Waffle Week

Those of you who keep up with me on Facebook and/or Twitter should know that I have declared this week "Waffle Week." It was a little last minute, brought on by Monday's Get Fuzzy so I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. Fortunately I bought a box of frozen waffles at Costco last week so at least I have waffles to eat. But a truly Crafty-Ass Chick would have found a waffle related crafting project to do in honor of Waffle Week. Oops.

So, instead of being crafty myself I will share a story of someone else's craftiness that involves two things I love: waffles and the University of Oregon.

Bill Bowerman was the track coach at the University of Oregon in the 1960's and coached the infamous Steve Prefontaine. Bill Bowerman also went on to co-found Nike with Phil Knight, a University of Oregon alum and former runner. Knight worked the business side while Bowerman experimented with Shoe design.



While coaching for Oregon he learned to cobble and custom made shoes for his runners. In order to create a lighter shoe Bowerman did some waffle inspired crafting.

Bowerman and his wife often ate waffles for breakfast - not an unusual or special event for them. Yet one morning, while thinking about his shoe designs and eating waffles, Bowerman had a flash of inspiration. He ran into the garage with the waffle iron and poured rubber on it. With that one idea Bill created Nike's now famous waffle soul. As it turned out, when place on a lightweight shoe, the waffle sole gripped running tracks better than the established ripple soul. It soon became a major success story.

So that is how waffles changed sports forever!

Hooray waffles!