Cortez ‘OG White Red’

Bill Bowerman designed the Cortez for the 1972 Olympics, and it became Nike's first great running shoe, a foam-cushioned revelation in its day. Its afterlife is pure pop culture: Farrah Fawcett in the 70s, Forrest Gump running across America in a white-red-blue pair, and decades as the uniform shoe of Los Angeles street culture, claimed by both coasts of hip-hop. Kendrick Lamar's association brought it to a new generation. Slim, low and unmistakably retro, the Cortez is living Nike history.