Shortbull spokeswoman for Nike Air Native N7

Shoe company 'did a wonderful thing' for Natives

By Bill Harlan, Journal staff | Friday, October 05, 2007

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Vanessa Shortbull hopes to dispel skepticism about Nike's new athletic shoe, the Air Native N7.

"Nike did a wonderful thing," she said in a telephone interview Thursday from Oregon.

Shortbull, 28, was born in Pine Ridge, and she grew up in Rapid City. She was Miss South Dakota in 2002. Now, she's a national spokeswoman for the first shoe Nike has ever designed for an ethnic group.

The Air Native N7 is made to fit Native American feet. Nike cites its own research that suggests Native feet are wider and "taller" than those of other ethnic groups.

The jury is still out among Native Americans on the question of foot size.

Pine Ridge High School volleyball coach Nellie Long thinks Nike might be on to something. "We've got some freshmen that are size 15," she said.

Others haven't noticed a difference.

"I've ordered thousands of shoes and seen thousands of feet, and I've never heard that Native American feet were bigger," Red Cloud High School athletic director Jennifer Schaer said.

But her school uses Nike products and appreciates the deep discounts the company offers. And though she hasn't seen an Air Native, she admitted, "The price is good."

Nike will sell the shoes wholesale, for $42.80 a pair, but not in stores. They will be available only to Native American wellness programs, schools on reservations, the Indian Health Service and similar organizations.

Shortbull said, "All the proceeds are going back to Native health and wellness programs."

She was surprised by some of the negative reactions to a Rapid City Journal wire story last week that reported the Native Air unveiling in Beaverton. "This shoe could have an enormous impact on changing lifestyles," she said.

Air Natives will be offered free as incentives to participate in programs to prevent obesity and diabetes, which are epidemic among Native Americans.

Charles Standing Bear, who directs the obesity and diabetes prevent program on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, said, "As long as people are exercising, the shoe doesn't matter." But he has already filled out the application for Air Natives. They'll be given away to members of walking clubs on the reservation.

Shortbull graduated from St. Thomas More High School in Rapid City and the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

Last year, she worked with Kathy LaBonte, a public-health nurse who runs obesity-prevention programs at Sioux San Hospital and at North Middle School in Rapid City.

LaBonte already gets Nike discounts for Native programs. "They've been so good to us," she said.

In November, when the first Air Natives are shipped, Sioux San will get 20 pairs as part of a "second round of assessments." LaBonte's clients will use them for 20 days, then ship them back to Nike for an analysis of wear patterns. (The participants will get another pair of new shoes.)

LaBonte said the N7's large toe box would be especially helpful for diabetics, who often have foot problems. Special shoes for diabetics cost hundreds of dollars, she said.

Nike discovered Shortbull through work she had done for the Native American College Fund. The company has a history with Native Americans. For example, Nike hosts a Native American Month each year, and Native Air developer Sam McCracken heads the Nike Native American Business Program.

Shortbull said she was invited to Nike headquarters at Beaverton, Ore., last November. After a tour she was ushered into the Nike boardroom for a surprise. "They pitched the shoe to me!" she said. She called it "one of the most scary and humbling moments" of her life.

For the past year, she's been working with McCracken to develop the Air Native program. Now, she'll travel and speak throughout the country, when she has time.

Shortbull's regular job is doing outreach and epidemiology for the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board in Oregon.

She also is a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve, and she commutes to her medical unit near Bloomington, Minn.

In her spare time, Shortbull is working on a master's degree, and if she gets the chance, she'll hone her stand-up comedy act.

She's surprised Nike singled her out because she insists she's not an athlete. "I run like a dancer," she said, laughing. "But you have to run in the Army."

She added, "Physical fitness has always been in the forefront in my family."

Her father, Tom Shortbull, is president of Oglala Lakota College.

Her mother, Darlene Shortbull, now retired, was a nurse in the diabetes program at Sioux San.

Shortbull says her work for Nike follows that health-care theme by encouraging people to start walking and stick with it.

"I would like to think it's a wellness shoe," she said.

The N7 is even "Nike Plus enabled," which means you can plug the shoe into an iPod to measure workouts. Some Air Native programs will include iPods as incentives

"N7" refers to the Native American concept of viewing actions with regard to the impacts they will have seven generations into the future. The shoe also incorporates other Native American themes, such as a sunrise-sunset pattern and images of feathers and stars.

That is secondary to Shortbull. "If you take away all that stuff, Nike made a great shoe and a great shoe for Native people."

Nike also made a great shoe for Shortbull herself -- a custom "Vanessa Shortbull" model with Lakota symbols. "It made me cry that they could take so much effort," she said.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com