Buzz Aldrin at your feet

 

These ultra-lunar Nike’s were designed with the collaboration of Buzz Aldrin. Put an astronaut at your feet! Retail price should be 85 US $. Credit: Nike

First of all, we find it most astonishing that this sports shoe did not come out in 2009 for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. Evidently, even the marketing department of the biggest of companies can miss out on a good occasion (which is, after all, quite reassuring...). So it is in 2010, January to be exact, that Nike will market a sports shoe designed with Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, and pilot of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module. The product’s official name is “Buzz Aldrin Rocket Hero Mavrk Mid 2” from the Nike 6.0 series, more particularly dedicated to extreme sports, the “X Games” as we say to appear in the know.
We will forego the technical blurb of the famous brand name that assures purchasers of this shoe that they will benefit from some very real advantages in terms of lightness and other qualities sought-after by athletes. Instead, we will take a closer look at a design that would appear highly successful, with an external covering taken from a picture of our natural satellite and even, the artwork printed on the insole is based on a photograph of the deep footprint (see below) made by Buzz Aldrin for scientific reasons. This photograph has become a cult classic and some wrongly believe that it was Armstrong’s first step (read this Enjoy Space feature).

This photograph was taken by Buzz Aldrin after he had voluntarily driven his boot into the lunar soil by taking a running jump. Scientists used the picture for examining the cohesion of the surface of our natural satellite. Credit: NASA

Playing the devil’s advocate, we think it a shame that Nike did not reproduce the same design from the bottom of the lunar boots used for the Apollo missions on the soles of these Buzz Aldrin Rocket Hero Mavrk Mid 2. Even if only as a means of having fun by walking in the sand or damp earth and saying “one giant leap for Mankind”, or “magnificent desolation” and admiring the footprints left behind... This point aside, the sports shoes will allow you to walk light-footedly as you would on the Moon!

Published on 17 December 2009