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How many knew that two major athletic shoe companies were founded in Oregon by members of legendary University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman’ s teams? One was AVIA, founded by Oregon discus record holder and current Country Club Estates resident Jerry Stubblefield. The other is that one over in Beaverton, started by middle distance runner Phil Knight.
Jerry has possessed an inventor-entrepreneurial spirit since an early age. In the first grade he fashioned a toy out of a double-headed nail from his dad’ s shop and sold them to friends for 5 cents. An Oregon native, he grew up in Ashland. At the age of 5, he lost sight in his right eye in an accident playing with other kids. In high school Jerry was into gymnastics and tumbling and also threw the discus.
He enrolled at the University of Oregon in 1958 as a PE major with just enough
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STAFF PHOTO: JAMIE VALDEZ
Jerry Stubblefield, who founded AVIA shoes, stands in his garage in Charbonneau.
money saved to cover the first two terms. He made the track team that year and, in his first meet, broke the school record in discus that had stood since 1936. That definitely got coach Bowerman’ s attention and an athletic scholarship followed. After college Jerry taught and was the head track coach at Montana State University. A similar head coach and teaching job at Churchill High School later brought him back to Eugene.
Jerry is the holder of more than 30 patents and his first was a javelin designed for indoor throwing. Another invention was runner starting blocks that could easily accommodate an athlete taking off on either their left or right foot. In the mid-1970s
Jerry moved to Portland. He designed a running shoe for the Osaga shoe company called the KT-26. The“ KT” was short for Kinetic Technology and“ 26” represents the number of bones in the foot. When Osaga closed due to financial difficulties, Jerry licensed the technology for the KT-26 to Dunlop Sport in Australia. They made the Dunlop KT26, the best-selling shoe in history in Australia, selling it from 1978 to 2012.
In addition to sport and recreational use, the KT26 was worn by postal workers, police, Australian factory workers and even inmates in correctional facilities. A modified version featuring Velcro instead of shoelaces was sent to the maximum-security units.
In 1979 Jerry founded AVIA.
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COURTESY PHOTOS
The Leonardo of running, from Olympic Trials finalist to designer and journeyman mold and pattern maker, no one worked harder than Jerry.
He came up with the name while on a cross-country flight. Avia is derived from the Latin“ avis,” meaning bird, and he decided to use it as a running shoe name to suggest aviation. The patented Cantilever sole was the heart of the product and that propelled AVIA into an industry leader, becoming the fourth largest running shoe company. They also had quite a line of basketball shoes. Clyde Drexler, John Stockton, Scottie Pippen and Robert Parish all wore AVIA.
The venture capitalist who invested in AVIA sold to Reebok in late 1986 to cover their losses in other investments because AVIA was so profitable. Jerry moved to Jantzen Island in Lake Oswego
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The Cantilevered sole revolutionized running shoe design.
and continued to come up with new inventions, including a wake board that glides across the water on a cushion of air, like a mini hydrofoil or a coating for the hull of an ocean tanker that reduces friction and drag to improve fuel economy.
These days Jerry and wife Tracie call Charbonneau home. If you’ re ever walking past Jerry’ s house and the garage door is open, you may get waved in. If so, you might get to hear about his flight on the Concord or see a few prototypes of some almost great inventions. The man is a true inventor and his mind is always at work on the next project.
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StateofOregon CCB # 194072 |