Blazer

A serious challenge

Early in the 1970s, Nike’s co-founders, Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, were hard at work trying to grow their newly named brand. Having just broken away from a seven-year partnership with Japanese company Onitsuka Tiger, they were quite well-established within the running community but relatively unknown in other sports. Bowerman took the lead on design, creating innovative training shoes that got Nike off to a great start. Before long, though, he decided that he needed a new challenge, so set himself the task of crafting footwear for basketball players. In true Bowerman fashion, he rose to the occasion, producing one of the brand’s most iconic sneakers: the Nike Blazer.

Finding a name

The basketball shoes of the 1970s were essentially made by two brands. Converse had dominated the landscape since the release of the All Star in 1917, and adidas, while relative newcomers, had entered as a strong challenger with the Superstar in 1969. Bowerman knew he had to design a solid piece of footwear to compete with these popular models, and his first effort was a decent basketball trainer known as the Bruin, which was released in early 1972. Nike’s local basketball team, the Portland Trail Blazers, took to wearing prototypes of the Bruin, showing that it was a viable option for pro players. The Portland franchise was still quite new to the NBA, having only joined for the 1970-71 season as one of five teams to make up the first Pacific Division, so it was a good place for Bowerman to try out his shoes. In late 1972, when he came to create his second basketball trainer, he honored the Trail Blazers by naming it after the developing franchise. Rather than taking the full name, though, he went with something shorter, catchier and closer to the name often used by the fans, calling it the Nike Blazer.

A well-designed basketball trainer

The very first Blazer hit the court as early as December 1972; a time when the Trail Blazers were struggling to have an impact on the league. However, thanks to its state-of-the-art technology and its clean esthetic, the shoe began to make headway against its rivals. The Blazer’s use of technological innovations was derived from Bowerman’s desire to give athletes the performance gear they required to play at the highest level. This was the reason for its three main components: a durable leather upper, a soft nylon tongue and a vulcanized rubber outsole. None of this sounds very high-tech today, nor was it particularly groundbreaking at the time, after all, the vulcanized sole was a key feature of the All Star, which had been around for years. Nevertheless, it was the best option available at the time, and the Blazer made good use of all three elements to provide players with durability, flexibility and support, along with the agility they needed to keep up with the fast-paced game of basketball. On top of this, Bowerman added a few design touches that enhanced the Blazer’s comfort-giving qualities. An early advert for the shoe described it as being “built for action and durability” while outlining features like a “polyfoam tongue, padded ankle collar and sponge arch support”, a “moisture absorbing terry cloth innersole” and a “popular shell outer sole”, all of which allowed the Blazer to compete with its contemporaries.

A simple esthetic and an eye-catching logo

While Bowerman and Knight knew that the Blazer’s solid design could rival the quality of adidas and Converse, they were also aware that this on its own would not be enough to win over long-time fans of their competitors. To combat this, they focused on producing a distinctive look by giving the original colorway a pristine white upper, an exposed foam tongue with a branded tag and, most importantly, black swoosh logos swooping dynamically down each flank. At the time, Nike’s tick-like symbol was still quite new, but it had already become an instantly recognizable signifier of the brand’s products. The powerful contrast between the large, eye-catching logo and the Blazer’s white upper meant that it could not be missed on the court, even when watching from the back rows of the stadium or on a grainy TV screen. This bold variation in tone became a hallmark of the Blazer as Nike soon followed up the white and black OG model with designs decorated in brightly colored suede and white swooshes for an equally striking contrast. These simple tones, which included red, blue and green, allied with the early release of a white and black low-top, gave players several options to choose from, allowing them to pick the colors that most closely matched those of their team and the style they preferred to play in. Once again, Knight was on hand to produce an attractive slogan, describing the suede versions as having “colors made for winners”.

Growing attention

By 1977, the Blazer had made a name for itself as a well-built basketball trainer with good comfort and support. Its association with the Portland Trail Blazers had seen it worn by NBA players like All-Star Geoff Petrie, and Phil Knight’s clever advertising campaigns, in which he referred to the shoe as “the choice of champions”, had promoted it well enough that it could sit alongside its rivals quite comfortably. Nike had also begun to increase the range of white colorways by adding swooshes of different tones to the upper, including purple, gray and several others. On the court, the Portland Trail Blazers had been bolstered by the signing of the strong power forward Maurice ‘The Enforcer’ Lucas and the arrival of the highly respected Jack Ramsay as head coach, and they won the league for the first and so far only time in 1977. This helped bring renewed attention to Nike’s basketball trainers as guard Larry Steele played in a pair of Bruins with his surname on the heel, but the Blazer was about to get an even bigger boost in popularity thanks to another of the brand’s early player endorsements. It came courtesy of the coolest man in the league: George Gervin.

