Nike Oceania

In 7^th grade I developed a massive crush on my first brand, Nike, which turns 40 this year. They were a pair of canvas tennis shoes named Oceania. The swoosh was aqua blue. It seemed like everyone at Gilmer Junior High (with the exception of me!) had a pair of these commanding shoes including the incomparable 13-year-old beauty Teri Smith who twirled a baton, played the xylophone and ran track. Eventually, in 8^th grade, I did get a pair of classic canvas Nikes tennis shoes – just in time for the leather ones that looked just like them to become all the rage.

Nike Cortez Nylon

By the time I got my second pair of Nikes, I was well into college. The white Nike Cortez Nylon shoes had a big, bright green swoosh. I bought them on clearance at some athletic store in Penn Square Mall in Oklahoma City. I liked them so much I bought them a half size smaller than I needed because that’s all they had available. Needless to say, I rarely wore them, but I loved them and I kept them for 15 years.

Nike Hiking Sneakers

My next pair was hiking sneakers. I spotted them in Self Magazine in 1999. They were rugged and I was certain that unlike me they could weather anything. They were perfect for me at the time. My eight-year marriage was ending and I had a daughter who was just barely a year old. As I’ve said many times, the white picket fence around everything I believed and cherished was on fire; all my plans, burning to the ground.

But, when I wore those Nike hikers, I felt durable and resilient, almost fireproof. In some weird way they helped me cope with the uninvited and pervasive lack of companionship.

I bought those brown and blue sneakers at Nike Town in Seattle, and during my visit, they carried me up and down the steep streets of that city. It was four impossibly long days of separation from my baby girl. I was attending a work conference that was so astonishingly boring I spent an entire day riding city buses and talking to strangers. This is when I learned that nothing in the entire world can warm you up during a cold Seattle rain like Seattle coffee.

When I returned home to Oklahoma City, those hiking sneakers walked with me on numerous solo hikes throughout the Wichita Wildlife Refuge. I thought if I braved the wild buffalo, fire ants, rattlesnakes and grasshoppers (masquerading as apple-green blades of grass), I’d become hardier for life as a single mom.

During the years between my divorce and remarriage, I wore those shoes pretty much everywhere I went outside of work. They were with me on all those walks pushing Juliette in her stroller around Dolese and Lake Hefner at sunset. At the end of each walk with the magnificent red wafer pasted in the sky, she’d say, “Bye-bye sun.”

Those shoes were my badge of courage. Today, they are almost 13-years-old and sit on the top shelf of my closet. I’ll never give them up.

Nike Running Shoes

These days, I sport a pair of light gray Nikes with a tiny orange swoosh and hot pink trim. I wear them to the Y at night when we take the kids to open swim. They carry me on the treadmill as I push through the monotony of a 25-minute walk at 3.0 mph watching four TVs all on mute with closed caption. I am surrounded by mirrors, machines, and people running incredibly fast (in place) and exercising on giant balls. Did you know they now make five finger running shoes that fit like a glove over your toes? So much has changed. I’m convinced only the swoosh can steady me as I navigate the insanities of fitness.

Today, I wore my Nikes to the spray ground with the kids. As I kicked them off I thought of all the things I wanted to become back in the Nike Oceania days when I was 13 and wanted to be just like Teri. Unbelievably, she developed cancer and died at 27.

Soaking wet and tugging at my ill-fitting bathing suit (they’re all ill-fitting), I thought about how now that I’m in my 40s, all I can think about is that I’m going to be 50 someday. It’s terrible, I know, but true.

But, mostly, bending over and putting my shoes back on, I thought about all the places I still want to go and all that I still hope to accomplish and how I believe a pair of Nikes can carry me there. I am, after all, the one doing the walking.

About the Nike Swoosh

The Nike Swoosh was born on June 18, 1971. In honor of the brand’s official 40th birthday, here is a photo that was taken in May 1984, when this younger Gen Xer was six-years-old. That means she was born in the very Gen-X year of (probably) 1978. I think she’s adorable, and I dig these purplish Nikes.

Vintage Nikes | Rollerskates in Better Off Dead, 1985

This is a screenshot of an image from the 1985 teen romance/comedy Better Off Dead starring John Cusack. The woman wearing the Nike rollerskates is the former actress Tina Littlewood. Happy 40th Birthday, Nike!

What do you remember about your old Nikes? Do you have any vintage Nikes hiding in your closet?