Nike Zoom Kennedy

1999-Nike Genealogy of Speed description-

Sometimes other athletes love signature shoes even more than the athletes they were intended for. That's what happened with the Zoom Kennedy. A team went out to Bob Kennedy's home and shot high-speed footage of him running. they had him run barefoot to see how he plated his foot, and Footwear product Director Dick Oldfield even trained with him - not exactly when it's the US's best distance runner or given that Dick had only had three hours of sleep due to plane delays. 

He noticed that Bob's spike was too constricting and that at the same time Bob needed more support. He knew that to beat the best at the time, he had to beat the Kenyans, and that meant bringing sprinting to distances. To shave weight off is new spike, the Zoom Kennedy had fewer spikes, and the upper was injection molded to fit like a glove. It was the frist time anyone had tried to mold materials like that. The process seemed a bit trickey, but engineer Tobie Hatfield had the idea of sandwiching an upper's material between two plates. By applying heat until the fabrics adhered to each other, so the upper wouldn't need stiches or seams. Only when Bob got the shoe, it wasn't quite right for him. He wore his signature spikes for a few months until Dick and his team made up a new promo shoe. 

Still everyone else seemed to love Bob's shoe. High school students and collegiate runners were passionate about the Zoom Kennedy, and in it Alan Webb set the national high school record in the mile and became the first high schooler to break the Four-minute mile in 2001.