It’s been a while since I got a bit sneakerhead nerdy with you all in the newsletter, so today we’re going to look at one of the most interesting moments in PUMA’s history, and how it set them back decades.
If you know who Vince Carter is, you probably think about him jumping over a 7 foot 2 inch Frenchman. Or maybe you think about his dunk contest victory while wearing the legendary AND1 Tai Chi. But surprisingly, his first shoe deal was with PUMA.
I broke the whole thing down on the channel, and the video above is the full story of his first NBA game. This week it got a physical receipt. My friend Justin Oliver, who joined me on the Sneaker History Podcast a while back to talk PUMA, just picked up a pair of the Cell Origin Mid and sent over the photos you’ll see below. Justin has been hunting PUMAs since the early 2000s and has one of the most impressive PUMA collections I know of, so follow him @just.in.puma and give his episode a listen if you want to hear how someone gets that deep into a brand.
And that brings me to the most important part...