Nike chooses 11-year-old Richland girl to design inspirational apparel collection

When you look down at Kahleah Corona’s feet, you will notice something different about her multi-hued sneakers.

The custom Nikes tell a story of the 11-year-old Richland girl’s life.

There’s the first initial of each of her siblings, her love for her mom and a tribute to her dad’s union job.

There’s her favorite emojis — cool face and heart-eyes face — and a specially created one for slime, the squishy gunk.

And then there is a little pink brain.

In August 2017, Kahleah was left with life-threatening injuries from a head-on crash in Oregon. She suffered a traumatic brain injury.

After countless days at Oregon Health & Science University’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital over the following year, she was nominated by a doctor to design her own Nike shoe and apparel.

“When we found out she was chosen for the Nike Freestyle, Kahleah was screaming and jumping and everybody just joined in,” said her mother, Irma Corona.

The Doernbecher Freestyle program, now in its 16th year, allows kids to work with Nike design and development teams on a collection that might inspire others facing challenges, and to watch their creations auctioned to the highest bidder.

The money from the auction, and all shoe and apparel sales, goes to the Portland hospital to continue caring for future young patients and their families.

Kahleah and five other patient-designers from the Pacific Northwest — known collectively as The Super Six — participated in the 2019 program. She is the only one from Eastern Washington.

“Working with the Nike designers was fun, amazing and a blast,” said Kahleah. “Nike Freestyle is fun because I get to show all my emotions and fun things onto my shoe.”

Kahleah’s Collection, revealed earlier this month, went for about $11,000 at auction along with a couple autographed sports collector’s items.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson signed her sneakers and gave her an autographed Nike football to include in her box. And she also received a video shout-out from Olympic gold-medal gymnast Gabrielle Douglas and a signed copy of her book.

Now, on Dec. 7, Kahleah’s one-of-a-kind gear will be available to the general public in a limited run.

A special tag inside the clothes reads: “Engineered to the exact specifications of Kahleah.”

At just 11 years old, Kahleah gets to see the sneakers, zip-up hoodie and tights that she poured her heart and soul into featured on Nike’s website.

Her version of the React Element 55 sneaker will sell for $130.

Irma Corona said while it will sell as a men’s shoe, it actually is unisex and women just need to subtract 1.5 from the size to figure their size. The clothing will come in women’s sizes.

Devastating crash

Kahleah was 9 when she was thrown from a car in a head-on collision with a semi truck. She was wearing her seat belt but it broke on impact.

Her head made contact with the semi. Her siblings all had minor injuries.

Kahleah had numerous broken bones in her face and a skull fracture, and suffered innumerable strokes as her brain was hemorrhaging. Doctors told her family she may never talk, walk, see or hear again.

But Kahleah persevered.

She spent two months in Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and has had nine head surgeries to date.

A part of her skull initially was removed, requiring her to wear a helmet, and she now has a synthetic skull on the left side. She still struggles with short-term memory loss and learning.

“My heroes are my mom and my dad and brothers and sisters because they never left my side and were with me, and that’s why I’m here today,” said Kahleah. “Doernbecher is very important to me because they saved my life. They are my heroes and they’ll forever be my friends.”

Kahleah was nominated to be a shoe designer with the Doernbecher Freestyle program by her pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Lissa Baird.

Baird said Kahleah faced a challenging recovery through multiple major neurosurgical operations.

“Kahleah maintained a positive attitude through all of it and worked really, really hard to get where she is today,” she said. “She’s come a long way and she’s a really amazing person, and I’m really excited to see what she does with her shoe design.”

Designing her shoe

After Kahleah and her family found out she had been nominated and then selected for the program, they were required to sign confidentiality agreements with Nike. They could not speak about her designs for almost a year until the big reveal.

“They want this day to be a really big, big day for not only the children, but also the families,” Irma Corona told the Tri-City Herald. “It was pretty awesome. It was probably the best-kept secret.”

Kahleah made a number of trips to different Nike locations in Portland over the year, and parents Irma Corona and Doug Knisley always made sure to keep it separate from her doctor visits at Doernbecher.

Kahleah was told she would get to design a React Element 55 sneaker, and spent hours and hours at home working on ideas before her first big visit to Nike’s Beaverton campus.

That trip, she sat in a library filled with every imaginable color swatch and material.

The design and development teams soon found out that Kahleah loves all colors, but her favorite is glitter.

While recovering at Doernbecher, her family always had colorful items in Kahleah’s room and her siblings would create doodles to keep her day bright and happy.

Kahleah wanted that to reflect in her collection, so that she might brighten someone else’s day. She also added in some flair of her love for mermaids.

“They really worked hard to give her the image that she had, the dream that she had, everything she wanted on that shoe,” said Irma Corona, who described it as an amazing blessing.

The official colors of Kahleah’s sneaker are “sunblush/wolf grey-university red-bright grape.”

She has a green ribbon prominently displayed on the sides for traumatic brain injury, or TBI.

“She really wanted to put it out there ...,” said her mom, adding that traumatic brain injury often is considered the invisible disability.

Family is forever

A presiding theme throughout the sneaker and apparel is family.

The phrase “K Strong” became the close-knit family’s rallying cry through Kahleah’s hospitalization, medical procedures and ongoing recovery.

Kahleah chose the infinity symbol with the word “family” on it to symbolize that family is forever.

The eight eyelets have the first initials of mom Irma and dad Doug, along with Kahleah and her siblings: Rudy, Brayden, Austin, Alexia and Mikaela.

She also put a baby rattle on the bottom eyelet because her mom was pregnant at the time and they didn’t yet know the gender.

“She wanted to represent how her family was connected with the laces. We’ve always been with her and we always will be,” Irma Corona shared with the Herald. “She wanted to incorporate how her family is tight and will always be together.”

The sneaker and clothing also feature:

▪ “GLC” with a halo for Kahleah’s uncle, Genaro Lopez Corona, who died in a car crash in 2013 and she considers her guardian angel.

▪ Blue scissors for her dream of becoming a cosmetologist and hairdresser. She wants to make other children feel good like her own hairdresser has done for her since the accident.

▪ A blue ribbon for her cousin, Serena, who has transverse myelitis.

▪ A heart with “CK” and an infinity circle, meaning Corona Knisley forever.

▪ The triangle-shaped logo for her Richland school, Three Rivers HomeLink.

▪ An orange ribbon for her cousin, Ebony, who battled leukemia and for an aunt who died from it.

▪ A heart with “A+K+M+S” for the four sisters, forever in each others hearts.

▪ A wrench with initials “SC & EC” for uncles Samuel Corona and Eracleo Corona, both mechanics.

▪ Washington state with 348 to represent Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 348.

“I wanted to represent where my father Doug has worked for the last 19 years. I am very grateful for his hard work and dedication while supporting our family through hard times.”

▪ The blue football with an R is for brother Rudy who plays football, the Richland Bombers and quarterback Russell Wilson.

Kahleah’s team surprised her with the collector’s items from Wilson and Douglas on the day of the auction.

Irma Corona said the entire family, including the baby, was taken care of by Nike with gear from head to toe.

They’ve already been out in public wearing the sneakers from Kahleah’s Collection and have been told they’re cute and asked about them.

“I’m so proud my daughter designed it,” said Irma Corona. “I’m very humbled and grateful. It was the most beautiful experience that you cannot explain in words.”

“It means so much to her and ... (the team of designers) made it happen,” she added. “They really made it come to life.”

This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 11:21 AM.