YO! REEBOK PUMP UP, AIR OUT!

You see, no one wanted old! Things shifted so fast that to look back would get you lapped. Sure, model names were repeated, but they had to be brand new updates that incorporated the latest gimmickry. Being told that something was merely encapsulated wasn’t good enough! Like a bastardisation of Bruce Lee admonishing a pupil, people didn’t want to think
– they wanted proof!

Nike had finally allowed us to ‘see’ that Air wasn’t a placebo, giving the wearer a false sense of shock-absorb immortality in 1987. adidas brought us Torsion in ‘88 (twinned with Soft Cell) and the beauty was the ability to touch, prod and straight-up gawp at futurist footwear. The byproduct of this escalating madness was supremely visible, though functionally questionable. Remember Filas that converted via a removable collar? Converse’s Energy Wave (a more wearable precursor to the terrible React Juice) complete with a cutaway to prove the marbled foam was there? Obviously you recall PUMA’s DISC system with added Trinomic, but how about Wilson’s robotic Eminence model? K-Swiss’s Formula 18? adidas pioneered with the removable Plug and Inserts for a ‘custom’ fit nearly a decade before, and their Micropacer concept was remarkably forward-thinking too, but by 1993 their Tubular technology, for all the runner’s good looks, had taken a decidedly Pumped detour into inflatable cushioning.