NPR has a nice article and audio story about the way companies archive their old products in order to learn from past mistakes. The story highlights Nike, who even has a corporate archivist who spends her time organizing and collecting some 23,000+ pieces of sports memorabilia, and 143 pairs of shoes from the 70’s and 80’s. Many of the sneakers were purchased recently from a Japanese collector to help fill in gaps in the archive. Nike is still missing around 50 models, no telling what they’ll pay for them but the list is available here: Nike Archive Shoe Wish List. I bet serious sneaker collectors have a lot of these in their own personal archives, I wish I did!