Shelly Love - NIKE78

Gold Shoes

Shelly's new short film ‘The Strange Gold Shoes’ created for the NIKE78 project

NIKE78 is a new and exciting project created by Paul Jenkins and inspired by Nike. The unique project features some of the most talented creative individuals, studios and other organisations creating short films to to celebrate Nike's official name change in 1978 from Blue Ribbon Sports to Nike Inc.

The hand picked talent invited by Nike to take part in the project all received a brand new pair of NIKE shoes and were asked to create a short film which challenged the shoes function and used 'sport' as its inspiration.

The resulting films are documented on the NIKE78 website and there will be a chance to see all the customised shoes featured in an exhibition showcase which is currently being planned.

NIKE have been chosen as the inspiration for this project due to their rich history of creative ventures and the brand’s constant aim to push the boundaries of sport, something which NIKE78 will also seek to creatively challenge.

Shelly Love on her film 'The Strange Gold Shoes’

'When I think of sport as inspiration, I think about ‘the spirit of the athlete’ reaching beyond, propelled forward by hope and belief. The spirit of the athlete aims ever higher, further, faster but also accepts failure with humility. The athlete is both, brave and bold, vulnerable and humble, the spirit of the athlete is in all of us'

'I was given a pair of Nike trainers with a waffle style sole. After googling ‘Nike’s waffle style sole’ I found that in 1972 Bill Bowerman used his wife’s waffle iron to mould the sole of a shoe that had better traction, creating a shoe called the ‘Moon Shoe’. This new design was then distributed to four track and field athletes at the 1972 Olympic Trials'

'Bill Bowerman’s waffle style sole struck me as a successful invention born from an unexpected place. This led me to think how the imagination works and how ideas can spring from the most unlikely of places. Much like love, ideas come to us when we are not looking, when we are on holiday, being playful, in our dreams or when we are making waffles'

'Using the waffle sole story as inspiration and with the spirit of the athlete I decided to make a fantasy film. Staying true to the experimental process, I deliberately wrote the story in ten minutes as a stream of consciousness. The result is a script that reads like a children’s book for 4 yr olds and under, filled with one-liners and farts. Pretty eye opening. The film is called ‘The Strange Gold Shoes’, a tall tale about a humble shoemaker who possesses the spirit of the athlete. The Nike trainers I was given, star as the strange gold shoes'

Synopsis:
Bella and Bob live on the slippery slope of Mount Mud. Bella is the local shoemaker and her mission is to invent the ultimate shoe, a shoe that will over come the perils of the slippery Slope. Bob on the other hand, has given up and accepts his position on the commode. Bella is also a visionary, her latest vision appears in the form of a pair of strange gold shoes. The shoes look like they have come from the past, or even the future, maybe they have been sent by the shoe God?