BUILD CUSTOM SNEAKERS AT THE NIKE SITE-- UNLESS YOU'RE GOD!

Nike's just introduced customized sneakers you can "build" yourself, order and pay for at the new NIKEiD web site. Check it out. For just $10 more than the standard costs of the models available (the Air Turbulence running show and the Air Famished cross trainer), you can choose your sneaker's base color scheme (from three available) and its accent color (from six).

You can also put your personal ID on the back of the sneaker (up to eight letters), in the accent color-- which is fine if your name is Nancy, but forget if your parents named you God. When we typed "God" into the interface, the letters "G-O-D" appeared on the shoe, but when we pressed the Submit button we got the message, "Your Personal ID Has Not Been Approved." "Allah"? Yes. "Jesus"? Yes.

"Fuck me"? No.
"Kill Mom?" No.
"Kiss Mom"? Yes.
"Adidas"? No.
"Rape?" No.
"War"? Yes.
"Heroin"? No.
"Drugs?" Yes.
"Cock"? No.
"JizzBomb?" Yes.

"Dork Wad" didn't make it, but inexplicably "Dorkwad" did. We wouldn't get too excited about the possibility of getting a pair of Air Dorkwads out of Nike, though. The site's FAQ says that "all personalized messages are immediately put through a filter to determine if they contain words or phrases that we do not want placed on our footwear. Nike reserves the right to cancel any messages up to 24 hours after they have been submitted." In fact, we learned that the company is also working with the police in its home town of Portland, Oregon to screen out gang messages.

So much for "the customer is always right."