3/28/2022 UPDATE: These ultra rare Nike sneakers will b going up for sale by auction here at Heritage Auctions. You can read the story of the Nike ‘One Line’ shoes history here.
Please join us tomorrow morning right here at The Deffest blog for a special piece of vintage Nike history.
Nearly a year ago we put up a post on Eddie Van Halen’s mystery velcro ‘W’ branded sneakers and went down the rabbit hole on this one for awhile trying to find out what sneaker brand he was wearing. We’re glad to announce today that Van Halen fan Allen Garber has figured it out and it turns out that he was wearing Payless Shoes Pro-Wings brand sneakers. We have posted a pair of vintage Pro-Wings where you can see the similarities in the tongue label logo to the photo below. As far as the ‘W’ logo goes this must have only lasted for a short time in Pro-Wings history during the late 1970’s. According to Allen Eddie apparently wore this same pair of sneakers from late 1979 through at least 1984. Big shout out, all credit and a huge thank you to Van Halen fan Allen Garber who solved this mystery and passed along the information and photos.
Eddie Van Halen Frankenstrat W Logo Pro-Wings Sneakers
Btw you can see Eddie wearing these W sneakers in this 1980 performance of ‘You Really Got Me.’ Here’s another video from the same performance with the W sneakers.
One last note - we want to wish Diamond David Lee Roth the best in retirement. He is one of the greatest showmen in Rock N’ Roll history.
We were reading today about the sale of Reebok by adidas to fashion conglomerate Authentic Brands Group. Not much to say on this one except that we hope ABG will keep the retro Reebok models alive and authentically bring back the Victory G runner. This also probably means we’ll see the comeback of the Shaq Attaq sneakers.
February 7th was the 3rd anniversary of the founding of the Deffest vintage sneaker blog and with it the opportunity to consider everything posted so far and what comes next. The vintage sneaker shop is now open and will begin to be updated regularly soon. We’re also going to take some time to rework, revise, edit, and update some old post content where needed. This will take some time but if you find broken links or errors on any pages feel free to hit us up on the contact page. Thanks to everyone who drops by here everyday to check out the blog.
October 2021 UPDATE: This mystery has been solved. The W logo sneakers below are Pro-Wings brand. Thanks again to =VH= fan Allen Garber who figured this out.
I have received a ton of emails and messages asking about these Eddie Van Halen W logo sneakers in the photo by Neil Zlozower below so I figured I ought to put up a post about them. A few of us have looked into these sneakers and brand for awhile and we have had a couple of leads but no official confirmation.
Image Credit: Eddie Van Halen photo by Neil Zlozower. You can buy prints from Neil’s website here.
My first best guess was vintage Weider Sport Shoes. There is a pair of these up on eBay right now here
The W logo on those is not as pointy as Eddie Van Halen’s sneakers so we pretty much ruled them out. Next up we were trying to figure out if a factory was bootlegging Mizuno’s old M logo and flipped it upside down like Kinney shoes did with the Nike swoosh back in the day.
Mizuno MR1 - Image credit to tokyosports.com.hk
But that theory proved to be wrong as the logos are still a mismatch.
The latest development as we were told from a friend on Instagram is that these are 1970’s Kmart brand sneakers, possibly Trax brand. Kmart used a bunch of different profile logos back in the day which you can see here. We have not spotted the W logo yet but are trying to find an old ad for it. Once we find it we’ll update this post.
A couple of final thoughts - first off, big shout out to rock n’ roll photographer Neil Zlozower for capturing these iconic photos of Van Halen. You can buy Van Halen and other great rock band prints from Neil’s website here. 🤘🤘
Finally, RIP to rock n’ roll legend Eddie Van Halen. The man was a one-of-a-kind shredder and Van Halen made some killer albums together.
It’s been awhile since I posted a vintage sneaker repair here on the blog but today we’ve got a good one. This was a restoration project to see if I could revive these old 4 stripe yellow and black 1977 Sears The Winner retro running shoes. These sneakers were in maybe the worst condition of any vintage pair I have ever seen or owned. The soles were worn through the rubber and down to the foam, they had paint on them and were dirty as hell. It took a couple of hours of cleaning before I shipped them to our Instagram buddy and skilled cobbler craftsman @vintage_trainer_repairs68 over in the UK who fixed the worn, warped and brittle soles.
Before I post the photos of how gnarly these sneakers were here’s what they looked like after the midsole and repair. They came out great.
This is what they looked like prior to the repair. They were all jacked up with brittle, bent and warped soles. FUBAR…
The midsole had been worn all the way through the rubber. Damn.
Due to the level of grime on these shoes I went hard at them with detergent using an old toothbrush to clean the nylon and suede. I don’t usually recommend doing this with vintage sneakers but this case needed the next level of cleaning so I threw them in the washer machine. (Don’t try that at home if you care about your old school sneakers. Instead I recommend taking them to Jason Markk for cleaning.)
