I saw the cover of Running Times this month and it brought me back to my youth, running CYO track in my Onitsuka Tiger Pintos on cinder tracks in the 1970s. I could never identify the specific model of the blue shoe flat, and had always thought it was a Mexico 66. I can't find much on the Pinto online, so was Running Times correct?
Any old timers have more information on this shoe? I can't find the Link to the photo in the new article in RT's online site.
Yes, the Pinto was a very nice shoe, that I recall being re-named after coming out. Can't remember the original name. It was one of the first nylon running shoes; most were leather (Adidas, NB, Puma, etc.) They were incredibly light compared to the leather shoes, and I can remember washing them by hand in the sink. They wore out pretty quickly, but we could goo up the heels to get more mileage. I think that they were probably meant for road racing, but they were so comfortable, I wound up training in them more often than I should have! I remember every once in a while we could buy them mail-order at incredible prices; 2nds could be bought dirt cheap, so we would buy 4 pair at a time. Onitsuka Tiger also had a shoe called the "Cub", which was white, red and blue that was also very light.
Onitsuka Tiger Spartan B was a classic spike in its day!
Yeah, I wore these during HS XC in the mid 70s. Trained and raced in them. We didn't know we were minimalist --there were really no other choices.
But what really struck me was that the shoes on the cover look brand new! Are the Pintos available somewhere?
I thought of the cover as an homage to us old-timers. Here in NY, pretty well everyone wore the blue Tigers (and blue adidas spikes) in the early 70s. $10 paid to our coach. Who knew we were minimalist trailblazers?
Yes, those shoes on the cover look newly made. They also show the Jim Fixx cover with the red version, which is an all time memorable book cover.
I also had a pair of blue Onitsuka Tigers in the latter 70s that had bright red stripes and sole, with little knobby-waffles, similar to the California 78, but not the nylon upper. It had the more modern mesh upper. Those were great shoes too.
Can't find the Pinto or the other ones online anywhere, but come up with a million hits for the Mexico 66, Ultimate 81, and California 78 remakes.
I had a pair of the blue and white ones back in the day. They were called the 'Tiger Marathon' I believe. I loved those shoes and logged a lot of training miles in them in addition to races. I also remember the Tiger Cortez before they changed to Nike's brand.