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The sneakers inspired by Apollo 11 and the Moon landing
NASA's Apollo 11 has had an outsize influence on our culture since July 20th, 1969. That's the day the spaceflight mission successfully completed its lunar landing, paving the way for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to become the first humans to ever set foot on the Moon. To this day, Apollo 11 remains one of the biggest achievements in the history of space exploration. It's only fitting, then, that those first steps Armstrong and Aldrin took have also made their mark on sneaker culture. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 this week, we're showing you some of the best shoes that have drawn inspiration from the mission and its Moon landing. Brands such as Adidas, Nike, New Balance and Vans have all created designs paying homage to this historical feat, in official and unofficial ways. While there are sneakers that NASA has collaborated on, others simply look like they were meant to be Moon boots. Let's take a look and appreciate them one by one.
Steve abandons New Balance for Nike
With all the hubbub surrounding the announcement of the Apple/Nike partnership, no one mentioned the day's most striking revelation. No one except Arik Hesseldahl, that is. In an article at Business Week Online, Arik points out that Steve was wearing a pair of Nike Moires instead of his usual New Balance 991s at the press conference. Of course, Steve couldn't wear New Balance while talking about Nike (the Moires he was wearing are part of the Nike+ line and still unavailable to the general public). This wasn't the first time we've seen Steve stray from his typical outfit. He wore brown pants when he announced FrontRow, iTunes 6, etc. back in October. That's right, I just put up a 129 word post about Steve's clothing. Flame away.
