September 1st, 2005

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Canada
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Super Cool Terry Fox Replica Adidas

I can’t decide if this is an appalling exploitation of Terry Fox’s memory, or an admirable show of corporate generosity from Adidas. With the support of the Terry Fox Foundation, they’re re-releasing the classic Orion shoe that Terry ran on in 1980. From the Globe and Mail:

About 6,500 pairs of the blue shoes with white stripes — and a map of Terry Fox’s route imprinted on the insole — go on sale today at Sport Chek stores. They will cost $100 a pair and are available only in men’s sizes. The sale is expected to raise $500,000 for cancer research.

At a news conference, Mr. Fox held one of his brother’s shoes, noting in a voice cracking with emotion that it “took a licking.”

Terry went through nine shoes on his good left leg without replacing the shoe on his artificial limb. It shows just how much abuse his left leg took.

On a related note, Douglas Coupland’s photo book Terry is wonderful. I’d highly recommend it.

Comments: 4 Responses so far

Rob
September 1st, 2005
4:05 pm

I think that Adidas is doing a great thing by contributing the money.

Also, flipping through the Coupland book at Chapters last weekend got me all teary-eyed remembering the news stories from when we were kids.

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Todd
September 2nd, 2005
10:36 am

> I can’t decide if this is an appalling exploitation of Terry Fox’s memory, or an admirable show of corporate generosity from Adidas.

With these things, I think the truth is some from column a, some from column b. These things are never done without some consideration of how it can help the bottom line, though when done properly they can capture the spirit.

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'nee
September 3rd, 2005
11:29 am

Trivia: the Lethbridge Herald accidentally left the “e” off their headline “Terry Fox Marathon for Hope.” Whoops.

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j
September 8th, 2005
1:18 am

at first i was skeptical too.
but since all profits go towards cancer research, i choose to believe adidas is doing this to commemorate a canadian hero. and besides, regardless of what adidas’ intentions are the point is that we all remember what a huge accomplishment terry made and how we can do something in our own way

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