Runners, amateurs or professionals, are recognized for several things. First, his clothes and his sports shoes. That topic would give for another article. Second, your bracelet or smart watch . Today anyone can afford to wear such a device on their wrist. And if you like going out for a run, it will be very practical for you to know your distance traveled , your maximum speed, your vital signs and other data obtained by the tiny sensors Of the device. Then, via WiFi, Bluetooth or with a simple USB cable, you can send that data to your computer or smartphone so that a software or application creates maps, diagrams and graphs with those data.
Smart bracelets and smart watches are already one more device to add to the list of gadgets that every modern human being should have. Namely: smart speakers, smart bulbs and plugs, tablets, smartphones, smart TVs and, of course, robot vacuum cleaners. But the wearable technology that we know today is very young. It was not until the beginning of the 21st century that the first prototypes of wearable devices with Bluetooth emerged. And the big moment comes in 2009 with the sale of the Fitbit bracelets . Soon other manufacturers such as Samsung, Garmin, Huawei, Xiaomi or Apple would arrive with their bracelets and watches. I said, a sector that is still very young on the rise.
So few could venture to think that in the second half of the 80s of the last century, someone decided to launch sports shoes that did what smart bracelets do today. And that someone was a company of the stature of Puma . More than anything, because the miniaturization of devices and sensors was far from the current level. For example, mobile phones of the time. The Vodafone VT1 from 1985 weighed 4.9 kilos and looked like a radio that you may have seen in war movies set in past wars. And the Motorola 8000X from 1986 weighed 793 grams.
Michael Jordan and Spike Lee posing for the 1988 Air Jordan ad campaign “The best on Earth”
Wearing sports is in fashion
The eccentricity of throwing a sports shoe with a computer inside has an explanation. It is precisely in the 80s of the last century that the fashion for wearing this type of footwear emerged . Before, it was only used as sports shoes, when you played sports. But from 1980 on, wearing sports shoes, “sneakers” or “sneakers” was a must if you wanted to stand out. A cultural change related, in large part, to the hip-hop movement and basketball.
In this scenario, Nike and Adidas were the big winners, fighting each other while the rest watched from a distance. All in all, Reebok, Converse, Puma or New Balance also got their piece of the cake. As well. In this context in which sports shoe models appear every two by three, many times sponsored or sponsored by basketball players such as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird or Magic Johnson or by the rapper on duty, anything goes to attract the attention of the public and win their love.
And in this context, the idea of creating the Puma RS Computer arises, a sport shoe initially for runners and that stood out especially for that concept of computer or computer. On the outside, some normal and ordinary sneakers from the era in which white and light gray predominated. But at the back of the shoe there was a protrusion that housed a tiny computer . Nothing to envy to the futuristic Nike MAG that we would see years later in Back to the Future II (1989). Well, the fictional ones were flying, but they weren't real. The Puma RS Computer was real.
According to advertising at the time, the Puma RS-100 Computer was a training shoe that combined footwear technology with computers. The chip that included recorded your runs and walks . Information that you could send to your computer. And the software included when buying the shoes, allowed to calculate the time spent running, the distance traveled and, of course, the calories consumed. That and show you a graph comparing your previous exercises and your future goals or challenges. I repeat. We are in 1986.
Press advertisement for Puma RS Computer sneakers
Also works in 64K
As WiFi and Bluetooth were not yet expected, you had to connect those sneakers to your computer at the time. That is, a IBM PC, an Apple IIE , or a Commodore 64 or 128 . Precisely, the slogan of the advertising of these sneakers was “It also runs on 64K”, in Spanish, “It also works in 64K”. For the rest, to connect a computer and sneakers you had to use a connection cable from the time. And the software that accompanied the invention came on a practical 5 and 1/4 disk or floppy disk of the time.
The computer inside the Puma RS Computer basically consisted of a battery, which consumed all the available space, and an accelerometer
The computer inside the Puma RS Computer basically consisted of a battery, which consumed all the available space, and an accelerometer. On the outside, the battery charging and data transfer port, two in one, and the Reset and On / Test buttons. And its price, about 200 US dollars of the time.
