By the way, earlier I forgot to mention my brand new black suede Pumas, bought on sale last month at Big 5, just prior to my two-week drivin’ trip ’round Oregon, Idaho, and Eastern Washington.
During the ’70s, Puma was by far my favorite brand o’ shoe—at one time or another I owned five pair, whether for basketball, tennis, track, or just runnin’ ’round Havre! My feet were/are quite wide (EEE), and Pumas were then (for whatever reason) built notably wider than their chief Adidas, Converse, and Nike competition. My favorite was a pair of “Clydes”, the many-hued, low-top suede model popularized during Walt “Clyde” Frazier’s impressive reign as the NBA’s finest point guard.
During July of 1978, my sister Laurie and I assisted our friend Steve Kops and his dad Frank as they moved their venerable Havre sporting goods emporium (yclept Bing ‘n’ Bob’s) from its longtime location on 2nd St. over to expanded quarters on 3rd. Once said mission had been successfully accomplished—much to Mr. Kops’ pleasure, surprise, and great relief—he proceeded to give LAR and me free pairs of Clydes, as he was the exclusive dealer of Puma goods throughout North Central Montana!
I eventually wore said shoes’ soles out to such a degree that both outer heels were beveled at nearly 45-degree angles! LOL So, after about 1990 I wore them more sparingly (the dark blue suede uppers were still in excellent condition), thereby savoring their (unlikely) continued existence.
Flash ahead to 1994, when my ’70s Krautrock heroes in the band Faust undertook a brief tour of America (their first-ever appearances in our hemisphere!) and I happened to wear those same Puma Clydes to their Seattle gig at The Off Ramp.
By show’s end the band’s welding (!) had thrown off massive “spark showers”, a chainsaw had been deployed to sculpt a sheet of plywood, paint had been spattered everywhere, their front man (Jean-Herve Peron) had parted the packed-in crowd like Moses=Charlton Heston parting The Red Sea en route to demolishing with a sledgehammer an old upright piano that had been wheeled into the middle of the dance floor, and my ca. ’78 Clydes bore the splotches of red and white paint they still carry as badges of honor!
Anyhow, I hadn’t owned a new pair of Pumas since late in The Carter Administration, so I simply couldn’t resist the temptation, once I’d glimpsed the July sale flyer from Big 5!
By the by, when “The Clydes” were reintroduced during the early-1990s Hip-Hop heyday they were renamed “The Classic” or some such shite! I’ve also seen them latterly branded “The Suede”, which is at least literally true. And the current iteration—with slightly different soles and for whatever reason—is known as “The Smash”, though it’s now a purely “leisure” shoe, highly unsuitable for the rigors of hardwood basketball or hard court tennis.
Bottom line, I haven’t felt so good in a pair o’ shoes for DECADES! So here’s to Walt Frazier, Bing ‘n’ Bobs, Old School Hip-Hop (1979-1992), and to those memories of Seventies Havre that this simple throwback footwear conjures up so effortlessly.
Never been a cooler pair o’ shoes in The Universe!
I still have my Pumas from 1976 or 1977. When I wore them back into the sport store where I bought them in the late 1980’s, the store owner tried to buy them back from me. They were my favorite pair of tennis shoes, the only pair of shoes still in my collection from my childhood.
By the way, earlier I forgot to mention my brand new black suede Pumas, bought on sale last month at Big 5, just prior to my two-week drivin’ trip ’round Oregon, Idaho, and Eastern Washington.
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