Why rely on your phone or smartwatch to track your steps when you could use a 21st-century rendition of the Puma RS-Computer running shoes?
This week Puma announced that it’s bringing back the “OG” sneaker from 1986. Though the model didn’t make much of a lasting impact back then, despite the tech being “extremely advanced for its time,” the RS-Computer shoe concept is an intriguing one, considering how technology has evolved since then, and Puma wants to make this pair of trainers an exclusive and covetable model.
The original RS-Compter shoes had a custom computer chip built into every heel that would record time, traveling distance, and calories burned and send the results to any Apple IIE or Commodore 64 using a 16-pin cord. Does that sound like a useful piece of tech that we could benefit from today? Puma seems to think so.
Puma brings the original RS-Computer design to the 2018 rendition but, thankfully, the tech is getting an upgrade. The only cable these modernised sneaks need is a USB one to charge them; instead of having to connect them to a computer to collect the information that the shoes record, they’re now equipped with Bluetooth tech, so you can wirelessly connect them to your smartphone with the help of an RS-Computer app which will process all the data. To ensure that you still get that 1980s low-bit colour experience, “the app interface uses 8-bit graphics seen on original computer screens and inside the app is an 8-bit game.”
Like the originals, these shoes can track the distance you traveled as well as the number of calories burned, but now the number of steps you’ve taken can also be recorded. The sneakers will record 30 days’ worth of information which you can check out on your Android or iOS device. At the start of each month, the shoes will reset, but runners will still be able to reference all recorded data in the Monthly Statistics tab in the corresponding application.
The two buttons, a red and a black one on either side of a tiny screen atop the tech pack located on the rear of the right shoe, will respectively prompt the display of a runner’s daily step target status and battery status. Why deal with checking these stats on a watch when you could bend down to see this info on the back of your ankle?
Now, if these sneaks are something you’d like to add to your shoe collection or maybe even rely on for your fitness tracking, you better act fast: only 86 will be produced in remembrance of the year that the original pair launched, each with a number one through 86 stitched into the tongue. Reports say the the shoes go on sale Thursday for €650 (about $736) on Puma.com in the US and Japan, at Kith, and in Puma stores in Harajuku, Tokyo; Carnaby Street, London; and Berlin. – Relaxnews
