Vancouver is the talk of the town as we prepare ourselves for the 2010 Winter Olympics, but that isn’t the only thing happening at that time. Chinese New Year falls right into the Olympic schedule (February 14) and it is the Year of the Tiger.

Nike has celebrated Chinese New Year in the past and this year is like no other. Year of the Tiger will be Nike’s 9th design and the first Cortez to enter into the series.

Here is the official press release from Nike

Happy Chinese New Year! Nike Sportswear Presents Tiger Classic Cortez

The highly anticipated Nike design to celebrate Chinese New Year will officially launch on Feb. 10th and 13th respectively. Following in the footsteps of its predecessors, this new shoe draws its inspiration from the Chinese Zodiac the year of the tiger. I can’t imagine how much this shoe is going to go for but if you have any insight let me know!

The Nike Chinese Zodiac New Year series started back in 2002 with the Air Force 1, celebrating the year of the horse. The Year of the Tiger Classic Cortez is the 9th design and the first Cortez shoe adopted in the series. As Nike’s first running shoe, Cortez has been well known for its comfort, lightweight and heritage.

For 2010, the year of the tiger, the Nike designers took a new approach to interpreting the tiger. Instead of using the popular yellow stripe print, they used white tiger to reflect its image of power and prestige in Chinese traditional culture. The design details include:

• The shoe comes in with snow-white nylon upper and a subtly golden hue silk screened tiger’s stripe print. The same design extends to the sockerliner on which the Chinese New Year (2010.2.14) is dated.
• Chinese characters “寅”(tiger) on Chinese trigrams and “平安” (peace) are imprinted on the shoe tongue.
• The right shoe is finished with a red trim. It is a re-interpretation of the red string worn usually by people born in the year of tiger as a symbol of praying for good luck.
• An extra pair of shoe laces crafted by Starks will go with the shoe.
• The highlighted horsehair gives the shoe a living texture.

The shoe will be available in two different packages: A traditional Nike shoebox or a unique shoebox design limited to 200 pairs only. The limited shoebox is designed with the same inspiration to complement the shoe: white box with tiger stripe prints and Chinese character “寅”(tiger) on Chinese trigrams and “平安” (peace) are embossed on each side of the shoebox.

Finally, the five-finger death grip design is used to open the shoebox in true tiger fashion. The Nike Year of the Tiger Classic Cortez will be available on February 10th with limited shoebox package and on 13th with traditional Nike shoebox at select Nike Sportswear stores in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Michael Tao

Michael Tao is an entrepreneur of many startups including Define Magazine. His passion for business, and seeing things differently has led him to quitting his job and starting up his own company.

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