PUMA Crack 163

PUMA Crack

ART NUMBER: 163

MADE ON: 

MADE IN: WEST GERMANY

FACTORY: 

Here is one of PUMA’s more elusive models from their vast back catalogue. The superbly named PUMA Crack was an athletic training shoe introduced in the early 1970’s. This is an excellent example of one of the earliest made articles from West Germany. Some of the early models also came out of PUMA’s Yugoslavia factory, until production moved East to Taiwan when retro models were produced with some slight differences.

Made for their performance rather than their fashion or style appeal only two initial colouways were released, Red and the Navy as seen here. These first productions didn’t feature the famous ‘Jumping Puma Cat’ on the side or rear of the shoe. Neither did they have any tongue tags. The later releases and retro’s featured both as well as some different colour mock-ups; including the use of gum soles with some versions.

They featured a form fitting shape, pointy round front toe, in soft suede with a sole providing great traction to aid in their performance. These came about during an era when the company went from strength to strength, with PUMA clad athletes across numerous sports winning gold medals, championships and international sporting events. This is something found Rudolf Dassler firmly believed in. “You cannot play sports wearing shoes that you would walk around town with.”

It may not be a model most will have seen or be familiar with modern materials and advances surely this could be an ideal model due for a retro and if not for those reasons then purely for the fact it has one of the best names of any shoe ever released.

Photography: errol

Text: Professor B