In a lab far away, quiet and gray,
Some thinkers and tinkerers started to play.
They fiddled with fabrics and rubbery glue,
But needed a mind full of wild and new.
So up from the East came a curious guest,
With hats on his head and rhymes in his vest.
“Let’s twist up the sneakers!” said old Dr. Seuss,
“Let’s zig them! Let’s zag them! Let’s set them all loose!”

They made shoes that curled and shoes that spun,
Shoes with no left foot and shoes with just one.
They bounced and they blinked and they zipped with a hum,
They wiggled and waggled like ten toes of fun.
Laces were ladders, soles shaped like beans,
Tongues like accordions stitched at the seams.
The Swoosh was still swooshing but danced in new ways,
It looped and it loop-de-looped through the haze.

The photos were taken, the sketches were stacked,
The boxes were labeled, the concepts were packed.
But someone said “Stop! This is too much delight!
Shoes should be boring and boxy and tight!”
“They’re silly!” said one. “They’re too fun!” said another.
“They look like they’re drawn by my kindergartner’s brother!”
So Nike, still young and unsure of its path,
Tucked Seuss’s ideas in a box and a bath.

(Well, not a real bath. That part’s just for rhyme.
But they vanished those shoes for a very long time.)