Retroactive Review
Bo Knew Multiple Sports. After Jackie Robinson, Bo Jackson was one of the Greatest American Athletes and was able to play Multiple Professional Sports Well. Along with Deion Sanders, Baseball & Football were his domain of Dominance. For every Sport there is Training a for multipart Athletes there is Cross-Training. In your training regardless of the sport there is: running, sprints, track work, plyometrics, Weight lifting, resistance training, stretching/mobility training, recovery, Sport Specific movements, and training and practice for the rules and goals of said specific sport. in the 80's training and cross training became popular. Reebok (we have to give Reebok their credit) was dominant. Aerobics was the name of the game and Reebok was leading the charge. Athletes Running, weight lift and do court work and need a shoe that can handle the needs of all three areas. Enter tinker Hatfield and the Nike Trainer 1. A simple solution adopted around tennis player John McEnroe with lightweight, flexible sole, outrigger and forefoot Strap to cover running, Sprinting, lifting, and lateral movements. Bo Jackson would later be the focus and Spokesperson for this cross training Category. With Models like the trainer SC series, Trainer 2 and Trainer 3 among others Nike aimed to give you 1 sneaker that can help you train like Bo.
Being Picky can pay off. One thing about NYC youth was having style and making anything we touched cool. Other cities Boston, DC, Miami, LA, Atlanta, and others had there own style and take on music, footwear, fashion and more, but NY kids took the cake (I'm biased lol). I gamed a pair of Trainer 3's for the last game of the season (look fresh, play fresh lol). The trainers had a nice leather upper (yes Leather & genuine leather was the standard back in the day, thankfully we have come a long way with synthetics, man made skins, textiles, Knits, natural fibers, hemp, plant based fibers and that reduce our need for Animal Skins. The trainer 3 also stepped it up with molded TPU (heat formed plastic parts) along the heel, ankle and forefoot strap to keep you locked in and stable for your powerful movements. A thin polyurethane midsole and visible heel air sole took care of the impact protection while flex grooves in the rubber outsole helped natural movement when running and sprinting.
Training Sneakers have come a long way in terms of cushioning, materials, design & aesthetic. The 80's pushed the trend, the 90's took it to another level and the 2000's added more bells and whistles. From the minimum to the Max and Back. It will be interesting to see what the next great training/Cross training sneaker looks like. The trainer 3 Retro was a fun sneaker to play and train in. It was good enough for Bo and it was good enough for me. On to the next ones.
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