2012 Doernbecher Freestyle Collection Hits Stores November 30th

Portland, October 27th. Nike and OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital unveiled the 2012 Doernbecher Freestyle Collection at a charity gala. Kate Ehlen was the winning bidder of Autumn’s Nike Air Max 90 shoes. (Photo credit, Izzy Ventura) Over 500 people joined the celebration at the Portland Art Museum. Here’s the Nike website for the collection: www.nike.com/the-doernbecher-freestyle

Each of the six 2012 Doernbecher Freestyle designers took the stage with their Nike designers to unveil their designs. Each pair (signed by Lebron James) was auctioned off to the highest bidder, which raised $600,000. Nike also presented Doernbecher with $890,000 for the sales of last year’s shoes. The Limited Edition Doernbecher Collection shoes will be sold at www.nike.com and at Nike retail locations beginning November 30th. To date, the program has raised more than $4 million.

Doernbecher Freestyle was created in 2004 when Michael Doherty, Nike’s Creative Director of Global Brand Presentations and Doernbecher Foundation board member, was talking to his son, Connor, about ways to raise money for the Hospital. Connor had the idea of having Nike create shoes and sell them to raise funds. Michael then invited one of Nike’s shoe designers to take a tour of the hospital to inspire him to design a pair of shoes for Doernbecher. It was designer Marcus Tayui’s vision to see patients design the shoes with the proceeds benefiting the hospital that in many cases has saved their lives. Now in its ninth year, this extraordinary program has raised over $4 million for the hospital, which uses the funds for everything from clinical programs and hospital construction to providing care for uninsured children.

Meet the 2012 Designers!