History is one long processional of crazy ideas. – Phil Knight, Shoe Dog
February 20, 1971
The whole shoe should be flexible so you have freedom to bend your foot in the shoe. The inside of the shoe can be padded for extra comfort for comfort is what you need. The bottom of the shoe has to have a ripple sole. Also a good insole.
Flexibility is what you need along with comfort and lightness.
Dear Art,
This is what I would like to have. This is the perfect shoe.
Best go.
Your friend,
Steve Prefontaine
A noted collector shared a copy of that letter, apparently as further evidence of Pre, The Shoe Designer. https://www.jackdogwelch.com/?p=62851 ‘Steve Prefontaine had nothing to do with the design of the Pre Montreal. Repeating the truth, Steve had no input to the design of the shoe.’
Let’s look at this alleged “shoe design.” Airholes in the upper. Converse had done that in their basketball shoes, maybe New Balance. I don’t recall any running shoes doing that, except steeplechase shoes to release water.
It is clear Pre has designed a ripple-sole training shoe. There is a toe piece which he suggests might be plastic or leather, which NIKE never did. Other requests are for an Achilles pad, just about everyone was doing that by 1970. Padding around the heel. Ditto. A New Balance-like ripple sole, light, flexible, a 3/8” heel wedge. Those elements were pretty wide spread by the mid-60s, Everybody was doing that, New Balance, adidas, TIGER. The letter pre-dates the existence of the Nike brand by a few months, and actual NIKE shoes by months more.
Far be it for me to besmirch the memory of a hero, but he had no role in the design of the Pre Montreal. Don’t care what industry lore would have us believe. A myth is like a PED for a legend and Steve’s actual accomplishments should suffice. No need for stolen valor. I know that.
What I don’t know is Who’s Art?
The date, February 20, 1971 is significant. It was Steve’s sophomore year at the University of Oregon. The NIKE brand is not yet in existence, though only about four months away. Actual NIKE running shoes more than a year away. The letter, one theory goes, is not directed to anyone at NIKE.
“Art,” this theory continues, is PUMA’s male athlete promotions rep, the same Art Simburg who married Wyomia Tyus (1964 AND 1968 Olympic 100 Champion). The same Art Simburg who spent the 1968 Olympics in a Mexican jail, put there by adidas on trumped up charges. Adidas thinking it would be a much nicer Olympics for everyone, if the PUMA rep was in jail for the duration.
Two undercover policemen arrested Simburg in the Olympic Village, taking him to jail without permission to make phone calls. It took intervention from the US State Department and five days to get Art released. But by then, Bob Beamon had switched back to adidas, which he flew into history.
No doubt, PUMA thought it would be an excellent idea to poach Pre from adidas, whose shoes Pre was wearing in 1971. Just try for a moment to grasp the charisma difference between Steve and Harald Norpoth. Simburg offered Pre a ton of under the counter cash, such were the times, and invited Pre to participate in the design of his own shoe. His own shoe.
Hence, the letter, which included many recommended features practically all shoes had in those days, except the plastic/leather toe piece and air holes (Converse basketball shoes had air holes, and the ripple sole was a feature then of New Balance shoes). Seems I’ve heard Pre had stinky feet.
Steve thought the PUMA offer was a good one, and he might gain some financial independence, while elevating his pay scale to at least that of his European competitors. He sold himself on it.
Steve did not tell Bowerman, in order to give Bill deniability if his secret deal got found out. Maybe Steve knew that Bill was going to be the 1972 U.S. Olympic Track & Field coach, even more reason to isolate Bill from his money with PUMA.
Steve probably felt loyalty to Geoff Hollister and Blue Ribbon Sports, but he did not invite the BRS boys to counter. He knew the BRS boys were penniless wretches, selling shoes out of the trunks of their cars. Not particularly nice cars either. So, he kept the deal private, and to himself. For some reason, the deal fell through.
Nothing else makes as much sense. Prove me wrong.
Couple of things. Pre clearly had an entrepreneurial spirit. Is the tale of adidas framing Art Simburg in Mexico City in 1968 real?
Once walked into town, up the stairs of the public library, deep into the dusty bowels amongst a school of microfiche cause I had to make a deadline because I had to pay the electric bill. Got AI now.
Art Simburg was a marketer for Puma who played a key role in the rivalry between Puma and Adidas during the late 1960s, particularly at the 1968 Olympics. He was known for his relationship with athletes like Tommie Smith and John Carlos and for persuading Bob Beamon to wear Puma shoes instead of Adidas before a long jump event. Simburg appeared as a former US representative for Puma in the 2025 TV mini-series “Sneaker Wars: Adidas v Puma”.
Role at the 1968 Olympics
- Puma marketer: Simburg was Puma’s man on the scene, promoting their products to athletes during the 1968 Summer Games.
- Athlete relations: He was friends with sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos and helped them get involved with Puma.
- Product placement: He was involved in efforts that led to the famous podium protest where Smith and Carlos each held up a Puma shoe, a significant moment of product placement.
- Key shoe endorsements: He convinced long jumper Bob Beamon to switch from Adidas to Puma, which resulted in Beamon wearing Puma shoes for his world-record-breaking jump.
Interrupting AI. Because I have Google.
The shoes Beamon wore were white, but they weren’t the ones Simburg had given him. The shoes Bob Beamon wore when he jumped 8.90 meters were a pair of Adidas Weltrekord (German for “world record”). In all the color photos of that leap, you clearly see three stripes as they slice through historically thin air.
More AI. Impact and legacy
- Rivalry with Adidas: Simburg was a key figure in the intense marketing battle between Puma and Adidas, which was rooted in the 1948 split of the Dassler brothers’ company.
- Commercial success: His work and the efforts of both companies demonstrated that commercial success could be driven by “human and commercial aspects” rather than just technical dominance.
- Television appearance: He is featured as himself, a former US representative for Puma, in the 2025 mini-series “Sneaker Wars: Adidas v Puma”
According to AI, while a person named Art Simburg was in Mexico City during the 1968 Olympics as a marketer for Puma, he was not arrested there in 1968. Imagine I have multiple sources; trust AI at your peril.
Simburg was arrested much later in his life on charges related to a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme in the United States. Saw the FBI report.
Simburg and two others—Robert Jennings and Henry Jones—solicited investments for a fake coal mine venture and a bogus gold transaction.
He was a defendant in a scam that defrauded over 500 victims out of more than $32 million. The court also ordered Simburg and his co-defendants to pay $28 million in restitution.
In November 2008, Arthur Simburg, 64, of Portland, Oregon (and formerly of Los Angeles), was sentenced to nine years in federal prison.
More from AI. Art Simburg, known for his work with Puma, has passed away. He died on September 30, 2023. His contributions to the sports and fashion industry, particularly through his role at Puma, have left a lasting impact.
Of course, Pre’s letter might not have been written to Art Simburg.
And Nike never even saw the letter until a half century had passed.
All we can say for sure, Art Simburg was in “la cana” and Steve Prefontaine never ever designed a Nike shoe.