Here are some photos of the cleaning process. I removed the laces and let them soak in a mixture of water and detergent then I threw them into the washer machine with the sneakers. The washer machine removed a lot of the soot and brought out the color when they sun dried...
Here’s a before and after photo..
If you have any pairs of vintage kicks that you want to get repaired I highly recommend checking in with @vintage_trainer_repairs68 over on Instagram. Tell him The Deffest sent you. 😎
This post is a quick shout out and plug for friend of the blog and fellow sneaker historian @thomas_a_turner. I recently picked up his book The Sports Shoe: A History from Field to Fashion off of Amazon and it is excellent. The book contains a ton of highly detailed information, some great vintage ads and covers all eras of sport shoes and sneakers throughout the decades. The book starts out in the late 1800’s Victorian era and travels through time as athletic footwear evolved for sports and fashion, including skate sneakers, hip hop and NBA Basketball. I highly recommend checking it out if anyone is interested.
From BBC News
“A pair of trainers worn by basketball legend Michael Jordan fetched $615,000 (£460,000) at an online auction on Thursday. The Nike Air Jordan 1 High sneakers, described as the "rarest of the rare", were used by the Chicago Bulls star in an exhibition game in 1985. “
Well done Christie’s.
A couple of days ago we posted a 1982 ad for NB. Today I wanted to share a post that our buddy @trainer.spotting spotted out in the wild and passed along recently. Thanks man.
New Balance sneaker designer @charlottealee found design inspiration based on some of the NB models in the vintage 355 and SuperComp ads we've posted here on the blog to come up with a whole new hybrid model of New Balance runner called the MS327LAA. Check em out 👇
One of the things we dig about running the blog is hearing about the random vintage finds from all corners of the world. We recently heard from @cmmayse in Ohio about some new old stock vintage Kinney NBA Nike Le Village bootlegs that feature the original box, tissue paper and the upside down swoosh logo. The last I heard these sneakers had been sold but you can check them out below.
UPDATE 7/23/2019: These vintage Nike waffle sneakers sold for $437,500 today.
If anyone has $80,000 - $160,000 laying around Stadium Goods just posted the 100 'Worlds Most Rarest' sneakers up for auction at Sotheby's. Part of this auction is the 1972 Olympic trials handmade Nike waffle racing flat moon shoes.
I was searching around on the upside down swoosh AAU sneakers the other day and came across a Sneakers by Vice video on Andrea Canziani’s Nike factory error upside down swoosh Air Jordans. Those sneakers are now valued at around $143,000 which is nearly enough to buy a Maserati GranTurismo. 🤑
We done changed! The blog has re-branded and switched over to TheDeffest.com. It’s going to take a while for us to update all of the old posts and content but we hope y’all will make the move with us.
A couple of weeks ago I posted the Adidas and Converse side by side of the Sears the Winner kicks and mentioned the original sneakers from the early 70s sell for between $1500 - $2800 now. It turns out that a company in Japan called "Warehouse Company" is still putting the 4 strips Converse version of these out and they sell for about $100. This images are from a Rakuten store called "CLEVER WEB SHOP" but unfortunately their inventory is currently sold out. Shout out to @secondhand_nate for this passing along the info on Warehouse Company.
Top of the mornin' to y'all! I saw that Saucony just brought back one of our favorites - The Jazz Low Pro Shamrock runner. If you order these within 9 hours they'll arrive in time for St. Patrick’s day festivities. Well done Saucony. 👟☘️💚
Another sneaker mystery... one of the readers of the blog emailed this over (thanks to Susan S for the photo) so I wanted to post it. The left image is from the 1974 Sears Fall catalog for Simpsons-Sears in Canada. What's odd is that these Sears the Winner shoes there were made by Adidas while the identical shoe model from the same year in the right side of the image was made by Converse for the US market. The Adidas Canadian version have 3 stripes and the Converse have 4. Either way, we've seen these sneakers for sale online for between $1500 - $2800 so if anyone spots a pair at your local thrift shop you should probably scoop them up.
Here’s another catalog image from Sears in 1976 where the adidas Winner line is featured.
Here's a great retro 80s style commercial for Saucony Azura runners. Well played Saucony.
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Here's a graphic timeline of the founding dates for most of the major sneaker and running shoe brands. A couple of notes on this post.
1. A lot of the brands didn't start out immediately making athletic footwear until much later. In Etonic's case it took them until 1945 to start making golf shoes.
2. The line height levels were only to make enough real estate to fit all of the information since a lot of the dates were clustered closely together.
3. If you’re interested in vintage products for the brands in this list check out our vintage shop over at RewindRunning.com.
Here’s the list from oldest to newest…
1876
Etonic - In 1876, the man who inspired the Etonic name, Charles A. Eaton, opened his first shoe factory in Brockton, MA. To put in perspective how old this is… Rutherford B. Hayes won the election of 1876 taking over as President of the United States from Ulysses S. Grant.
1882
Le Coq Sportif - Founded by Émile Camuset in Entzheim, France.
1891
Tretorn - Founded by Johan Dunker in Helsingborg, Sweden.
