Find PUMA Clyde Court Men’s Basketball Shoes and other Mens Basketball at us.puma.com.
I was in a store today and a guy walked in with Puma on from head to toe. The guy had his young son with him. I asked him if he played in the shoes and he responded that his playing days were over. The guy was about 6-6 and in Memphis there is rarely a 6-6 guy who wasn’t a ball player. My assumption that the guy was in his mid 30s because he looked at me and said, “Both of our playing days are over,” and laughed. Most people tend to think I’m younger than I actually am so I told him my days were over longer than yours, but I can still stand behind the arc and drain Js all day. We both laughed and I went into reporter mode and asked, “Why did you buy the Pumas?” He explained that the NBA guys were giving it a chance so why not. It was a different look.
That statement was a revelation. While the Puma Clyde Court/Disrupt hasn’t really made any waves in the resell market, every time I’ve walked into a store I look at the shoes and a host of people walking in pick it up. As any good sales person understands, if you can get a person to pick the shoe up, you can get them to buy it. Puma has a serious opportunity to actually disrupt basketball. They’ve produced a shoe that actually translates from the court to fashion. The entire suit the guy in the store wore looked like it was pulled from the pages of an IG profile of an NBA player. The entire set worked. However, that doesn’t mean that Puma should attempt to encroach upon a colorway that Nike has made famous with the LeBron 8 Pre-Heat and they continue to utilize the color. A few months ago the Jordan 1 Riverwalk/South Beach color was released and a LeBron XV Low South Beach was dropped. Just this week an Epic React South Beach was dropped. When I checked my e-mail today and saw that Puma was delivering their own version of the colorway I thought, naaahhhhh son… don’t do it. Then I clicked through and saw the pictures:
Puma and adidas share the same cushioning system. Puma’s decision to encapsulate their NRGY Beads in a TPU cage has alowed the brand to do something that adidas hasn’t really been able to do with BOOST very often. They have produced shoes that don’t rely on the pebbled aesthetic created by the BASF cushion. The cage around the cushion system gives you a subtle reminder of the cushion, but the design of the shoe allows for an almost gradient transition from upper to midsole that looks great on this version of the Clyde Court. I really don’t think another brand should ride the coattails of another company’s signature colorway, but surprisingly the Ocean Drive works to me.
Especially at the heel. The “Biscay Green” cat inside of the black heel counter pops. The only issue I have is with Puma launching what is explicitly a summer color in the fall. The shoe has a very limited opportunity to sell in cold weather areas and will be relegated to states where rain and snow aren’t a prominent issue. I guess the same can be said about Nike’s new Epic React so maybe the brands know something I don’t. The Ocean Drive from Puma drops on the same day as the Air Jordan 11 Retro Concord… Puma is trying to play rough, or Puma is hoping some parent will be like, “Awwww baby it costs half the price of that other shoe.” You can use the link at the head to be notified of when the Ocean Drive drops.