Mizuno »SkyMedal«

The Stuff Olympic Legends are Made of

The Japanese sporting goods manufacturer Mizuno has been mixing up the sneaker game for quite some time. After the Wave Rider was in the spotlight in the past, now the next silhouette errupts from the Mizuno archives, to make a wave. And it is this very silhouette that marks the start of Mizuno as a new brand at HHV.

We’re talking about the Mizuno SkyMedal, which was first seen at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona on the feet of several US athletes, including track-and-field icon Carl Lewis, who then triumphed in the 100-meter sprint and long jump. Lewis’ abilities has already been very dominant in the years before, from ’84 – ’92 he won eight gold medals, reached the Jesse Owens record (four gold medals in an Olympic tournament) and made no secret of his success in interviews as well. Opponents from all over the world publicly described him as arrogant and conceited. In addition to that, rumors circulated that Carl Lewis was gay, which was a no-go to sports brands. The previous Nike athlete was unceremoniously dropped by Beaverton because »If you’re a male athlete, I think the American public wants you to look macho«. At least that’s how Don Coleman, a representative of Nike, argued at the time. A short time later, Lewis signed deal with Mizuno. At the 1992 Olympics, he rubbed his lasting success under the nose of all other brands, SkyMedals on feet. One Year later, the runbird logo of the released OG-silhouette was ironically dipped in rainbow colors. Another success story is that of the US basketball olympic dream team around Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkley.

With so much historical significance around the SkyMedal silhouette, the selected colours red, white and blue are a match made in the American heaven. The shoe is an ode to the past as it is strongly inspired by models from the nineties. Nevertheless, the SkyMedal emits a certain modernity that probably stems from the fact that Mizuno’s archive was already ahead of its time and apparently created timeless shapes.

Since the original release in 1993, the running and sports landscape has evolved and several new sports have been created. In order to test how the SkyMedal performs in our time and in the urban setting, we decided to shoot a young, action-packed sport that can theoretically be practiced anywhere and at any time: Parcours. A big thank you to Eric of Team Over The Top for his performance.