Irrigon boy overcomes health challenges to be 1 of 6 Nike shoe designers

IRRIGON — Everyone loves getting a new pair of shoes, but not everyone can say they are wearing a pair they designed themselves. But that is the case for 12-year-old Royce Short of Irrigon, who is one of six patients of Portland’s Oregon Health Sciences University’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital to design a pair of Nike shoes as part of Doernbecher Freestyle 22. Each year, young hospital patients are paired with Nike volunteer product designers to create unique, personalized sneakers that tell their own life stories of courage and resilience. One of Royce’s surgeons and a nurse nominated him in January to be a designer. Designing his custom-made shoe The design process involved Royce getting pieces of paper each with a blank Nike Air Force 1 style of shoe. He then took colored pencils and created six different designs. Royce said it took him a couple of days to complete the designs before turning them into Nike in February.

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