Marty Hogan

Know much about Racquetball?


Me neither except its kind of like Squash and my uncle played it in the Eighties...
Anyway it must of had some kind of following because Marty Hogan (The Michael Jordan of the sport: an American who was ranked either number 1 or 2 in the world from 1976 to 1990) was a big enough of a name to sign significant deals with Adidas and then Nike.
He also got to wear some pretty cool trainers as well in the Adidas The Hogan as well those with Nike...

Enjoy!

Retro Uprising (Sega and Nintendo Games Online)

If you are like me and the vast majority of modern Video games are of no interest to you.

Take a look at retrouprising.com where they have all the great games from 1980’s and 1990’s.

 

They have most of the old Arcade games, Atari style games and even Text Based Games (lol).

Most importantly they have every console game from NES, Super NES, Sega Master System,
Sega Mega Drive, Game Boy and Game Gear all ready to play and for free.

New Ed Moses CW's coming out soon

The background of this blog is that of one of my favourite shoes the Diadora Queen 70 otherwise known back in the day as 400m Hurdle Olympic Gold Medal Winner Ed Moses Signature Shoe.

Ed Moses with his OG Range

One of the first Running shoes to become popular on UK Terraces the Queen has seen two re-releases over the past last two years of four colours in each.

I have say after four reasonably good CW’s in the first batch, last seasons although none being anything but good looking shoes they did lack a bit of OG Moses from the 80’s liking for weird colours. This new batch has seen a return to more the feeling of the first batch.

I particularly like the Grey and Green myself best out this lot and the Yellow and Black I also find quite fetching. Those with a keen eye may also noticed that Diadora have gone to the attention of making this new batch’s soles look more OG versions in the texture of the foam on the soles.

Also great to see Diadora try doing the Silver Ed Moses again after a semi failed attempt the first time. When the shoe first came out in the 1980's the Silver Version was actually the most prized by Casuals and first re-release let many down.

Navy with White and Red

Silver with White

Yellow with Black and White

Black with White and Grey

Grey with White and Green

Ivan Lendl and Mizuno

Ivan “The Terrible” Lendl was not considered the most exciting Tennis players to many but regardless any former world number one that wins 8 Grand Slams was an out and out star.
I mean the guy did have his own NES game, all be it a shared one with Chris Evert (The Shark's recently married and then divorced wife).

Ivan's shared NES Game

His play on court may of have been regarded sometimes boring, but for the most part of his Career Lendl at least played in the most tidy Tennis gear going around from a year after turning pro in 1981 to 1989.
Although others had more revolutionary and out there gear such as Becker with Ellesse, and a number of names with Sergio Tacchini none of these outfits remain anywhere near as timeless and Classic as the Adidas gear that Ivan wore and Casuals loved him for it!

 

Lendl's Great Adidas Range



A combination of usually White and pastel colours or primary colours in plain simple shapes (His Argyle print Pringlesque gear being the most famous) alongside his neat Adidas Trainer range Ivan lays claim to the Tennis range from the 1980’s that still holds up the best today...

Then in 1989 Lendl terminated his perfectly good Adidas contract that had served him so well for eight years to go where for $15 Million USD on a Multi Year Deal?

The land of The Rising Sun and Japanese new player in Tennis: Mizuno!

Ivan was fed up he had won every Grand Slam and still had not won Wimbledon and worst of all out his two attempts the first time he was beaten by an 18 year old in Boris Becker in 1986 who had meant to of fluked it the year before according to the Media and even worse by a mullet head nobody Australian named Pat Cash in 1987.

Mizuno promised him the best in Racquet in Technology (This turned out to be a considerably bigger racquet) to win the elusive UK Tournament once and for all.

Instead the only Grand Slam he won from there on was the Australian Open the next year in 1990 and he got to wear the ugliest Tennis Gear ever seen for almost five years. (So Ugly That I love It!)

Please Enjoy!



Mizuno Lendl Ones

SLIP SLOP SLAP



The Standard Mizuno Lendl Eagle Design

Is that Gang Writing?

Cagoules (Light Rain jackets)

Is there anything that beats a Cagoule (Light Rain jacket) for the Australian Football Terraces. I know I am not the only one who bemoans that the A-League Season is in summer, games in up to over thirty degree heat really limits the wearing of a lot good gear.

Trench coats, Checked Scarves and 80’s Tennis Track tops are not particularly good in such a climate and so we miss out a bit on wearing some of our favourites to games.

Cags However,  they are light and if the weather heats up you can just roll them into a ball and pack them away. Alongside this for us in Melbourne when a sudden shower comes on a hot day from nowhere they can be absolutely perfect.

Below are some my favourite Cags of all time:

1. Patrick Sports:

The early 1980’s Cags from French sports brand Patrick are regarded by most as the best that have ever existed. Unfortunately they stopped making them a long time ago and the only way you can get hold of on is spending the kind money you would spend on Quality Electronics on a second hand on EBay.

