A special-edition Nike Zoom Vomero 5 debuts as part of Nike's Doernbecher Freestyle XVIII Collection for 2023. These shoes are particularly remarkable because they were designed by an 11-year-old. Jaren Heacock is an young artist and designer who was born with cleft palate. He went through complicated procedures and speach therapy before eventually becoming the smart and impressive kid he is today.
The shoes were created as part of an ongoing partnership with OHSU’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital that stretches back to 2004. A number of patients collaborate with Nike to release their own Nike products which are sold in limited quantities.
Jaren drew inspiration for the shoes from his own Chinese Zodiac animal, the dragon, the soon to be released sneakers display a bright orange and yellow color scheme across mesh, rubber, and velcro uppers. The velcro panels have interchangeable patches of dragons, fire Swooshes and name tags of his brothers and sisters to be secured at various places on the shoe. The name of designer is printed in Jaren's own handwriting on the toebox. Jaren's interests can be seen in the Team J, Minecraft head, and Dragon character accents on the mismatched tongue tabs. The finishing touch on the shoes are the 8-bit firework graphics decorating the insoles and “Assembling the Future” text across the heel counter.
The Nike Zoom Veomero 5 “Dooernbecher” is set to drop via Nike and select retailers for $160 USD in the next few months.
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