Nike Posters

Don’t cancel me. But I am intrigued by the Nike story. I’ve read most of the books. Swoosh: The Unauthorized Story of Nike and the Men Who Played There by J.B. Strasser and Laurie Becklund is easily the best. 550 pages too. I love big books.

The Hollister and Bence books are good too. But honestly. Don’t bother with Shoe Dog. Ghost written. And not enough dirt.

I was also a huge fan of these posters and ads. If you read Swoosh you’ll find out that the Nike execs were proud of them too.

I found them again in Athletics Weekly magazines from 1982, 1984 and 1986. In case you can’t tell by the scans, Athletics Weekly was A5 back then. The Streak Zine, when I launch it, will be too.

But note that you could also buy a big version for your wall for £1.75. Not sure how big they were though. Maybe A2.

My two favourites are the Windrunner one. I had a pair of those in the Steve Cram black and yellow colourway. Those of course were the colours of Cram’s club. Jarrow and Hebburn AC. Also. The landscape looks like Watopia.

And the Nike shop one. I can see Coe, Spedding, Morecroft, Foster and Christine Boxer-Cahill. As well as Arsenal striker Charlie Nicholas, Ian Botham and ex-footballer slash TV presenter Ian St. John. Weird.

Two iconic ones from back in the day were the Peachtree one and the Lombard Street one. Here’s some back-story the Peachtree photo. So far I haven’t located the Lombard Street poster. But I’m sure I have it somewhere. Maybe check back later to see it.

Brendan Foster was president of Nike UK at the time. Later he moved to the main campus in Beaverton. It seems his management ideas were a bit too good for Buck’s team though.

Nike were also big in triathlon in the mid-1980s. Sponsoring Dave Scott, Linda Buchanen, Mark Allen, Joanne Ernst and Scott Molina. I’ll post some images here in the next few weeks.