When you scratch beneath the surface of Nike’s colossal catalogue of notable footwear models, it won’t take you long to come across a handful of genuine classics, and right at the top of these is the Lava Dome.
Understated but instantly recognisable, the Lava Dome is a Nike model with a cult following like few others, yet it still manages to fly under the radar for many people, a plausible reason for this cultural innocence is those people aren’t quite aware of the Lava Dome’s extensive heritage and lasting legacy on the outdoor footwear industry.
Those who are aware tend to be fanatics and appear to share at least a handful of attributes, namely, a penchant for function, and perhaps more importantly, the outdoors. Therefore it should come as no surprise then that the cult approach shoe was conceived to act as the solution to a problem faced by outdoor enthusiasts at the time…
Back in the 1970s, these enthusiasts had two separate genres of footwear available to them — hardwearing leather hiking boots or lightweight sneakers. There was no middle ground, and their feet gave no thanks for them using either. The boots were sweaty and the sneakers flimsy. This didn’t halt ground-breaking expeditions from taking place though, instead, the thick moustached mountaineers of the time buckled in and took all manner of feet-related ailments in their lame stride.
The groans of the displeased bunch weren’t going unheard however, and in the mid-’70s Nike decided that they needed to come up with a quick solution to the crisis, only, they weren’t entirely sure what it was yet. To get some assistance, they drafted two figureheads in the very market they wanted to corner – legendary American mountaineers Rick Ridgeway and John Roskelley.
As it happened, Rick and John alongside a handful of other mountaineers were planning the first American ascent of The Savage Mountain, K2, around the same time. Nike were eager to kit them out in their product, only none of it was very suitable. This led to them striking a deal with Rick & John – in exchange for the pairs of Nike Waffle Trainers they would use to approach K2, the duo would best advise Nike on how to turn them into footwear designed for trekking.
In September of 1978, after an exceptionally arduous and frostbite-inducing ascent, , Rick and John were amongst the first American mountaineers to stand atop K2, and for Nike? They had a notebook full of oxygen-deprived, but forward-thinking ideas on how to create their first trekking shoe.
The Swoosh didn’t mess around with putting the ideas into action, as in 1980 they unveiled their work to the outdoor world – the Nike Lava Dome, accompanied by two other models, the Approach and the Magma.
The latter were both revolutionary in their own right – the Approach was the first Nike shoe to incorporate GORE-TEX – but neither offered quite the answer to the outdoor enthusiasts’ prayers quite like the Lava Dome did. Whilst the Approach & Magma were basically lightweight versions of traditional outdoor silhouettes, the Lava Dome provided an all-new approach to the approach.
It flipped outdoor footwear on its head with a low profile, lightweight and fast-drying design, which was then packaged in a striking orange, grey and black colourway. It didn’t take long for the Lava Dome to gain popularity within all circles of outdoor pursuits whether it be climbers, mountain bikers, boulderers or hikers – and the reason for the Lava Dome love was simple…
Most people didn’t need or want a pair of expensive and heavy hiking boots to enjoy their favourite hobby.
They simply wanted a robust and reliable set of footwear that would provide ample protection from the trials and tribulations of the outdoors, and the Lava Dome offered this, as the first-ever commercial outdoor lifestyle footwear model.
The outdoor recreation explosion that followed in America catapulted the Lava Dome to the fore, and it wasn’t long until a pair was just as easily spotted within the granite wall confines of Yosemite as it was on a busy Manhattan Street. Everyone that knew anything about something was into the Lava Dome.
Naturally, the shoe’s widespread popularity led many other footwear manufacturers to produce their own Lava Dome-inspired approach style of shoe, but none had the first-hand expertise of two mountaineers behind their design, and for that reason, none held a candle to the orange-hued hero.
Ultimately, the Lava Dome and its accolades would go on to pave the way for Nike’s hugely influential ACG line, which saw a lineage of many other wildly popular outdoor-ready silhouettes come to development.
Interestingly, even though the Lava Dome would see a great number of re-releases, it was never added to the ACG roster, it simply stayed quiet in its own lane, but those that knew, knew.
The footwear of a true connoisseur.
Fair Use Statement: This article contains images hosted without express permission from their copyright holders. These images are provided for illustration purposes to support an informational objective. This should constitute fair use of any such copyrighted material.
