PUMA Basket

• MODEL: PUMA BASKET
• TYPE: BASKETBALL
• MADE IN: YUGOSLAVIA

Lets get back to the basics with this PUMA Basket: a silhouette that stores up a serious amount of not just basketball history, but general German trainer heritage as well, and yet might it be out-shined by its more velvety cousin?

That’s right. We’re talking about the PUMA Suede. You all likely know it well even if you’re not a Suede-head, even if you’re not a PUMA purists, shit even if you’re not really into sneakers to begin with. It’s like the shell-toe or Allstar, it’s an iconic treasure of that golden era that many of us old enough to memory lust after and those of us too young to have actually experienced still imagine vividly somehow. The Suede is just pure historical iconography.

Or is it? Because after all, it’s the Basket that began it for PUMA on the courts and underneath the hoops. It was a go-to, leather low-cut that just out-performed the rest in not only athletic usage, but durability (which this vintage Yugoslavian version certainly shows off in its robust and barely aged-looking form), and – possibly more important of all – street style. But how old is this relic of PUMA’s past? Well with the Suede being reported as a follow-up release in ’68 it’s safe to say the basket has been around for nearly fifty years!

No joke, this ‘turnschuh’ (as they’re referred to in PUMA’s native tongue of German) has taken it’s turn, time and time again in the hands and on the feet of so many types of people, from players to professionals to plainer product lovers that likely didn’t even know their name. And how more unoriginal could a model name get, basically a shortened version of the exact sport they were built for.

In the end, though, that’s the exact ingredient in their magical, timeless flavor: complete simplicity. It worked for the Suede so why wouldn’t it work for the identical – albeit leather – Basket as well? Keep ‘em simple, keep ‘em clean, and keep ‘em coming PUMA, because as far as we can tell, you haven’t even begun to run the full life cycle of this silhouette yet.

written by Dylan Cromwell

photography by errol