I’m not sure what it was about the early 2000s, but it felt like everyone owned loads of shoes.
I’ve got fond memories of going round to my mates’ houses after school and tiptoeing through a minefield of footwear just to get through their front door. My house was exactly the same. Maybe shoes were more affordable back then, or maybe it was a byproduct of Vogue going super skinny, but for whatever reason, everyone seemed to own far more footwear than was remotely reasonable.
And in every family’s sprawling mass of shoes, an unhealthy proportion was made up of brightly coloured running trainers. The sort that looked like they’d been dreamt up by a 12-year-old trying to imagine what 2050 might look like. Metallic panels everywhere, acres of mesh, and phrases like “Hyperfusion-XL13” stamped across the sole. It was a strange time for running – but one I look back on with a certain nostalgic fondness.
And it turns out PUMA feel much the same. They’ve just announced the resurrection of the Homura – a model I’m almost certain was buried somewhere in my own family’s footwear amalgamation.
First released at the height of the Y2K era as part of the PUMA Complete line-up, the Homura belonged to the aforementioned experimental chapter when running shoes looked fast even when they were lying on the floor of your porch.
Visually, it’s bottled nostalgia. A bold, high-contrast palette that reverts hard into turn-of-the-millennium road running. Radiant orange on the upper, sliced by sharp black contours, and little jolts of yellow and turquoise. It’s bright. It’s unapologetic. It’s just the right side of mental.
All in all, it’s a fantastic release, and if your childhood was anything like mine, it looks exactly how you remember running shoes looking when you were growing up.
The PUMA Homura is set to launch on May 16, 2026, at puma.com
