M. Frank Rudy revolutionized athletic footwear with his invention of the iconic Nike Air sole鈥攑roviding cushioning through the containment of pressurized air within a polyurethane plastic membrane.
After serving as a U.S. Army medic in World War II, he went on to study mechanical engineering at Case Institute of Technology and became an aerospace engineer, working on NASA鈥檚 Saturn and Apollo rocket engines and eventually holding more than 250 patents.
