Frank Rudy, the inventor of the Nike Air Sole technology, has died

Via Oregon Live

Late in life, Frank Rudy turned his attention from athletic shoes to cancer, funding research and working with doctors at clinics in Ohio and New York.

But Rudy, who died Dec. 13 at the age of 84 at his home in California, is best known as an inventor who created the Air Sole technology that helped make Nike a booming business in the 1980s and the leading manufacturer of athletic shoes in the world.

"Frank Rudy holds a singular place in the pantheon of Nike innovation," Mark Parker, president and chief executive of Nike, said in a written statement.

"His relentless creativity and focus on solving problems was, in many ways, the template for how Nike pursues performance to this very day."

Rudy is credited with inventing the Nike Air shoe cushioning system in the late 1970s.

In a history of Nike titled "Just Do It," author Donald Katz wrote that Rudy brought his idea for small air bags to be placed on a shoe's sole to Nike in 1977.

To test the technology, Nike co-founder Phil Knight took a pair of air-cushioned shoes out for a run.

"He set out in one of the prototypes and was amazed at the 'ride' the cushioning offered," Katz wrote.

"Rudy and Nike's early Air Sole technology was first built into a running shoe in 1979, and the bags were laid into a basketball and tennis shoe three years later."

Although it was used in a variety of shoes, the Air Sole didn't catch on with consumers until 1987, when Nike used television ads featuring the Beatles' "Revolution" to promote the Air Max, which made the gas-filled urethane pouch visible.

Marion Franklin Rudy was born in Cleveland on Jan. 24, 1925, and grew up in Fairview Heights, Ohio. He was drafted into the Army in 1943, came home and graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 1950.

Rudy is survived by his wife, Margaret; a daughter; and a granddaughter.

Rudy was an aerospace engineer who left the industry in 1969 to pursue a career as an independent inventor who ended up with more than 250 patents, according to a news release announcing his death.

In recent years, Rudy was an avid supporter of cancer research at the Ordway Research Institute in Albany, New York and the Cleveland Clinic.

Ben Walby, a family friend, said Rudy was a hands-on philanthropist who used his analytic engineering skills to consult with doctors on their work.

"He liked medicine and that was the ultimate puzzle for him," Walby said Thursday.

"He wasn't one to shy away from the ultimate challenge. The bigger the problem the more complex the problem, the deeper he dug in."

Stephen Beaven: 503-294-7663;

"May you rest in peace. Though I did not know the man he revolutionized an industry and made my feet very happy. "