PUMA Shoes

PUMA Future Cat Lows

The PUMAs I were writing about previously were really starting to wear out and no amount of scrubbing or polishing would return the to their original glory. In fact, I've been taking very meticulous care of them. I bought a brush with a special eraser for leather/suede shoes, and a spray, kind of like ScotchGuard, to make it more water resistant. I've been spending time on their maintenance regularly. I love those shoes. They were my first PUMA shoes, one of the first purchases I made after I got my first paycheque in September '05. I was too overprotective to wear them very often at first, but I couldn't resist when Spring came around and I've been wearing them frequently, almost daily, ever since. They've traveled the world with me.

I have worn these shoes through all kinds of weather conditions, on a wide variety of terrains in many different establishments in a number of cities and locations and it has been reliable all this time. Naturally, the fine sparkling white leather at the front were somewhat scuffed at the tip, as if a little bit bruised. The beautiful, vibrant cyan suede around the heel and ankle eventually lost their glow due to its material and the way the my jeans move against it, which might have also caused the colour of my jeans to rub off on it. The only parts that managed to retain their original colour were the embroidered pumas on the leather - the cyan signature puma at the tip and the silver one on the arches of the shoes. I've used hand sanitizer on the front when I was desperate at the hospital and I think it worked temporarily. I was searching in vain for a white polish for the front, so I attempted to use an all-purpose shoe polish on it. To my horror, it actually disintegrated the white surface of the leather to the dull grey underneath.
I can't find the picture online, because they're of the previously brighter colouring scheme and I can't remember the exact names of each colour, so imagine these shoes in a blue theme, where the strip on the side is actually a light blue, the suede back and signature puma on the front are bright cyan. The box describes them as White/Angel Falls Blue/Swedish Blue, but I believe they have since changed the corresponding colours or they were misplaced in the wrong box, but I doubt that.

Since I've been working with my brother's white acrylic paints recently for some of my projects, such as the claws on the gloomy bear and the stenciled wings on my laptop, I resigned to making use of them again to restore the main leather body to its original bright white. I did one primer layer with my fingers and a finishing one with a flat-tipped paintbrush. While there was nothing I could do about the back as it was already wearing thin, I figured they would be covered by my jeans unless I wore shorts, which I don't; or a skirt, in which case, I probably wouldn't be wearing these with them anyways. Then I noticed that the shoelaces were stained. I removed them and scrubbed them in water, but the stains were stubborn; although, the water gradually started to become cloudy and I refilled the water before I used bleach, but there wasn't much of an improvement, so I plunged my hands in the water again and kept working at them. My hands smelled of bleach for days, but it hadn't improved very much. I poured in a lot of those As-Seen-On-TV Cleaners, such as OxiClean, Astonish, or whatever else I could find. It was only after that I thought I should put some regular liquid detergent in the water and the blue colouring, used purely aesthetic purposes, instantly turned a reddish orange. An interesting chemical reaction. I left them soaking in the concoction and went back to work on my shoes. Eventually, my dad found them there and pulled them out for me, so his hands ended up smelling like bleach, too. He asked me what I put in the bath for the laces that still weren't quite glistening.

It turned out that the parts underneath the laces were dirty, too. The areas weren't damaged, but it did take me quite a while to really scrub off the scuffs. It works on my face, so I tried using the facial cleansing toner and a cotton facial wool pad from The Body Shop, which helped a lot, and I followed up with the eraser that came with the brush to rub off the remaining marks. They also brightened up the back part as well, not entirely restored, but as clean as I could get them to be. I think the toughest part of the entire task was carefully painting around the embroidered pumas. I coated them in clear nail polish so that the white paint would come off a little easier. I'm not sure what to do to seal in the acrylic, as it is water-soluble, but I'm not about to use the spray, which would likely ruin all of my work. Call it obsession, but I like to think of it as TLC and cherishing my belongings.

I also bought a pair of these Future Cat Low Flame Scarlet/Winter White ones, but I've only worn them once to play badminton indoors, so they're still in perfect condition. I'm planning on wearing the first pair until they're really trashed.

PUMA Speed Cats

I can't remember, but I think they were on sale or something, because I never really liked this style very much. They're also of an old generation, older than the first pair with the colours that have been discontinued. It's very basic, all leather in white with 'chocolate' accents. not that I dislike them or anything, but I still haven't worn them at all. Again, I'm trying to prolong the lifespan of my current ones before wearing a new pair.


I have a long sleeved shirt, several T's, and a pair of pants that are way too big. I don't know why I bought them. They were incredibly overpriced, but I think it was part of the initial craze when I splurged on my first pair of PUMA shoes, which I wouldn't normally have done to begin with. Now look where it's gotten me. I bought a plain red t-shirt with the logo in white the other day fr $14, but my dad made me get a boys' size Large, because he insisted that those shirts were meant to be worn loosely, which I suppose is fine for running, working out at the gym or playing badminton, but I've never really believed in the 'gym clothes' that they make you wear in school. It doesn't matter very much because I have the shirts in number of different sizes.

I have the PUMA Red perfume, a sample package of PUMA White (for men) and the body lotion and sample perfume pacakge from their Creative fragrance line. I got the lotion only because it was $15 and 50% off, so I only paid $7.50 :]