According to the press of the time, these shoes had been designed by Dr. Peter Cavanagh from the University of Pennsylvania. Apparently, today he works at the University of Washington, following the interview that Puma herself published on its official website. He is currently a professor in the department of orthopedics and sports medicine. And, of course, his research is focused on the feet and the behavior of the muscles during walking and running exercises. Also, he has always been a fan of running.
His experience in this field led him to publish in 1980 a book entitled The Running Shoe Book where he compiled all the information he had been obtaining on footwear and running. During the preparation of the book, he met with Armin Dassler , then CEO of Puma and son of the founder of the company. According to Wikipedia, it was this second generation that turned the young Puma, of German origin, into an international company.
Cavanagh thus becomes a sports science advisor for PUMA. And his first mission is to apply his knowledge to create an ultra-modern sneaker . The result, the Puma RS Computer , which introduced improvements at the footwear level but also at the technological level, the most striking part. Cavanagh himself proudly explains that they wanted to place 600 transistors in the equivalent of one square inch, or just over 6 square centimeters. And to manage the information offered by the chip, they had an Apple IIE of 48KB or 68KB of RAM. Another curious detail. To explain how the shoe and the accompanying software work, they wrote a 45-page manual .
Image of a Puma RS Computer for sale on a second-rate platform hand
Success depends on the right moment
If you've never heard of the Puma RS Computer it's normal. They did not have the expected success. Interestingly, two years earlier, taking advantage of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, Adidas had launched the Adidas Micropacer , a sports shoe with a built-in pedometer and a monochrome LCD screen. It showed time, calories and steps taken. But they also did not receive the desired attention despite the Olympic event. Even Nike was fiddling with the idea of integrating technology into sneakers.
But, as explained by the father of the child, the Dr. Peter Cavanagh , the Puma RS Computers arrived too early. The technology was more or less acceptable by the standards of the time. But there was still no need to obtain the information offered by the chips and sensors of the smart sports shoes . Yes, runner fashion was there, but it was not as developed or widespread as it is now.
It is not until the turn of the century that a rising trend of consumers who care about their health really arises to the point of changing their food consumption trends and their physical habits. In this sense, marathons and half marathons spring up everywhere. It becomes fashionable to travel to other cities and countries to participate in them, the average age of runners increases and, in short, a whole product market is generated for runners: from clothing to footwear passing the technology that, as I explained at the beginning, has its greatest exponent in the Fitbit bracelets of 2009. It is at this time that the Puma RS Computer could have been successful incorporating technological changes current and without that “mazacote” that protruded from the right shoe .
Because you want that? Why would you want something that tells you how far you've run, how fast you've run, or how long you've been exercising?
In the words of the creator of the Puma RS Computer , when they were first introduced to the press in New York, “the reaction to the shoe was a kind of genuine disbelief. Because you want that? Why would you want something that tells you how far you've run, how fast you've run, or how long you've been exercising? ” He himself ventured to predict that in the mid-90s of the last century, everyone would want a sports shoe that would tell them those data: time, speed, calories …
And he answers to himself: “It turns out I was wrong. It did not happen until the middle of the first decade of the 21st century. But it really happened. All those people who said why should we do this are now facing millions of people obsessed with distance, speed and calories. At that time it was a technology that nobody thought they needed . ”
The return, in limited series, of the Puma RS Computer. For sale on second-hand platforms
We are back!
As the saying goes, the Puma RS Computer went through the market with more pain than glory. Too soon they reached an audience that was interested in other things. The runner movement and the obsession to measure calories and kilometers traveled would take time to arrive. But as Cavanagh himself explains, today there is a whole market for products and gadgets focused on sports, among which wearables stand out.
Although footwear and clothing still have a way to go to integrate technology such as sensors and chips, Puma decided to relaunch the Puma RS Computer at the end of 2018 as a as a tribute and adding to what other manufacturers have done by relaunching classic models. A way to get noticed, get some nostalgic sales and who knows if to discover a new vein.
This launch was made, of course, with a limited series of 86 numbered copies with the same appearance of the original but with new functions such as three-axis accelerometer, LED indicators, a USB charging port and Bluetooth connectivity to get the data on your smartphone. A fine-tuning of what these sports shoes would have been if they had been created today and not more than 35 years ago.
