Reebok InstaPump Fury OG 'Collegiate Navy'
Colorway: Collegiate Navy/White · Style code: DV6986 · Release date: June 7, 2019 · Price: $175 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Reebok Instapump Fury Og (M44750) · Reebok InstaPump Fury OG (V61618) · Reebok InstaPump Fury OG 'Black' (V65750) · Reebok InstaPump Fury OG 'Black' (DV6985) · Reebok InstaPump Fury OG 'Scarlet' (FW2617)
Reebok's Pump had already been a commercial success when Steven Smith and developer Paul Litchfield went looking for what came next. Their answer, in 1994, removed laces entirely: a full-foot inflatable chamber, filled at first by a separate pump gun, held the shoe onto the foot.
The decision that made it famous was not the technology but the choice to expose it. Smith left the bladder visible as an exoskeleton, cut the upper away around it, and coloured the result in combinations that alarmed the people who had to sell it. A Graphlite plate split the midsole to save weight, and Hexalite handled cushioning. The prototype came early in 1994; the version now known as the OG followed that September.
It divided opinion on arrival and became a design reference afterwards, which is a familiar arc for a shoe that turns up early. This navy pair from June 2019 rebuilds it in water-repellent ballistic nylon with a tonal synthetic toecap, a TPU midsole plate for stability and Hexalite underneath, at $165. The colour is restrained. Almost nothing else about the shoe is.