Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila was added to his country's Olympic team for the 1960 Summer games in Rome at the last moment, as a fill-in for a teammate who’d broken his ankle in a soccer match. Unfortunately, Adidas had so few shoes left when Bikila arrived that he couldn't use them, so he decided to run barefoot (which was how he'd trained for the race). Bikila set an Olympic record with a time of 2:15:16.2, becoming the first Sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal (a feat he’d accomplish again in Tokyo in '64).

After the race, when Bikila was asked why he had run barefoot, he replied, "I wanted the world to know that my country, Ethiopia, has always won with determination and heroism."

A portion of this shirt's proceeds benefits Rainbows4Children, an independent foundation providing education for children in Ethiopia, primarily the children of adults with disabilities.
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