--- title: "The Puma Suede Was a Warm-Up Shoe Until the B-Boys Got Hold of It" url: https://quietmenace.com/sneakers/puma-suede-history/ author: Quiet Menace Editors section: Sneakers published: 2026-10-30 updated: 2026-10-30 topics: Sneaker History, Heritage Brands, Music, Streetwear --- # The Puma Suede Was a Warm-Up Shoe Until the B-Boys Got Hold of It > Puma called it the Crack in 1968 and handed it to Olympians. A Knicks guard lent it a nickname, New York's breakers gave it a culture, and the formstrip has run down its side ever since. On October 16, 1968, Tommie Smith won the 200 metres at the Mexico City Olympics in a world record time. On the victory stand he and John Carlos raised their fists in protest, and the photograph of that moment went round the world. His shoes were Pumas, and one of them was a suede warm-up shoe that he had carried to the podium. Accounts of the exact detail differ. Complex's history of the shoe says Smith carried a single Suede to the stand, while Wikipedia says he took off his shoes and placed them on the podium. Either way, a Puma suede sneaker was in the picture, and the shoe has been carrying meanings bigger than sport ever since. ## A brother's company Puma began as half of a family argument. In 1924 Rudolf and Adolf Dassler founded the Gebrüder Dassler shoe factory in Herzogenaurach, Germany. In 1948 the brothers split. Adolf founded adidas, and Rudolf founded the company that began as Ruda and was renamed Puma. Our history of the [adidas Samba](https://quietmenace.com/sneakers/adidas-samba-history/) follows the other brother. In 1958 Puma introduced the formstrip, the curving band that runs from the heel toward the laces. It became the brand's signature, and it is the first thing anyone notices on a Suede. The rivalry shaped the business in odd ways. In 1970 Armin Dassler of Puma and Horst Dassler of adidas agreed what became known as the Pelé Pact, a promise that neither company would try to sign the Brazilian star. Puma broke it by signing Pelé. The company went public in 1986. In 2007 the French group PPR, renamed Kering in 2013, bought a 27 percent stake and later took a majority. Ownership has kept shifting since, and in January 2026 the Chinese sportswear group Anta Sports agreed to buy a 29.06 percent stake, according to Wikipedia. ## The Crack becomes the Suede The shoe launched in 1968 as the Crack, a warm-up sneaker with a suede upper. According to [Highsnobiety's history](https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/puma-suede-history-lookbook), Puma chose suede because it takes dye well. Athletes at the Mexico City Games were given pairs. Smith's US team kit was not made by Puma, but he received the black and white Crack. Wikipedia, citing *Acclaim* magazine, calls the shoe the first sneaker to use suede, a claim worth treating with some caution, as it is hard to prove a first. The name did not stay fixed. The Crack became the Suede, and Puma's British arm first sold it as the States. Wikipedia describes the Suede as an alternative to the Puma Basket. The idea was simple. Take a clean low-top, cut it in coloured suede, run the formstrip down the side and offer it in more colours than a track team would ever need. ## Clyde The shoe's second life came from basketball. Walt Frazier, the New York Knicks point guard, picked up the nickname Clyde as a rookie in the 1967 to 1968 season because he wore a fedora like the one Warren Beatty wore as Clyde Barrow in *Bonnie and Clyde*. He helped the Knicks win the NBA title in 1970 and again in 1973. Puma made him its man. Highsnobiety dates the partnership to 1972, while Wikipedia dates the release of the Puma Clyde to 1973, and the two may simply be describing the deal and the shoe. The Clyde was built by adjusting the Suede's silhouette. Wikipedia describes Frazier as the first modern NBA star with his own sneaker line. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987. ## The breakers The same year the Clyde arrived, according to Complex, DJ Kool Herc extended an instrumental break in the Bronx, and breakdancing grew out of the space he made. As [Complex's 2017 history](https://www.complex.com/sneakers/a/corey-pellatt/puma-suede-bboy-culture) tells it, the New York City Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew both wore the Suede, and both groups appeared on *Soul Train*, *Ripley's Believe It or Not!* and *Good Morning America*. By the 1980s, Highsnobiety says, the Suede had moved from the court to the street and was worn by DJs, b-boys and b-girls, MCs and graffiti writers. Film carried it abroad. *Beat Street*, released in 1984, featured both crews and the Suede, and its international distribution brought breaking to Europe for the first time. Complex credits it with starting Germany's b-boy scene, which put the shoe back in front of audiences in its home country with a new meaning attached. Here is the shoe's family tree, drawn from the sources above. The table is Quiet Menace's own. | Year | Model | What changed | |---|---|---| | 1968 | Crack | Suede warm-up shoe, given to Olympians | | Later | Suede, or States in Britain | The same shoe under new names | | 1973 | Clyde | Reworked silhouette for Walt Frazier | | 1984 | Suede in *Beat Street* | Breaking reaches European screens | | 2024 | Suede XL | Bigger sole and fatter upper, after late 1990s skate shoes | ## Still on the floor The Suede never really left breaking. At the Red Bull BC One World Final in Amsterdam in November 2017, Complex reported, many competitors danced in it. It also kept finding new hands. Highsnobiety notes that Rihanna's Fenty Creeper drew on the Suede, and that Jay-Z chose the Clyde as the basis for the Clyde Court Disrupt. In February 2024 Puma released the Suede XL, with a bigger sole and a fatter upper inspired by the skate shoes of the late 1990s and early 2000s. ![Black suede Pumas with a white formstrip, worn on dusty ground](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1767589325064-a20f42c1da11?w=1600&h=1067&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) *Black suede Pumas on dusty ground. This pair is a low-profile Puma, not a Suede, but the formstrip is the same. Photo by Tina Devidze on Unsplash* ## Buying a pair now A Suede is a low, simple shoe. Buy it in a colour you will wear hard, because suede shows its life, and that is part of the point. Black with a white formstrip is the version from the Mexico City story. A bold colour is the version from the Bronx. The Clyde is the choice if you want the basketball side of the family. It belongs with the other low-top classics of the same era. Our histories of the [adidas Superstar](https://quietmenace.com/sneakers/adidas-superstar-history/) and the [Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66](https://quietmenace.com/sneakers/onitsuka-tiger-mexico-66-history/) cover its rivals from the same years, and our history of [hip-hop menswear](https://quietmenace.com/culture/hip-hop-menswear-history/) puts the b-boys in the wider story. For more, see [sneaker history](https://quietmenace.com/topics/sneaker-history/), [music](https://quietmenace.com/topics/music/) and the [Quiet Menace sneakers section](https://quietmenace.com/sneakers/). The Suede was made to keep sprinters warm between races. It ended up on a podium, on a Knicks guard and on the floor of a breaking battle, and it never needed to change much to get there. --- Filed under: [Sneaker History](https://quietmenace.com/topics/sneaker-history/), [Heritage Brands](https://quietmenace.com/topics/heritage-brands/), [Music](https://quietmenace.com/topics/music/), [Streetwear](https://quietmenace.com/topics/streetwear/) Hero image: Photo by Ian Bevis on Unsplash (Unsplash License)