The Future Of Shoes On Display, Nike Lawsuit Victory, and Women WINNING Right Now

And everything else you missed in sneakers this week.

Welcome to another week of the sneaker stories you probably didn’t see in your feed this week. If you’re enjoying this series, please let me know!

• The Future Now Exhibit - Portland Art Museum has a collection of futuristic sneaker designs, materials, and technologies, as well as a bit of nostalgic inspiration. If I was in Portland, I would DEFINITELY be checking this out, especially the mushroom leather sneakers. 🍄‍🟫

• When Does Advancing Technology Pass The Threshold Into Cheating? - In Paris at the Festival of Running today, Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics (formerly IAAF, the governing body of competitive running, track and field, etc.) talked about the marriage between footwear brands and running. With running shoe designs pushing the envelope, and technology literally catapulting runners forward, it was interesting to hear from someone on the “rules” side of running.

“The boys suck so I’m not following, but I’m definitely following the girls. Actually, women’s basketball is kicking ass.”
-Shaq on The Big Podcast with Shaq (one of my favorite podcasts recently)

• Women’s Hoops (and Sneakers!) Are Where It’s At Right Now - Shaq and I are on the same page. The women’s NCAA Tournament is the one to watch this year and I think it’s a much bigger and long overdue change in the footwear space. My friend, Peter Verry, says all I want to about the current roster of NIL deals for tonight’s Final Four matchups.

• Nike Gets Away With Greenwashing - Like most sneaker enthusiasts, I love Nike. However, I do think we look at the company through rose-colored glasses (aka, they get away with being shitty to a lot of employees, and they aren’t really the pioneers they used to be). If you think their efforts to use sustainable and recycled materials are anywhere near the level of effort (and money) they put into pretending to be a “green” company, you’re probably just still caught up on their hype (like the judge in the case linked above).

I don’t mean to sound harsh but for me, my expectations of Nike are higher than any other company I spend money with (except maybe Apple). It’s kind of like the tough love thing with close friends and family. They are the best. I expect them to be the best in all that they do. I’m sure many of the people in leadership there share my high standards.

If Nike wanted to be the greatest company in the world, they’d put in the effort to become a Certified B Corp. That would reinvigorate my fandemonium for them, and also make me an aggressive advocate for the brand. I know I’m not the only one hoping they step up. 🤞

Side note: I wish fandemonium was a real world.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

-Nick
✌️ + ❤️ + 🌯

You can support my writing through Patreon, Buy Me A Coffee, or becoming a paid subscriber.