PUMA GV Special: South American Flair Meets Straight-Sets Simplicity
Growing up in sports-mad Melbourne, one of my earliest and most enduring crushes was the . The metallic red Formstrip over white was my very first pair and to my mind, it’s still the ultimate expression of tennis tour de force. Since those teenage years, the GV has remained a chunked-out constant in my life, though it has always been more of a quality over quantity sneaker situationship. In more recent years, without big-name tie-ins and mega dollar budgets, the GV has never enjoyed the kudos it deserves, so this is a long-overdue love letter to an understated legend.
Guillermo Vilas was just one of the colourful and charismatic personalities tearing up clay and grass tennis courts in the 1970s and 80s. Like many , he had style for days. Blessed with natural timing and heavy-heavy topspin, Vilas’s never-say-die attitude was underpinned by his glamorous South American heritage. The trademark combo of heroic headband, luscious locks and knee-high sports socks was a swashbuckling sporting symphony. The fact he won both the US and French Open in 1977 – and the Australian Open twice in the late-70s – is proof he was a major player in his prime. Vilas also gave every impression he was a lover of the finer things in life just as much as he loved winning tournaments.
PUMA’s tennis roster was a formidable force back in those days. Aside from the GV Special, Vilas had a few hybrids released under his name including the Vilas Top Spin and Vilas Tournament, which both flaunted trimmed-down profiles. Elsewhere in Big Cat catalogues, the Hard Court, Advantage and Wimbledon models all flexed perforated Formstrips, adding panache to the classic tennis vibes, but don’t get me started on the goofy Monaco hightops or anything with Velcro straps – no way in hell was I game to walk the streets in those! Later on, of course, Martina Navratilova and Boris Becker both signed endorsement deals, so PUMA’s tennis team stayed strong throughout the 80s and 90s.
Decades later, the all-time greatest PUMA tennis sneaker is still the original GV Special. That thumping midsole carved from ultra-squishy foam with inch-high PUMA text debossed into the midfoot is pure perfection and provides a unique foundation for the GV’s nose-down ‘wedge’ profile. Metallic gold-foil script added a micro touch of 24kt glamour, while that two-tone transition from light grey perforated nubuck in the toe to ‘tumbled’ white leather is the GV’s signature motif, closely followed by a Formstrip that always matched the rubber outsole. You only need to see what happens when a third colour is introduced to see how elegance can easily give way to utter chaos. Straight-sets simplicity is definitely best in the GV’s case.
The GV Special stayed in the PUMA range intermittently over the decades and I must’ve gone through dozens of pairs in different colours over that time. Accessibility and availability were always key to maintaining my infatuation. Long before the modern footwear boutiques arrived in the early 2000s, I spent many afternoons scouring traditional sports stores all over Melbourne for GVs. You had to look hard, but they were out there, though that sweet pair in lavender over white always eluded me.
Confusingly for GV fans, PUMA simultaneously released a same-same-but-different model known as the California. The name might suggest this was a US-spec release, but it was widely available globally. The Cali did have two things going for it, namely a flip to a single colour upper generally paired with a white Formstrip, and an extra flap of leather below the laces that bore the shoe’s name and brand logo. My go-to pair was a mostly-mesh configuration in pale blue with a red Formstrip – a clear contravention of my previously mentioned GV single colour rule.
By the time my peak Grand Slam watching years arrived in the early 80s, Vilas was a wily circuit veteran, but his Argentinian derring-do was still hugely appealing. The fact that I could watch him late at night hustling at Wimbledon then try on his shoes at my local emporium the next morning was pivotal. Years later, I remember seeing the man himself interviewed on TV. Seems my hunch was right all along and tennis was just one of his many passions. A certified man of letters, Vilas was a gifted songwriter and author of several screenplays. He even found time to publish a book of his own poetry.
Time to raise a glass to the legend that is Guillermo Vilas… nice to have you back where you belong – on Team PUMA!