The Nike Cortez are a style icon, carrying a significant meaning in their name and embodying a captivating history of urban culture in the city of Los Angeles.
The Nike Cortez are those sneakers that perfectly illustrate how every piece of clothing is, essentially, a symbolic and cultural expression of the individuals who wear them. To date, Nike has released over 700 iterations of the footwear, collaborating with artists such as Bella Hadid, Kendrick Lamar, and the Netflix show Stranger Things. The iconic swoosh and the shoe’s herringbone-patterned sole have made it popular across generations.
Nike Cortez Origins
When Nike was founded, it was a startup that didn’t manufacture its own shoes. It wasn’t even called Nike; it was Blue Ribbon Sports, co-founded by Bill Bowerman, the legendary track coach at the University of Oregon, and Phil Knight, a businessman whom Bowerman had once coached.
Blue Ribbon signed a contract to distribute shoes made by Onitsuka Tiger, a Japanese footwear manufacturer seeking to break into the U.S. market.
Onitsuka sent Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight a prototype shoe they were collaborating on in 1967; the company sought suggestions for a name. With the 1968 Olympics in Mexico just around the corner, Bowerman came up with “Aztecs,” paying homage to the Mesoamericans who once inhabited what eventually became Mexico.
However, there was a snag: Adidas had already released a sports shoe called Azteca Gold and threatened to sue if the name wasn’t changed. The name Azteca was off the table. So they named it after the man who conquered the Aztecs and seized their capital, Tenochtitlan: Hernán Cortés, a clear signal to Adidas that the newcomer, Blue Ribbon, aimed to make waves in the footwear world. The name Nike Cortez is a reference to the atrocities of colonization.
The Cortez would end up not only being one of the most significant shoes in the company’s history but also one of the most important shoes of the 20th century, as iconic as Chuck Taylor All Stars or Adidas Stan Smiths.
Later, the company decided to start producing its own sneakers and adopted this silhouette as a badge of its new identity. It changed its name to Nike, inspired by the Greek goddess of victory, and introduced its now iconic swoosh logo. Meanwhile, Onitsuka Tiger constantly threatened not to renew the export contract and even attempted to buy it at a much lower price than its real value. Eventually, after a legal battle, the separation became a reality.
However, in the following years, both the Japanese and Nike continued selling the Cortez until 1974 when a court ruled that the naming rights belonged to Onitsuka, while the design rights belonged to the American company. This led the Japanese to modify the silhouette and create the legendary Corsair.
The Nike Cortez as a Cultural Symbol in Los Angeles, Chicanos, and Resilience
In the 1980s, the Cortez began to take on a new association: the city of Los Angeles. At this point in Nike’s history, it already had deep roots in Southern California. The Cortez became a fixture of the city.
The shoe’s classic look, simple color combinations, and affordable price made it an easy choice for working-class and low-income families. The shoe made its deepest inroads among the black and Hispanic communities of Southern California. The shoe’s most popular ambassador was perhaps Eazy-E, whose Cortezes were an integral part of his gangsta rap image.
It was also during this time that gangs began to adopt the Cortez. The shoe’s basic design and widespread availability made it easy to incorporate into any number of gang uniforms, all of this happening as Los Angeles entered a period of rising crime associated with the crack epidemic.
In the 1980s and 1990s, much like white tees, bandanas, and Dickies, Nike Cortezes let the world know that they shouldn’t mess with you and that you could be affiliated with a gang. Cortezes became an essential part of Chicano streetwear. The shoe was a fashion statement, but it was also a symbol of resilience: proof that someone could emerge from extreme circumstances and demand respect.
Today, in the new decade of the ’20s, a halo of nostalgia and power with a backdrop of violence and the genesis of a sports brand like no other, the Cortez is a design that exudes energy and retro style.
