PUMA ARGENTINA

FROM ANFIELD to ARGENTINA!

The brief was simple, ‘find me a pair of Puma Argentina’, the cult classic from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s when fashion trends changed thick and fast. Many were forgotten but just a few lived to gain mythical status amongst those whose youth changed a generation and Puma Argentina were one of them.

For me, when I get together and reminisce with friends of a certain vintage, Puma Argentina are mentioned with the same affection as Grange Hill, Star Wars, World Cups and indeed European Cups. No surprise then that a thread runs through all these topics, 1978. Even music, for me 1978 was when I bought my first single, my parents gave my sister and myself money to buy a record each, we chose ‘Rat Trap’ by the Boomtown Rats and ‘Jilted John’ by Jilted John (you know, Gordon is a Moron, that Jilted John) and scrawled our initials on both. We were also one of the first in the street to get a video recorder – the Ferguson Videostar was on hire from Radio Rentals and came with a schedule of all the 1978 World Cup games.

In the scally boom of the late ‘70s, the city of Liverpool’s thirst for something original that stood out from the crowd was met in the shape of three seminal shoes from Puma. Puma California, Puma G.Vilas and Puma Argentina. The Argentina were released on the back of the 78’ World Cup and were the more affordable of three, hence their massive popularity. So popular infact that I could not find a pair for love nor money in the summer holidays of 1980. I could just about get into a 3 - and this was the smallest size you could get. Not many shops back then sold Puma Argentina but I can remember pulling on three pair of socks, just to make sure they’d fit, then dragged my mum down to P&I sports which was at the bottom of my street in Liverpool. They only had size 6 and upwards left but the lady in the shop phoned their other shop on Rose Lane and they confirmed they had a pair which they’d set aside. I convinced my poor mother to get the two buses needed for the journey for the holy grail of my youth. ‘They might not even fit you’ she pined, I just looked at my feet, thinking maybe I should have worn four pair of socks but mithered her none the less.