The racing flats

(click on picture for larger view)

The Racing Flats.... The top two, the Sock Racers and Spiridon Golds. I owned both.

Interestingly enough both shoes were used to set World Records in the marathon at the time. Ingrid Kristiansen (London '85 2:21:06) and Carlos Lopes (Rotterdam '85 2:07:12).

The Sock Racer was a very minimal shoe. It was essentially a yellow stretch mesh type fabric, with two black buckles on top. It was created for the then growing sort of Tri/Bi-athalons.
Nike created a Sock Trainer, that was not very well liked. I had a pair and they just didn't fit well. The shoe was very popular, but I think if Nike released it today, it would not be taken very seriously for its minimalism (The Nike Free was about as close as possible to this shoe.) Nike also had matching yellow and black "hoop" socks to match the shoes. Nike did re-release the shoe as a "retro" in fashion colors. I found a pair on eBay and bough them. They felt close to the original but not 100%. I ran in them for 3 mile son a treadmill. I have never taken them outside. While they are retro, the materials used were no where near the original.

The Spiridon Golds, I consider to be the best all time racing flat ever made, by any manufacturer. The shoes were outstanding. The original pair were actually (if memory serves me) a customized version of the Nike Air Edge, made for Carlos Lopes to wear at the 1984 LA Olympics. Now the rest is where this gets tricky, I remember reading this in interview in Runners World back in 1984. Nike wanted to make them in the Portuguese National colors (red/green), he told them to make them in Gold so it could match the medal he would win. They laughed, he said he was serious. They made him the shoes. He won the race and the Gold medal.
Nike decided to produce the shoes. As soon as I saw them advertised in a magazine, I knew I had to have them. Back in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics, sprinter Michael Johnson also wore a all Gold pair of tack spikes, and was nicknamed "The Man With the Golden Shoes". I still hold that Carlos was the original, but Johnson did win more Olympic Gold ;-)

When I met Carlos a few years later, he saw my flats and nodded in approval. I told them I got them because he wore them. I still regret not asking him to sign them at the time.

I set all my road PRs in those shoes. I have scoured eBay for the last couple of years looking for them.

I still miss those two, along with my Nike Flames track spikes and Waffle Racer II, and Nike Zoom XC spikes; they were my my race day weapons. I set many PRs, and that led to my allegiance to Nike shoes.

(Edited 1/23/2008)

I found these pictures on a Japanese site years ago. I had them in one of my folders.

They also came in red, although I never seen them in this color.