Patrick became popular with Casuals when Liverpool star Kevin Keegan signed an endorsement contract with the company to wear their boots. Years later Kevin admitted that he thought the quality of the boots were poor and he only wore because he was being paid.

A 1980's Patrick Cagoule

2. The Peter Storm:

Green Peter Storm Cagoules have gone through a recent rival on the Terraces and this largely thanks to the fact that the 2009 Film “Away Days” based on a book of the same name by Kevin Sampson about a pack of young casuals who follow Tranmere Rovers is set in the year 1979.
In 1979 Cagoules were all the rage in particular the cheaper Green Peter Storm Fisherman ones were very popular as they easier to obtain than the more expensive Adidas Cagoules of the time.

The film features most of pack wearing Green Cagoules (Made by Adidas) to look like the Green Peter Storm ones of the time.

Peter Storm have restricted sales to Australia however you are able to buy these great Cags for roughly $30 AUD on Ebay.



Peter Storm Cags Available for sale to Australia




Cast of Away Days (2009)



3. Adidas:

As mentioned above Adidas have always been a massive player in Cagoule scene.

Ranging from their plainer late 1970’s Navy with White three stripe Cags which remain very popular to this day to their more colourful patterns of the mid 1980’s.

As with Adidas Trainers, unless you have shocking taste if you want an Adidas Cagoule it is pretty hard to muck things up and buy a bad one.
On Ebay you can still get a lot of the more OG Designs.

Adidas Cagoule from the late 1970's

1983 Adidas Cagoule

4. Nike:

The Nike Windrunner does not much explanation needed as it is simply a timeless piece of Nike Clothing and in my option the best jacket that Nike they will ever make and the constant re-release of these jackets in different colorways seems to indicate that Nike realise this fact.

This is great when a sports company actually realises what its best products over the years have been.

The Classic Nike Windrunner

Nike Wimbledon's

These days Nike is everywhere on the Street and on local Tennis Courts everywhere.

It sponsors both the world's Tennis Superstar's Nadal and Federer and you see pairs of Nike's on every man, woman and baby's feet from all walks of society.

In the 1970’s on the Grand Slam Tennis Courts when the Nike Wimbledon’s first appeared they were seen as these unheard of, new, rare and so unusual shoes and the fact that it was an American Sports shoe made even more rare.

This was era when not long prior Wimbledon Champions like Laver and Court had worn Dunlop Volleys into Grand Slams. In fact it was only in 1976 that Australian Mark Edmondson won the Australian Open in Volleys.



The Nike Wimbledon



The seventies for the vast part had seen the European Sports Shoe companies be the first one’s to see the worth in sponsoring Tennis Stars and Athletes in general. German company Adidas lead the way in signing Stan Smith, Wilhelm Bungert, Arthur Ashe and John Newcombe.   

Whilst Italian Boutique brand Diadora went for quality with Guillermo Vilas and the complete dominant force of the time Bjorn Borg.

Ilie Nastase

Nike’s first shoe sponsorship of an Athlete of any kind was for the then current Men’s Tennis World Number One: Romanian Ilie Nastase. The company signed “Nasty” Nastase for $3,000 USD and it was he who was the first to wear the company’s latest new tennis trainer the Nike Wimbledon’s.
Nike a company now with a history of the greatest success in Sporting Endorsements first venture into the game was an complete failure. The end of the 1973 saw Nastase leave for rival Adidas who offered him $5,000 USD and a Signature Shoe. An Adidas shoe range that is still being produced to this day.

Nike Wimbeldon Heel

In 1978 Nike made its second attempt at endorsing an Athlete to wear its shoes in going this time closer to home with another Bad Boy of Tennis in young New Yorker John McEnroe. Supermac took on Nastase’s disregarded light blue swoosh Wimbledon’s and this time Nike hit a winner. As McEnroe came from nowhere to superstar in being a player capable of finally providing some much needed competition on the circuit to Bjorn Borg. Needless to say his rare flashy shoes began to be noticed.

McEnroe in his Light Blue Swoosh Wimbeldon's

Coupled with McEnroe’s Sergio Tacchini tracksuits perhaps the best designed tennis tracksuits of all time it was hard now for Nike Wimbledon’s not to be noticed. Not long later they found themselves on the feet on follow American Sergio Tacchini wearer and Australian Open Winner Vitas Gerulaitis. Multiple Grand Slam winner Swede Mats Wilander who had his own particularly smart range of Sergio Tacchini gear would shortly eventually wear similar Nikes himself.

Vitas Gerulaitis in Nike Wimbledon's

Mats Wilander in Nike's

Around 1980 when Nike had finally found its way over to the UK, Football Casuals everywhere were clamouring for something newer, rarer and more expensive than the norm of Adidas.

Many of them from logically turned their attention to the Nike Wimbledon which was the beginnings of Nike Tennis Shoes and later Nike Runners that would become a permanent fixture on the Terraces.