overlay is unpredictable.”
[Left] In this letter dated from 1973, Jeff Johnson is requesting a special order run of 400 pairs of the spike. [Right] A form describes the materials needed for the red and blue colorway.
Prefontaine had yet to find a Nike spike that he felt comfortable in during competition. That included Bowerman’s novel prototypes.
“They were pretty rough and they were inconsistent because of the lasting machinery,“ said Johnson. The shoes that Bowerman was cobbling during Pre’s days were stuck in an older era, still solid shoes but not the freshest spikes on the track. As Johnson explained, “You wore them out of respect for Bowerman.”
But times were changing. Pre graduated from the University of Oregon in 1973 and quickly signed on with Blue Ribbon Sports as the company’s self-proclaimed national director of public affairs. He even printed up his own business cards. Pre’s endorsement of Nike shoes, which often meant sending a pair of shoes along with a hand-written recommendation to a young runner, would become the cornerstone of Nike’s marketing efforts for years to follow.
Pre was never shy about giving input on his shoes to Johnson, who used Pre’s feedback to help craft the Pre Montreal. Prefontaine expressed to Johnson that a seamless toe would provide comfort to a runner’s foot.
“We had Pre as an endorsement but we had nothing specific to give him,” said Johnson. “This was the most interesting shoe, so I said ‘Why don’t we give it to Pre?’ What can we call a shoe that we can somehow name after Pre? Pre Montreal!”
The spike’s final design earned Prefontaine’s seal of approval. Amateur Athletic Union regulations of that era prevented athletes from officially endorsing products at the risk of losing their amateur status altogether. Still, it was impossible to disassociate the runner from his colorful new spike. Nobody could stop Pre, and Pre was everywhere. He would race from 1973 until that final race in May of 1975 while wearing his Pre Montreal spikes.
The Nike Pre Montreal racing spike made its first appearance in the new company's first official footwear catalog in late 1973.
The legacy of the Pre Montreal continues with the Nike International Running Pack. The collection's Vaporfly 4, the latest evolution of Nike’s original super shoe, embodies the spirit of the Pre Montreal through the spike's memorable red and blue colorway, its visual treatment inspired by the spike upper's combination of nylon and suede.
The Nike International Running Pack merges the brand’s storied running legacy with modern silhouettes, applying design details from historic Nike Running footwear.
