crooked tongues magazine News Features

Reebok's Pump Fury's been getting the full treatment over the last couple of seasons. We don't know how popular it will ever prove Stateside to our buddies who favour the bigger and more structured releases, but in Asia people get this shoe and the appointment of Verbal as a creative director could give this classic a new lease of life. Some of the most impressive designs of all time seem to hark back to the class of '93-'95 who seemed set on progression by any means necessary. A shoe like the Pump Fury was a concept car of sorts, but it made production and remains unsurpassed in its glorious weirdness, putting Pump to actual use rather than fighting talk on TV-ads, by allowing it to custom fit to the foot and eliminate the need for laces. Hexalite, Graphlite, Insta Pump...the kitchen sink added to a shoe that's barely there. It's a serious achievement.

Now shoes want to be showered with comment and #hashtag love from the inaugural leak and it's killing the madness that made that the quest for the next big thing throughout the late 1990s so well regarded. After Gucci colourways and horsehair versions we get this yellow and navy Michigan-looking colourway that's akin to some original makeups but with some leather underlays to give it a more premium feel without obliterating the Pump Fury's lightweight purpose. We might be waiting for space holidays, airborne automobiles and that robot servant in the house, but despite the 1993 origins, the Pump Fury looks like a running shoe should do in 2011. We're also glad that the instantly dated digital display evolution of Insta Pump never made it beyond prototype stage. Less is way, way, way more in the case of this design. These are on sale in the Crooked Tongues store right now...