The Iceman

George Gervin was a shooting guard who played for the San Antonio Spurs. Clearly a talented player but yet to reach his full potential, Gervin had already developed a reputation for having a quiet, hard-working nature and a relaxed manner around the court, which had earned him the nickname Iceman after Roland ‘Fatty’ Taylor – a former teammate from his time with the Virginia Squires – had begun calling him Ice. Leaning into this persona, Gervin improved as a scorer, going about his business with calmness and perseverance. In 1977, he made the NBA All-Star team for the very first time, albeit as a reserve, and finished the season as the sixth highest scorer in the league with 1895 points. Building on this, in the 1977-78 season, he became the top-scorer in the NBA for the first time in his career thanks to an incredible 63-point game against the New Orleans Jazz on the final day of the regular season. This impressive return took him to 2232 points at an average of 27.2, thus making him Scoring Champion by a tiny margin of just 0.1 points per game.

Nike’s All-Star MVP

With Gervin starting to put in performances to rival Converse-wearers like his former Squires teammate Julius Erving, Bowerman and Knight were delighted to have the Spurs star representing their brand, especially since he had defected from their other major rival to do so. Prior to donning the Blazer, Gervin had usually worn adidas basketball shoes, but was convinced to switch partly because of the money Nike was offering, but also because Bowerman’s “out of the box” thinking had produced a “better quality shoe”. Gervin continued to wear Nike’s basketball trainers throughout the rest of his career, and he was the face of the Blazer while in his prime. After his breakthrough ‘77-’78 season, Iceman became Scoring Champion again the following year, and the one after that he made a massive 2585 points to be named points leader again, this time scoring over 400 points more than his nearest contender, the great Moses Malone. Gervin dropped to third in the overall standings in the ‘80-’81 season after missing a few games through injury, before beating Malone to the award for the second time in 1982 with another impressive score of 2551. He was also a mainstay of the All-Star team every year until 1985, making All-Star MVP with the swoosh on his feet in 1980 after a match-winning score of 34 points and 10 rebounds.

Promoting the Blazer

Gervin’s incredible performances and remarkable scoring ability took the San Antonio Spurs from a mid-division team to one that usually topped their division and regularly made the Playoffs. He even led them as far as the Conference Finals in 1982 and 1983, but both times they were eliminated by Magic Johnson’s Showtime Lakers and the unstoppable Kareem Abdul-Jabar. Nevertheless, Gervin’s exploits elevated the Nike Blazer to ever greater heights as, despite never winning a title, he was someone the fans just loved to watch. They knew that he would put on a show, as noted by one commentator who referred to him as a “human highlight reel” during a game against the LA Lakers. This reputation helped promote the Nike Blazer, and it is still possible to find famous images of him wearing the white and black model while elegantly playing his signature finger roll shot, which perfectly embodies the skill, control and flair he brought to the game. Gervin’s fame was so good for the Blazer that Knight and Bowerman decided to make the player his own special pair. Alongside Steele’s Bruin, it was one of the earliest examples of a Player Exclusive and became known as the Iceman Blazer for the fact that Gervin’s unforgettable nickname was printed onto the heel in bold black letters. On the court, this unique model brought even more attention to the Blazer, while off it, Gervin helped to popularize the shoe through Nike’s advertising campaigns. One particularly iconic image depicts him sitting on a throne of ice with the OG Blazer high-top on his feet and a cool grin on his face.

Technology moves on

Throughout the late 70s and early 80s, George Gervin distinguished himself as one of the greatest NBA players of all time while also helping the Blazer to become a popular basketball trainer, both in the league and among casual players. However, before long, both had passed their peak and were slowly replaced by newer models. Gervin was well into his 30s and did not have the same speed as he used to, and, after a season alongside a young Michael Jordan at the Chicago Bulls, he retired from the NBA before going abroad to play out his career in Italy and Spain. Meanwhile, the Nike Blazer was replaced by more technologically advanced basketball shoes like 1982’s Air Force 1 and the Jordan signature line, whose amazing success made Nike the top brand in the game in the decades that followed. This was not to be the end for Gervin’s beloved Blazer, though, as a rather unexpected subculture came to its rescue.

Finding a new home

Although Nike had designed the Blazer for basketball, like many of their other sporting silhouettes, it eventually found a home elsewhere. For the Blazer, this home was the world of skateboarding. The sport had been around for a few decades by the time the Blazer came out, but was still developing and had not reached significant levels of popularity yet. However, with the creation of the first polyurethane skateboarding wheel in 1972, this changed, and many more people began taking up the sport. These new fans required specific kinds of footwear to skate effectively, and it just so happened that the Blazer was the perfect shoe for the job. In the late 70s, skaters began to realize this, and several pros chose to wear it for the ankle support, traction and board feel they got from the vulcanized rubber outsole. It was also a very sturdy shoe, with the thick mudguard and durable leather or suede upper able to withstand the rigors of everyday skating.

Entering a new millennium

Throughout the 80s and 90s, Nike’s basketball trainers often ended up on the feet of skaters. The Dunk and the Air Jordan 1 both became go-to skate shoes, and the Blazer remained in the culture as well, thus giving it a new identity and carrying its name into the next millennium, if mainly among the skateboarding subculture. However, the Blazer’s skating connection is not to be underestimated as it is this that finally led the shoe back into the mainstream.

