Nike knockoffs have been around for decades, but arguably the first brand to ditch Nike was, in fact, Nike. And they did so to fight a US tariff bill in 1980. While details on the effort are obscure at best, Nike last month released a special Air Force 1 edition in China celebrating the story of counterfeit Nike, the story of The One Line.
Nike and the United States government clashed in 1980 over a tariff bill of $ 25 million. The fight was public at the time, but gained modern day attention five years ago when Nike founder Phil Knight shed light on the incident in his book Shoe Dog, explaining how The One Line was designed to challenge an obscure rule in the US Customs Code.
As Knight recalls in the last few pages of Shoe Dog, the US government hit Nike with a tariff bill of $ 25 million, which it says was brought in by its footwear and rubber competitors who have pressured the government to bring down Nike. In typical government confusion, the US selling price rules of 1922 stipulated that the import tariff for a particular product would be calculated not by the manufacturer’s price for that product, but by the price of a like product made in the United States. The duties on three categories of benzidine chemicals, cherry stone clams and synthetic upper sneakers could be assessed not on the factory cost of the goods, but on the US wholesale price goods similar to US manufactured goods.
“We launched a new shoe, a running shoe with a nylon upper, and called it One Line,” Knight writes in his book. “It was an imitation, very cheap, with a simple logo, and we made it in Saco, in the old factory in Hayes. We rated it low, just above the cost. From now on, customs officials should use this “competing” shoe as a new point of reference when deciding our import duties. “
If it all sounds a bit hazy and slightly complicated, well, it is.
And that doesn’t get any clearer with the November release in China of the Air Force 1 “NAI-KE”, presented by Nike as a tribute to Nike and a Chinese factory jointly launching production of The One Line ago. 40 years.
In fact, the 1980 design was essentially a one-on-one imitation of the Nike Oceania runner. It was everything about Nike design, minus the branding elements. The only Air Force 1 connection seems to be the modern popularity of the sneaker.
“As the first test shoe model jointly developed by Nike and a Chinese factory, it represents the historic cooperation between the two parties,” said Nike’s description of the AF1 shoe. “A step.”
In today’s Air Force 1, the biggest link with The One Line is a single wide white stripe on the upper. The One Line, since it was truly an imitation, removed the Nike branding and used the white stripe. Air Force 1 features this white stripe, but covered with a Swoosh. The gray suede of the modern Air Force 1 features a few touches of blue, the original color of The One Line design. Nike has placed the tagline “Elevating Inner Peace Through Sports” inside the tongue of the AF1 and uses Chinese characters to spell NAI-KE on the heel.
But what Nike doesn’t tell buyers about the 2021 Air Force 1 is the real story of why The One Line even exists. It’s one of the strangest stories in Nike history, and the resulting shoes are some of the rarest ever – sneaker site The Deffest actually made a pair of them and broken down their history. in this detailed story.
Think of Nike’s move in real estate terms as a cheap house in the neighborhood that drives down the prices of all the other houses nearby.
But here’s where the details get a little muddy. While Knight laid out the plan in his book five years ago, it – as he freely admits on several occasions in the book where his memory differs from the official record – lacked detail and at times, was contradictory. Knight says in the book that Nike decided to make the shoes at the company’s small factory in Exeter, New Hampshire, which makes sense as part of the US selling price effort. But collectors who have encountered samples from The One Line note that the shoes bear a “made in China” stamp. And this latest version of Nike Air Force 1 pays homage to the Chinese involvement in the process.
Over the past year, several requests from Complex asking Nike to further clarify the situation have gone unanswered.
But what we do know for sure about the 1980 production is that it was real. And it helped. Nike even created a The One Line catalog and these white striped blue nylon shoes were produced, although it is not known where they were sold.
Knight said in a speech at Stanford in 2019 that The One Line sold “a few thousand pairs” and cut tariffs by two-thirds.
As Nike’s new name – it officially changed its name to Blue Ribbon Sports in 1971 – was preparing to go public in 1980, Knight knew he had to settle his feud with the U.S. government before the IPO. so The One Line’s full assault was put on hold as the two sides struck a $ 9 million deal that put the tariff fight behind them.
It is quite possible that The One Line started with Chinese samples – very few pairs of shoes have been seen in the wild 40 years later and the ones that were “made in China” on them are a sample size. 9 – to adjust everything before the Exeter runs. This makes sense commercially and could explain both the Chinese versions of The One Line and Knight’s stories of producing Exeter to meet US selling price requirements.
Either way, The One Line is a little-known but critical part of Nike history. And now Nike recognizes the importance of the One Line with a modern Air Force 1. Maybe soon we will have a reborn Oceania.