About

Puma RS-X: the sole that once had a computer

The letters on the flank give away the origin. RS RUNNING SYSTEM is stamped there in small type, and that’s not decoration: Running System was the cushioning system Puma used in its running shoes in the mid-1980s. From that same line came the RS Computer Shoe of 1986, a shoe with a chip in the heel that you connected to your computer with a cable to read out your kilometers. Forty years too early, and precisely because of that unforgettable.

The RS-X from 2018 brings that name back and adds an X for everything that comes with it. Extra volume, extra layers, extra color. The sole undulates in thick blocks under the foot, the formstrip is no longer a stitched stripe but a molded spine that rises from the flank, and the panels lie like cards layered over each other in a mix of mesh, suede and smooth synthetic leather. There is a small tab on the heel that recurs on every edition.

The family is larger than this page. The RS-0 and the RS-100 have their own pages and are closer to the original eighties shape; the RS-X is the enlarged descendant. Within the titles Efekt marks the more recent generation and an X with superscript refers to the third round of the same silhouette. Collaborations show up here more often than average, because a shoe with so many separate panels is a ready-made canvas.

Within the Puma house the roles are clear. The Suede is the stripped-back classic, the Speedcat the flat racer, and the RS-X the opposite of both: maximal, loud and proud of every layer. Not every shoe has to whisper.

On this page you can see which versions of the Puma RS-X are currently hottest according to the Hypescore, the starting price and how many shops have them in stock.