Dubraé is a generic term, originating at

Nike, Inc. Nike, Inc. (stylized as ''NIKE'') is an American athletic footwear and apparel corporation headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon. It is the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, ...

and dating from the mid 1990s, for an ornamental shoelace tag, most commonly seen on

sneakers Sneakers (American English, US) or trainers (British English, UK), also known by a #Names, wide variety of other names, are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but are also widely used for everyday casual ...

. Typically, a dubraé will have two holes through which a shoelace is threaded, like a

bead A bead is a small, decorative object that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes of a material such as stone, bone, shell, glass, plastic, wood, or pearl and with a small hole for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under 1 ...

on string. When the shoe is laced, the dubraé is centered between the first two

eyelets image:Eyelets For Curtain.jpg, Curtain grommets, used among others in shower curtains A grommet is a ring or edge strip inserted into a hole through thin material, typically a sheet of textile fabric, sheet metal or composite of carbon fiber, wo ...

(closest to the toe), with the shoelace passing through and behind the dubraé. A dubraé is typically made of metal, plastic, or leather, and may often be decorated with text or a commercial

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...

. It is distinguished from a bead in that it is non-tubular; it has two points of entry/exit for the shoelace, as a belt or

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may pass through a

buckle A buckle or clasp is a device used for fastening two loose ends, with one end attached to it and the other held by a catch in a secure but adjustable manner. Often taken for granted, the invention of the buckle was indispensable in securing two ...

. Although primarily decorative in purpose, one could argue a dubraé is also functional in that once threaded to the midpoint of a shoelace, it assists in centering the shoelace in the shoe, although few dubraé and shoelace combinations will necessarily provide enough friction to hold the dubraé in place while lacing.

Overview

The term 'dubraé' originated with a Nike footwear designer, Damon Clegg. In a 1994 product presentation for an internal group, Clegg pointed out features of his design for a Nike ACG boot, eventually coming to the shoelace tag, for which he lacked a term. Falling back on a word he had originally picked up from his

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-native college roommate, he called it a "doobrie"—a British

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, akin to "watchamacallit" or "thingy." (British media personality

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had often used the word "doobrie" in this manner during the 1980s.) Although Clegg suspected his audience had mistaken the word for a specific technical term, he continued his presentation.THE HISTORY OF THE DUBRAE
at Sneaker Freaker The term became popular within Nike and passed into wider use through the company's marketing literature. Nike documents reflect later uses of the word on designers' sketches and computer files with the Clegg spelling. However, over time, the pronunciation evolved to the Americanised ''doo-bray'', whilst spellings would come to vary widely from "doobray" to "dubret" and "deubré". The ''doo-bray'' pronunciation has become commonplace among sneaker collectors, with wide disagreement as to its spelling. With the publication of a catalog for the Nike Air Force 1 in 2006, Nike came to embrace the spelling "dubraé". However, it is suggested that this highly Frenchified spelling was simply a marketing approach by Nike to provide the item with a veneer of fashionable sophistication.

Popular versions

A dubraé may be used on a

dress shoe A dress shoe (U.S. English) is a shoe to be worn at smart casual or more formal events. A dress shoe is typically contrasted to an athletic shoe. Dress shoes are worn by many as their standard daily shoes, and are widely used in dance, for par ...

. It may vary in shape, size, material or materials, graphics, and text. The Nike Air Force 1, originally designed in 1982 by Bruce Kilgore, has been embellished with a dubraé since the late 1990s. Considering the popularity of this shoe, its dubraé is likely the most widely produced in history.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deubre Footwear accessories Nike, Inc.