John Kim 
At the turn of the 80’s into the 90’s, sneakers were defined not as a dominance of just one brand, but a free-for-all for a wide variety of labels doing their best to put out the best and most advanced sneakers at the time. It was that era through brought along one of the most celebrated and game-changing advancements in footwear technology – we’re talking about Reebok’s introduction of Pump in 1989. Pump was a collaborative effort between Reebok’s Paul Litchfield and the industrial design firm Design Continuum, with the basis of pumping Air via an internal inflation mechanism that provided better stability and fit at the lower tongue and ankle collar of the shoe. Despite its unprecedented MSRP, Reebok Pump was insanely successful in sport, on street, and in pop-culture, and incited a three-way battle among Reebok, Nike, and LA Gear – the latter two developing their own pump module-based footwear design.
Standing taller among all the early Reebok Pump models is the Twilight Zone; this super high-top model utilized the Pump system as well as Reebok’s new Energy Return System (ERS), which, in short, acted as a weight distribution mechanism at the heel of the shoe. The appeal of the high-top design, paired with the combination of unforeseen footwear technology, made the Twilight Zone Pump one of the most popular sneakers of all-time, so as Reebok confirmed its plans to re-introduced the Twilight Zone in a year marked by outstanding re-issues, the younger sneakerheads have the fortunate opportunity to re-live one of the golden eras of footwear. The Reebok Pump Twilight Zone is available at Packer Shoes in the energetic original colorway of White/Black/Neon Green/Bright Orange, so continue on for a detailed gallery of this great 2012 Retro (perfect timing if you missed out on the late-2009/early-2010 re-release) and stay tuned for more of Reebok’s throwback effort for 2012.
