How Kenya’s Great Rift Valley Inspired The Nike Air Rift/Modern Split Toe Shoes
Sitting at the edge of East Africa is Kenya, a diversified country with amazing people and outstanding physical features. Kenya is one of the major tourist destinations in East, Central, and Southern Africa. One of the major physical features in Kenya is the Great Rift Valley which is a geographical trench that runs from Lebanon in the Middle East all the way to Mozambique in South-Eastern Africa. This feature is the origin of the concept behind the iconic Nike Air Rift and lets me tell you how.
Kenya is a country that has a lot of talented, both long-distance and short-distance, runners who train hard to go to the Olympics and other international competitions. Back then the runners used to run barefoot while training in the harsh terrains of the rift valley which inspired Nike to come up with a shoe concept. The philosophy behind the split-toe concept was that they tried to mimic the natural shape of the sole of the feet. This would make the runners be able to run in a more natural motion as compared to the normal sneakers.
Nike improved the natural motion aspect of the Air Rift by natural air cushioning and a special traction pattern that would help runners run comfortably on the terrain. In 1996, Nike launched the Air Rift which became instantly popular among runners and shoe collectors from all over the world. The name Air Rift was inspired by Kenya’s Great Rift Valley which was also the origin of the shoe’s concept. Other versions of the shoe went on to be produced and they all became as popular as the original split-toe Nike Air Rift.
These days a lot of other brands have adapted the split-toe feature and incorporated it in some of their designs. This shows that the Nike Air Rift’s original concept was a great idea and it has spread throughout the shoe industry. The split-toe feature is only going to get more diverse in the future as shoe companies continue to release new designs every other day.