Words: Department of Nike Archives
Not every breakthrough in sports science begins in a lab.
For Nike’s iconic waffle sole — one of running’s most game-changing innovations — it began in the kitchen.
It was 1971 and Bill Bowerman was wrestling with a problem he’d been turning over in his mind ever since a hard, slick new urethane track had been installed at the University of Oregon two years prior, which was injuring runners. Bowerman had to face a reality: He had chosen a track surface that wasn’t holding up, and he needed to find a fix. How could his runners get better grip? Spikes dug in too deep; flats didn’t bite enough.
One morning, while glancing at his wife, Barbara’s, waffle iron — a Model 251 by Bersted Manufacturing Company, which the Bowermans had received as a wedding gift in 1936 — he was struck by the grid pattern. The raised squares seemed like the exact geometry that could deliver the lightweight traction he’d been chasing.
He poured liquid urethane straight into the family waffle iron, only it instantly glued shut permanently, ruining their 35-year-old wedding present. Undeterred, he drove into town, bought several more secondhand waffle irons, and kept experimenting. Those first imprints came out inverted with concave bumps, but they sparked the idea that would lead him to refine molds and materials until a workable prototype finally emerged.
The original waffle iron, rescued nearly 40 years after Bill Bowerman melted it shut and buried it in his backyard.
What resulted was the first version of the Nike Moon Shoe — a design that would shape the future of running for decades.
“The waffle sole changed everything,” says Nike Running Historian Rick Lower. “Not only did it transform how runners thought about traction and cushioning but it showed people what Nike was about: solving problems in new ways.”
“The waffle sole changed everything. Not only did it transform how runners thought about traction and cushioning, it showed people what Nike was about: solving problems in new ways.”
Rick Lower, Nike Running Historian
In 1971, Nike, then still known as Blue Ribbon Sports, an American importer of Japanese running shoes, hadn’t yet become the global force in sports innovation that it is today. The fledgling company was still finding its footing, and Bowerman — co-founder, coach and relentless tinkerer — was at the center of that push. To him, every surface was a problem waiting for a solution.
That included the new Astroturf laid down at Autzen Stadium, where the Oregon Ducks football team struggled for traction. In wet conditions, players often ditched their cleats for basketball shoes with a herringbone outsole that gripped better. Bowerman and teammate Jeff Johnson began exploring traction ideas for football as well as track, a line of thinking that would lead to the Astrograbber — a shoe prototyped in 1972 and reissued decades later.
“There had been no real innovation in outsoles for decades,” says Nike Running Historian Rick Lower. “Running shoes were basically just a sheet of rubber to protect your feet from the road, and traction and cushioning were secondary. Bowerman wasn’t willing to accept that.”
Inspired by the moment in his kitchen, he began pulling in a network of local resources to help refine the molds and materials — tire shops, machinists, cobblers. Early prototypes disintegrated after only minutes of running. Others left athletes with cut ankles from exposed wire that was embedded in the rubber mixture for traction. Yet each failed attempt nudged the idea closer to the finish line.
“Running shoes were basically just a sheet of rubber to protect your feet from the road, and traction and cushioning were secondary. Bowerman wasn’t willing to accept that.”
Rick Lower, Nike Running Historian
By November 1971, the waffle sole had its first taste of competition when members of Oregon’s cross-country team wore early versions to win the NCAA title. Through the winter and spring of 1972, more college and local South Eugene high school athletes quietly tested pairs. By the following summer, Bowerman and Geoff Hollister were hand-cobbling a small batch of prototypes for a bigger stage: the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene.
They weren’t perfect, especially not for the marathon level. “It was basically just an upper stitched to a thin sheet of waffle,” Lower says. “So minimal it was like running barefoot.” Still, a handful of brave runners laced them up. Some thought the waffle sole footprints looked like astronauts’ footprints on the moon, becoming part of the lore that gave the prototypes their now-iconic nickname: the Moon Shoe.
For the fast-growing company, it was a pivotal moment. Even if the shoe wasn’t ready for mass release, it was proof the idea worked and evidence that this small Oregon company could push running footwear in an entirely new direction.
The Moon Shoe itself never went to market, though a few pairs are believed to have been sold out of Nike’s Eugene retail store, making it possible to have snagged one if you were in the right place at the right time. But the shoe’s DNA spread quickly. By 1973, Nike released the Oregon Waffle. Two years later came the Waffle Trainer, Nike’s first blockbuster success.
Designed by Bill Bowerman, Stan James, Dennis Vixie and Geoff Hollister at the request of runner Jon Anderson — who wanted a more substantial training shoe — the Waffle Trainer became the best-selling training shoe in the country and Nike’s most popular running model. By 1975, orders had topped 100,000 units, and its blue upper with a yellow Swoosh became one of the defining looks of Nike’s early years. To this day, it remains emblematic of Nike in the 1970s.
“The Waffle Trainer was the bridge — it took the Moon Shoe’s experiment and turned it into a global product. From there Nike’s reputation as an innovator was cemented.”
Rick Lower, Nike Running Historian
The milestone sneaker didn’t just give everyday runners better grip. With a flared sole and a new cushioning sensation unlike anything they’d felt before, it changed expectations of what a running shoe could be.
“That shoe was the bridge,” Lower explains. “It took the Moon Shoe’s experiment and turned it into a global product. From there Nike’s reputation as an innovator was cemented.”
But it wasn’t the end for the Moon Shoe. After making its revival on Nike collaborator and French designer Jacquemus's runway last January, the iconic silhouette was reimagined for a new generation. Sleek and fashion-forward, the new sneaker, coming soon, bridges performance heritage and style with speed, capturing the same restless drive that defined its earliest incarnation. What was once vaulted as Nike's racing DNA is now primed for the future.
The waffle iron tale might have stayed legend if not for a discovery decades later. When Bowerman’s son Tom renovated the family property in Coburg, Oregon, he unearthed a long-forgotten rubbish pit near the carport. Inside were discarded prototypes, molds and the rusted shell of the waffle iron Barbara Bowerman had tossed after Bill glued it shut.
Today, that iron rests in the Department of Nike Archives at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., acting as a reminder of the kitchen tinkering that became the blueprint for Nike’s approach and long-term success: experiment boldly, keep refining and never stop pushing forward.