Long live the King.
Just to clarify, we’re talking about the PUMA King – a PUMA model we’ve had a pretty sizeable soft spot for the entire lifespan of Proper.
PUMA’s provenance in football is pretty much unrivalled. Their first foray into football boots came way back in the 1950s. By 1968 the PUMA King was launched with the revolutionary innovation of screw-in studs. In the ensuing years, every iconic player you can think of wore the PUMA King on their feet.
Today’s meshing of football and fashion has never been more relevant so it makes perfect sense to see the King Indoor being appropriated by people with no thoughts of kicking anything. It’d be easy for us to gatekeep football culture and moan when those with little interest in the nuances of the beautiful game jump on it. But this isn’t that. This is a shoe with uncompromising function and winning heritage being given new life and renewed context by people who want to challenge convention and push things forward.
For those of you who have purchased the 46th edition of our magazine (if you haven’t you can do so here), you’ll already have had a look at some prime PUMA King imagery, but for those that haven’t, we’re sharing a bit more of it here.
The latest campaign of the indoor KING documents how good-looking it is, but also the absolute versatility of the shoe, now you might be wondering, how do you measure footwear versatility? And we’ll tell you – if a shoe looks just as good when worn with a pair of jeans as it does with a pair of tights, you know it’s truly an all-rounder.
To shoot the campaign, PUMA drafted revered early 2000s club culture photographer, Ewen Spencer, and in our opinion, he’s expertly captured the era that originally saw the KING rise to mass popularity.
As a football boot, the Puma King continues to be worn for its original purpose but if our calculations are correct, it’ll become more of a presence on the pavement as well as the pitch.
So here you go, indulge your eyeballs in the perfectly sized tongue, beautiful gum sole and chic gold detailing, and then once you’re done with that, indulge your feet by purchasing a pair on November 23, 2024, from Slam Jam, SSENSE & other nice retailers.