Early collaborations

As with many of Nike’s heritage models, the secret to the Blazer’s comeback was collaborations. One of its earliest was with popular streetwear brand Stussy. Well-liked among the skating community, Stüssy had already worked with Nike on a version of the Dunk, and in 2002 chose the Blazer for their next collaborative effort. Together, they made two leather-bound mid-tops: one deep navy blue with a vibrant pink swoosh, the other charcoal gray with a vivid green logo, thus keeping to the simple two-tone color scheme of the classic Blazer. The following year, pioneering graffiti artist Futura created a version coated in plush suede with a dark blue base layer, sandy beige overlays and leafy green highlights. These muted shades gave it a dapper look, making it a popular design, but its limited release of just 1000 pairs meant that only a few people could get hold of the collaborative sneaker.

An official skate shoe

Despite these two partnerships bringing the Nike Blazer to the attention of sneaker enthusiasts, it was still quite a niche model in the early 2000s. However, with Sandy Bodecker having successfully won over the skating world by involving skaters and skate shops in the establishment of Nike SB in 2002, the stage was set for an even stronger comeback. This came in 2005, when well-known skateboarder and Blazer fan Lance Mountain teamed up with Nike’s new skating division to give the silhouette a skate-specific rebuild. Since it was already a good option for skaters, the update seemed long-overdue, and not much needed changing to bring it in line with the sport’s other quality footwear. Mountain simply added a bit more padding, particularly on the tongue, and placed Zoom Air cushioning in the midsole for maximum comfort, finally making the Blazer an official skate shoe. Today, it is a mainstay of Nike SB’s lineup, and Mountain, who was formally signed to the brand’s skate team in 2007, has been responsible for several more popular collaborations on the SB Blazer.

The Supreme x SB Blazer

Building on the growing success of the SB Blazer, skateboarding lifestyle brand Supreme decided to get involved with the model for a trio of collaborative sneakers in 2006. With padded jacket-like uppers, faux snakeskin swooshes and golden details, this luxurious set of designs brought a high-end look and retro chic to the Blazer range, allowing it to compete with the incredibly popular SB Dunk.

A host of collaborative partners

The Blazer collaborations of the mid-2000s solidified the silhouette as one of Nike’s classics, and the brand delivered a whole host of new colorways in the 2010s. Its reputation expanded beyond just being a respected skate shoe, and people started wearing it as an everyday lifestyle sneaker for its comfort and its simple esthetic. More and more collaborators wanted to work on the Blazer, leading to captivating partnerships with Japanese fashion brand Comme des Garçons, Hiroshi Fujiwara’s Fragment Design, streetwear boutique Slam Jam, Chitose Abe’s forward-thinking label sacai and even sci-fi TV series Stranger Things. Along with this, the Blazer remained a big part of the skate scene, and Nike paired with skating brands like Sweden’s Polar Skate Co, Elissa Steamer’s Gnarhunters and the Madrid-based Welcome Skateboarding, as well as pro skaters such as Kevin Bradley, Mason Silva and Grant Taylor. One of the most sought-after of all the Blazer collaborations, though, is the 2017 sneaker created with Virgil Abloh’s Off-White™ fashion label. This artfully deconstructed design came as part of Abloh’s groundbreaking ‘The Ten’ collection, with an enlarged swoosh, signature Off-White branding and accented features that highlight the Blazer’s intrinsic elements. In 2018, Abloh designed two more colorways, this time with a Halloween theme, before working on a special model with tennis superstar Serena Williams.

A fashion icon

By the time the 2020s came around, the Blazer was a huge part of modern pop culture once more, and Nike continued to expand the collection with new colorways, updated designs and yet more collaborations. It was adopted by celebrities from Wiz Khalifa, who wore the classic white and black high-top for a 2022 interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Anne Hathaway, who was snapped wearing a Blazer Mid with a leopard print swoosh, to Tia Mowry, who posted a picture of herself wearing a Nike Blazer Mid ‘77 Next Nature on social media in 2023. In fact, social media had a big impact on the trajectory of the Blazer during this time, with popular influencers such as Vittoria Ceretti and Bella Hadid donning the sneaker and bringing it yet more credibility as an item of high-fashion.

The ultimate timeless classic

It is more than five decades since the Nike Blazer first showed up on the basketball courts of the NBA, and yet it remains a central part of sneaker culture around the world, even though it’s a poor basketball shoe by today’s standards. Like many other Nike silhouettes, it made the transition from sport to fashion via some unexpected subcultures, but unlike most of those shoes, its design has hardly changed during this time. Today, the standard model looks almost exactly like it did back in the 1970s, with a clean esthetic that makes it easy to style, a sturdy build that keeps it durable and a comfortable sole unit that supports everyday wear. Originally favored for its sporting performance and now highly regarded for its stylish retro esthetic, the Nike Blazer is the epitome of the timeless classic.