The color green, or rather an eye-popping fusion of lemon and lime green took center stage at the track and field events at the London 2012 Olympic Games. This “green” is the new gold. The reason? Look to the athletes’ feet. Many are wearing shoes from the new “Nike Volt Collection.” About the only runner not wearing a Volt was a guy named Bolt who will be banking a whole lot more green in weeks to come with product endorsements and track appearances.
The Volt collection is divided into the following categories: Sprints, Distance, Field, and Marathon. But as Pete Larson of Runblogger recently pointed out, “the shoes likely to be of interest to readers of this blog are the distance flats, which include the Nike Flyknit Racer, Zoom Streak 4, and Lunarspider R3.”
If you happen to mosey over to Nike’s website, it says that “the Nike Zoom Superfly R4 fuses revolutionary Nike Flywire with a lightweight spike plate that has been proven on the track by some of the fastest runners in the world. The Nike Zoom Victory Elite is our lightest, fastest 1,500 meter race spike ever, combining an ultra-responsive carbon plate with a dynamic Nike Flywire upper. The Nike Flyknit Racer, worn by world champion marathoners, is lightweight (5.6 ounces for a size 9) and engineered for a precision fit, creating a feeling of a second skin.”
Give credit to Nike for mastering the art and science of global marketing. When a runner walks into a running shoe store and sees a wall full of green Nike shoes, he or she will think back to the 2012 Olympics and recall all those track and field athletes wearing Volts. That green shoe hue is now as famous as the Swoosh. –Bill Katovsky
What’s really amazing about Nike’s coup is the way that they stole the limelight (pun intended) from the shoe that is actually an official sponsor of the London Olympics. I’m wondering how many of your readers can name that company, who shelled out £80 million for the rights. I didn’t really notice too many of their shoes on the athletes, though presumably they were equipping the British athletes, of whom NBC didn’t show much footage in the US.