After the success of the Tori, I decided to get back to my roots in sports. Since I don’t play basketball as often as I use to, I decided that I would dive into training. My background as a NFHS certified coach and my camp coordinator experience led to the creation of the CG097 running shoe. I developed an idea called P Grip which placed rubber lugs where the foot strikes the ground during running. The goal was to minimize the amount of rubber to decrease the weight. The concept was great but the actual production model of the shoe looked akwward because of the outsoles use of foam. The shoe took its inspiration from two of my favorite brands: New Balance and Nike. The name was derived from my boot camp company 097 and my point guard who was murdered in San Diego last year: Courtney Graham. I made only 120 pair of these shoes and sold out. I took the profits though and did something that wasn’t smart. I worked on a basketball shoe sample. I should have continued making colorways. The cost of my samples drained my resources and I haven’t released a shoe since the summer of 2010.
Chris Dixon the winner of the Future Sole Jordan Brand contest made the white colorway. The video below is of me running in the original sample. My current CG097II takes its cues from the original sample and uses a blend of two technologies, but remains faithful to the lightweight concept of using foam.
