Well here's some late news... you might remember that Size? in the UK are celebrating their tenth birthday this year and that PUMA asked us to develop a shoe in their honour. Well, here it is – the legend of the Geography Teacher! Admittedly, it’s not the catchiest name for a sneaker and the back story is pretty flimsy at best, but at least the shoe’s cool! And we can exclusively reveal that we also designed a "geography teacher' PUMA bicycle as well. Dressed up in beige and taupe with vivid mauve pops, a Brooks saddle and bag, gum tyres, Trinomic branding and wooden rims, it's the perfect complement to the shoes. At this stage it's a one-off design but who knows, it looks so good it might actually be put into production! Peep the first pics here...
But first, let us explain the concept. A few years back we did an interview with a UK collector named Kerso who had a crush on a series of 80s suede trainers that he christened ‘geography teachers’, on account of their beigeness and scholarly status – the exact kind of practical and organic shoes that geography teachers would wear. Struck by Kerso’s terminology, it became part of the Sneaker Freaker office vocabulary. So the starting point was beige suede… but on which PUMA?
After having worked on the PUMA Blaze of Glory model a few years back, we were already huge fans of the chunky Trinomic sole unit. But we didn’t want to go there twice, so we did the next best thing – we opted for the sister model – the thoroughly under-appreciated and curiously named R698. Of course flipping that lo-fi geography teacher theme onto a jacked-up ‘80s runner is a contradiction, but that’s just one of the reasons it looks the nuts. Because when you get into it, this ‘GT’ is all about colour and texture. Peep the ivory midsole, the gum sole, the mad mauve pops and the black toebar for weather protection! This is definitely a colourway like no other. You’ll also notice a few design flourishes, most notably the SF logo on the heel thumb strap, which we added as a nod to the Blaze of Glorys. Extra details include a topographical discussion on the inner soles and a ‘tectonic plate’ tongue tag. We also asked PUMA to add a plumped-up tongue, giving the R698 a suitably phat stance. When you lace’ em just right, they’re now easy as pie to slip-on and kick-off! Needless to say, numbers were limited and they've already sold out in Size?.
However we have a very limited number of pairs in our online store now... click here to take home your Teachers!