1894
Bata - Founded by Tomáš Baťa in Zlín.
1898
Saucony - first factory was founded in 1898 at Kutztown, Pennsylvania, on the high banks of the Saucony Creek. The brand was founded by four partners named William Donnoyer, Thomas Levan, Walter Snyder and Benjamin Reider. More Saucony history at Wikipedia.
1905
Gola - founded on 22 May 1905. It used to be known as the Bozeat Boot Company, and was based in the Northamptonshire village of Bozeat, England.
For more info:
There’s a brief history on Gola at their site here.
Gola over at Wikipedia.
Here’s an interview with Gola VP of U.S. Operations Steven Weinreb from 2016 at Sourcing Journal.
1906
New Balance - In 1906, William J. Riley, British emigrant, founded the New Balance Arch Support Company in the Boston area, manufacturing arch supports and other accessories designed to improve shoe fit.
Mizuno - Founded by Rihachi Mizuno in Osaka.
1908
Converse - Marquis Mills Converse opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in February 1908 in Malden, MA. For more info there’s a pretty good history at The Idle Man and over at Heddels.
1911
Fila was founded by Giansevero Fila and his brothers in in Biella, Italy. More history at Fila’s website here.
1913
Wilson - Founded as Ashland Manufacturing Company in Chicago, IL.
1914
Brooks is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by John Brooks Goldenberg. Here’s another article at Funding Universe with a Brooks history up until around 1999.
1916
Karhu - founded as Ab Sport Artiklar formed and became Karhu in 1920.
1916
Keds - founded when U.S. Rubber consolidated 30 different shoe brands into one company. Originally named "Peds" it quickly turned into Keds due to trademark issues with the name Peds. More info at Popsugar.
1923
Hummel - Founded as Messmer & Company in Hamburg, Germany.
1924
Adidas and Puma - formed by Adolf Dassler in his mother's house; he was joined by his elder brother Rudolf in 1924 under the name Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory.
1937
P.F. Flyers - Founded by B.F. Goodrich in Akron, Ohio.
1948
Adidas and Puma - After some family acrimony the Dassler brothers split in 1948, forming separate brands Adidas and Puma.
Diadora - founded by Marcello Danieli, in Italy. More info at Diadora’s website here.
1949
Onitsuka Tiger - founded by 32-year-old former military officer Kihachiro Onitsuka in Kobe, Japan. Onitsuka Tiger eventually became ASICS in 1977. Here’s a pretty good history over at Barkers too.
Pro-Keds - Founded in 1949 by Keds as their athletic footwear line.. Sneaker Freaker has a great write up on Pro-Keds history here.
1958
Reebok - formed by Joe and Jeff Foster in Bolton, UK as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons. Here’s an excellent history over at Grailed. And another history over at RetailDive.
1964
Nike - BRS Blue Ribbon Sports (Nike) founded on January 25, 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, and officially became Nike, Inc. on May 30, 1971.
1966
Vans - March 16, 1966; Van formed as The Van Doren Rubber Company and was founded by Paul Van Doren, Serge D’Elia and Gordy Lee.
K-Swiss - Founded by Art & Ernie Brunner in Los Angeles, CA.
1972
PONY - founded in NYC by Roberto Muller with financing provided by Horst Dassler, the son of Adolf "Adi" Dassler who founded Adidas. A cliff notes version of PONY’s history is over here at Wikipedia.
1974
Hi-Tec - founded by Frank Van Wezel in Shoeburyness, England. More info at Wikipedia.
1975
Osaga - founded in Eugene, OR by Bill Combs.
Jaclar - founded in 1975 in Stoughton, MA.
1979
Avia - founded in Oregon by Jerry Stubblefield.
KangaROOS - Founded by Bob Gamm in St. Louis, MO.
I was back in NY for a minute recently and able to drop in and check out the National Track & Field Hall of Fame at the Armory in NYC. If you're interested in track and field history or want to check out some super old school running shoes I'd definitely recommend to check it out. It is at 216 Fort Washington Avenue, New York, NY 10032. Make sure you call ahead because they host events in the HoF which close it off to the public sometimes. Here's some more details on the photos below.
The orange velcro wing Puma shoes were worn by Jim Hines when he set a world record while winning the 100 meter race at the 1968 Olympics.
The red white and blue Gola(?) shoes in this post are Alice Coachman's from the 1948 Olympics. She wore them as the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
The black shoes in the last photos are Betty Robinson's from the 1928 Olympics. She wore them as the first women's Olympic medalist winning the 100m dash.
UPDATE: In the time since we first posted this we’ve connected with Betty Robinson’s granddaughter honoring Betty’s feats on Instagram. You can see her profile here @elizabethbaberobinson or at BettyRobinson.org.
Just wanted to put up a quick post from RetroSnickers youtube channel. His vintage sneaker restoration videos are awesome and he really brings some of these old kicks back to life. If you’ve got just over 9 minutes it’s definitely worth the time.
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