All shoes

Nike

Nike Daybreak

Everything we hold on this shoe: 1 written piece.

Nylon, suede, a waffle sole, a flared midsole. That template is a whole aisle now, and the Daybreak was doing it in 1979 as race kit.

The Daybreak


The spec

BrandNike
ModelNike Daybreak

No style code and no colourway here. Both come from the retailer listings on the calendar ahead, and this shoe has nothing on it, so the rows are absent rather than guessed at.


What we have written

Every piece, with the place each claim came from underneath it. Where we could not reach a source we say so instead of quietly leaving it out.

The shoes history

The Daybreak

The Nike Daybreak was launched in 1979, one of the pioneering Nike running models alongside the Tailwind and the LDV, with a nylon and suede upper, a thick flared EVA midsole and a waffle outsole. Joan Benoit Samuelson wore a customised pair to win the 1984 US Olympic Trials less than three weeks after knee surgery, then won the first women's Olympic marathon in Los Angeles later that year. Nike last reissued it in 2022 as a women's only model before phasing it out
Asphaltgold editorial, plus Gear Patrol for the 1984 run and the 2022 reissue. Nike's own SNKRS "This Day in Sneakers: Nike Daybreak" page exists but nike.com returns 403 to an automated fetch, read 2026-08-31


What we do not hold on the Nike Daybreak yet: nothing on our UK release calendar and no reading in our price index, so no ask we could quote. Everything above is what we do.