author: Konrad Serafinski
Puma Creates Gaming Shoes
Puma presented its first shoes dedicated to professional gamers. Active Gaming Footwear is designed to provide comfort and maximum performance increase when playing.
They say that it's not the equipment but technique that makes you a good sportsman. However, over the years of its presence in hearts and minds, a new one, a bit sarcastic but equally popular, has come into being: especially among those practicing team sports. It goes like this: "Show me your shoes and I'll tell you what kind of sportsman you are." It seems that the German company Puma has decided appeal to the followers of the latter motto and produce shoes for German... gamers.
You might say that there's nothing strange about it, after all, Puma has been making shoes for footballers or basketball players (as well as other athletes) for years. This time, however, the company intends to conquer the video games market. The "shoe-socks." (the company uses both names interchangeably, due to their construction) from Puma were named Active Gaming Footwear and cost around $100. Their job is to improve gameplay performance and provide maximum comfort for the player.
In the official description we can read that the shoes were made in response to the needs of professional gamers and will help them to achieve better results:
In extensive talks with professional gamers we uncovered the need for a sock-like shoe; one that is comfortable, lightweight and grippy. It has a super-low profile rubber outsole made for at-home or in-arena use. What we created is a new performance shoe that we describe as Active Gaming Footwear, the latest PUMA gaming tool to help gamers focus on their game and perform at their best.
Naturally, the shoes/socks (shocks?) for gamers aroused a lot of laughter in the media. PC Gamer points out that a model has no right to be called a "gaming" product if it does not have RGB lighting. There were also alternatives in the form of slippers imitating animal paws.... The website also reminds that some time ago Puma announced a partnership with Playset to create a gaming seat that will be available for $255.
Contrary to popular opinion, Puma Active Gaming Footwear are not the world's first "sports shoes" for gamers. One Tap from K-Swiss was previously released with professional athletes in mind. Unfortunately, the shoes turned out hardly successful and were soon lost in time.
This is not the first time that a sports company has entered into a collaboration with the gaming community on the subject of shoes. During the holidays we wrote that Ninja (Fortnite's most popular streamer) started working with Adidas. The fruit of this is the recently presented model, which will be available for sale on December 31. It is not "sports shoes" but sneakers. Did the Pumas manage to design the perfect shoes for gamers? Either way , we wouldn't be surprised if more companies follow in the footsteps of the Germans, and in a few years' time pro-gamer "socks" will be advertised by the biggest stars of the eSport.