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efore there was a “maker movement,” there was Bill Bowerman. Before there was Tobie Hatfield (’87), innovator, there was Tobie Hatfield, pole vaulter. It was Bowerman who introduced Hatfield to innovation. The son of a former Oregon state senator and governor, Bowerman was head track and field coach of the University of Oregon and the 1972 U.S. Olympic team in Munich before co-founding Nike Inc. Hatfield was 1978 Class 2A state champion in the pole vault as a junior for Central Linn High School in Halsey, Ore., where his father coached nine state championship teams and his brother won three Oregon vault titles. One day the 18-year-old senior received an unexpected call from Bowerman, who asked Hatfield to come to his shoe lab in downtown Eugene. Bowerman gave Hatfield the name of a doctor, and told him to get X-rays of his feet and come back in a week. “I was curious because I was not injured at the time,” Hatfield remembers. “But you never disobeyed Mr. Bowerman.” When Hatfield returned to the lab, Bowerman placed a new pair of spikes on a table in Hatfield’s school colors, purple and white. “Ah, nice,” Hatfield responded. “Turn them over,” Bowerman said. Hatfield turned the shoes over and saw “a crazy mess where it appeared (Bowerman) drilled new holes for spike receptacles.” “That is why I had your feet X-rayed,” Bowerman said, “so I could see where your bones are in your feet
and place the spikes appropriately.” “Wow,” Hatfield thought. “I didn’t know that was even important.” Thirty-eight years later, Hatfield says, “I certainly do now.” He adds, “That’s when I started to learn about innovation. I always wanted to do things differently from others. Innovation best happens when you don’t conform yourself to the same standards as everyone else. … We all can invent and think differently to push the boundaries of problem-solving if we ask ‘what if?’ questions and then simply just go try some things and know there will be more failures than successes and be OK with that.” Surely by now Hatfield has had more successes than failures. A former ACU Wildcat vaulter and assistant coach, Hatfield followed in Bowerman’s footsteps and joined Nike in 1990. There, he works in Nike’s Innovation Kitchen, a think tank producing trendsetting sports products and technologies. His title: senior director of athlete innovations. His business card: Tobie Hatfield, Innovator. “Certainly all of my athletic career and all the coaching I learned from my dad and my other coaches gave me the foundation to ‘listen to the voice of the athlete,’ ” Hatfield explained. The athletes he has listened to and developed shoes for need no introduction. They include Michael Johnson, Marion Jones, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Mary Decker Slaney, Ashton Eaton, Misty May Treanor, Troy Polamalu, Maria Sharapova, Tiger Woods and fellow vaulters Tim Mack, Stacy Dragila, Sandi Morris and Renaud Lavillenie – to name just a few. In recent years, Hatfield has turned his attention to creating and engineering better footwear for paraathletes and others with disabilities. Nike’s mission statement comes from a Bowerman tenet: “If you have a body, you’re an athlete.”
“That means everybody,” Hatfield says, “and we never forget that.”
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obie Dean Hatfield was born Oct. 9, 1960, in Corvallis, Ore. His father, Tinker Hatfield Sr., was a high school track and field coach after his collegiate playing career in football and track and field at Pacific College in Forest Grove, Ore. He was the national high school Coach of the Year in 1976, and he coached Olympic teams for Taiwan in 1980 and the Philippines in 1984. Tobie’s older brother, Tinker Jr., won three state championships in the vault for Central Linn, competed for legendary coaches Bowerman and Bill Dellinger at UO, where he was a teammate of Steve Prefontaine, held the Ducks’ vault record at 17’4” and placed sixth at the U.S. Olympic trials in 1976. Tinker Jr. was eight years older than Tobie. “Because of our age difference, he was both a brother and
Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman
a father to me,” Tobie said. “We were best friends then and still are today. He was a true mentor to me. That’s why I got into pole vaulting because he did it. I thought I was supposed to do it too.” Tobie also observed his older brother begin his creative career. “Watching my brother paint and ACU TODAY
Winter-Spring 2017
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