The Other Oregon Sneaker Brand

Looking back at the heyday of Avia.

Avia is a nonsense word that comes from “avis,” the Latin word for bird. Company founder Jerry Stubblefield came up with it while on an airplane in an origin story not too dissimilar from how Peter Moore arrived at the conclusion of the Air Jordan Wings logo: both things suggested the spirit of flight, with “Avia” being so close to “aviation,” and the w…