Top Running Shoes of the 1970’s and Early 1980’s: Post by Sam Winebaum

Fellow NH runner Sam Winebaum read my recent Top 3 running shoe post and decided to write his own list. Sam’s list is a bit different than mine, because he was a serious competitive runner when I was still in diapers – he ran through the running boom of the 1970s and happened to live in the town where Nike set up their early R&D lab (Exeter, NH). As such, he has some great perspective on shoes from the ‘70s.

Sam makes the interesting observation that the “Golden Age” of running in the ‘70s was followed by several decades of darkness on the running shoe front (of course, though my wife might disagree, the ‘80s were dark for a lot more reasons than running shoes – fashion, music to name a few). He feels that only within the past 5-10 years have things started to turn back around (he plans a follow up list of more recent shoes).

For an interesting read about some cool old shoes, check out Sam’s list of top running shoes from the 1970’s and early 80s.